Techstars EnergyTech Accelerator brings new innovators to Alabama

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Official release

Source material from Alabama Department of Commerce. The wording below is the issuer’s statement.

Birmingham, Alabama — Since launching in 2019, Techstars Alabama EnergyTech has quietly built a bridge between early-stage founders and the industrial backbone of the Southeast.

Now entering its seventh year, the 13-week program is run in partnership with Alabama Power, Innovate Alabama and the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. It has backed 68 startups from around the globe. The goal is straightforward: bring high-growth companies to Alabama, plug them into regional supply chains and give them a compelling reason to build here for the long haul.

“There’s something powerful about giving talented founders the right environment to take an idea and build a scalable business,” said Cynthia Crutchfield, CEO of Innovate Alabama. “The Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator is helping entrepreneurs turn real-world solutions into growing companies while creating opportunities for them to build their future here in Alabama.”

The current cohort, based at Birmingham’s Innovation Depot, is focused on urgent infrastructure challenges, including grid reliability, biomass recycling and the massive cooling demands of AI data centers.

“This state is doubling down on innovation in a very intentional way,” said Matthew Jaeh, managing director of Techstars Alabama EnergyTech. “It’s a flywheel. You start with the university system to create and keep talent. Then you layer on startups, introduce them to major industrial players, and show them what’s possible when an entire state opens its doors.”

That open-door approach is already producing sustained commercial traction with more than 16 pilots completed with Alabama companies to date. Even more telling, a full third of the companies that come through the program decide to call Alabama home.

“This is exactly the kind of innovation and entrepreneurship we want to see growing in Alabama,” said Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair. “Techstars EnergyTech is creating a powerful connection between innovative companies, our universities, our existing industries and the communities where these entrepreneurs can build their businesses.

“What’s especially exciting is that these founders aren’t simply coming to Alabama for a 13-week program. They’re discovering that Alabama offers the talent, infrastructure, industry partners and quality of life they need to grow here for the long term.”

The Techstars Alabama EnergyTech cohort at a glance

Eight companies make up this year’s class. Click the links for video interviews with founders:

Sea Lumber (Miami, FL): Sustainable lumber alternatives made from sargassum seaweed, recycled plastics, and local biomass.

MayimFlow (San Francisco, CA): AI-driven water management software that prevents leaks in enterprise infrastructure and data centers.

Synapse Thermal (Boston, MA): Predictive thermal software that cuts energy overhead in data center cooling systems.

Orbify Earthflow (Boston, MA): Machine learning models that estimate remaining lifespan and failure risk for underground utility cables.

Utilyst (Raleigh, NC): On-premises AI that turns operational history and sensor data into real-time predictive intelligence for power operators.

Znrg Innovations (San Diego, CA): Smart thermal water heating designed to balance grid demand and create capacity.

Coulomb Technology (Knoxville, TN): Sodium-ion starter batteries engineered for extreme temperatures and long-storage military vehicles.

Cold Spark (Longmont, CO): Cryomilling and cold storage systems that recover more than 99% of raw materials from spent batteries and e-waste.

‘High density, high value’

The companies’ founders are in the Magic City now and recently discussed their experiences.

Raquel D’Antonio is co-founder and CEO of Sea Lumber, which creates a sustainable lumber alternative made with sargassum seaweed and recycled plastics. It doesn’t rot or rust and resists termites and water, she said.

“We can also use other types of biomass available locally in the region,” D’Antonio said. In Alabama, that could be wood chips and other forestry-industry refuse or peanut shells and other types of agricultural waste.

Through Techstars, D’Antonio hopes to build valuable relationships to advance her company.

“We would like to connect with municipalities that are having the problem of sargassum seaweed in the coastlines,” she said. “And also, we want to connect with plastic recyclers and manufacturers, distributors …

“We’re also looking for investors because we would like to set up our first manufacturing facility here in Alabama.”

Also in this year’s Techstar class is John Khazraee, CEO and founder of MayimFlow, which uses an AI-powered dashboard to manage water flow and prevent leaks in large infrastructures, including data centers. Khazraee said eliminating water waste in these centers benefits both the environment and companies’ bottom lines.

The MayimFlow was featured at this year’s South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.

Now, Khazraee wants to establish a presence in Alabama and is looking for engineers in Birmingham.

“We’re focused on giving back, hiring here in the market and growing our presence, especially as we scale up with Alabama Power and some of the other customers here in the region,” he said.

Several of this year’s founders seek to improve data center operations, including Synapse Thermal CEO Thomas Chepucavage. Cooling data centers accounts for about 40% of their costs, he said. His software studies and improves cooling patterns.

His time in Birmingham and Techstars got off to a quick start, he said.

“It’s really high density, high value and great network and the support from Alabama Power from Techstars, it’s just very all encompassing, which I’ve never experienced before,” Chepucavage said.

Hara Braar, CEO and founder of Orbify Earthflow, described Birmingham as a big city with a small-town feel.

Orbify Earthflow, based in Boston, predicts which buried distribution cable segments will fail, turning utility data into per-segment condition and remaining-life estimates.

Early in the program, Braar described “a real innovation ecosystem.”

“You’re seeing people also solving really complex challenges: building, designing, growing everything from the ground up,” she said. “But what I’m finding here is just a level of genuine support and the wanting to help.”

“We are at an inflection point of opportunity,” said Kellie Cosby-Clark, Innovation Development Representative at Alabama Power. “There is massive infrastructure needed as we look toward the future, and who better than Alabama sitting right at the intersection of geography, industrial assets, and innovative partners.”

Release text attributed to Alabama Department of Commerce. Consult the official publication for any subsequent corrections or updates.