FORGE, the nonprofit that helps bridge the gap between startups and manufacturing, today announced the opening of a new grant for cleantech startups with leadership from historically marginalized communities. The latest edition of the FORGE Product Development Grant program will award non-dilutive grants up to $25,000 in partnership with the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2). The application deadline is October 28, 2022 and winners will be announced in December 2022.
The winning startups will be able to use the FORGE Product Development Grants to address a specific product development challenge critical to the company’s ability to scale and reach the marketplace. Successful applications will pinpoint that challenge and articulate how the grant funds will be used to overcome the roadblock.
“There are several underserved sectors within our ecosystem,” said Laura Teicher, FORGE executive director. “By working with organizations like IN2, we can perform the due diligence and groundwork to ensure accessibility, and address the specific needs of historically marginalized communities. The entire application process is streamlined. The application and instructions are available in both English and Spanish. And, based on input from the startups themselves, we stipulated that funds from this program can be used to directly compensate product development staff.”
“IN2 is funding FORGE through a Channel Partner Strategic Award,” said Kimberlee Ott, Wells Fargo Innovation Network Manager. “The goal of this funding is to eliminate barriers startups face on the path to commercialization and contribute to the diversification of the cleantech space. Manufacturing and supply chain is a proverbial ‘valley of death’ many startups face that prevents them from scaling their technologies and solutions.”
FORGE is also offering applicants the opportunity to ask questions anonymously through September 30, 2022. All questions and answers will be publicly shared by October 7th in both English and Spanish.
Eligibility
Applicants must have at least an early-stage physical prototype. For this program, historically marginalized communities are defined as Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, and/or Indigenous, Native American, o"r Alaska Native. Cleantech refers to a wide variety of environmentally-friendly practices and technologies.
Find more information here. A Spanish version of the application and instructions is here.
Source: https://in2ecosystem.com/