Idle Smart earns $125K in national clean energy program
December 1, 2016 | Bobby Burch
Idle Smart recently was dubbed a top clean-energy firm and won some substantial investment capital for its technology.
Based in Kansas City, Kan., the company was voted by its peers as the top firm in the Energy: US 2016 program, nabbing $125,000 for its smart thermostat device for fleet vehicles, such as semi-trucks. The company’s device only kicks the truck on when necessary to maintain the temperature of the cabin, recharge batteries or create engine warmth, thus saving fuel and mitigating environmental impact.
To win the program, nine startups ranked each other in a peer-selection process and named Idle Smart as the top firm. The Autonomous Tractor Corporation won second prize and $100,000.
Village Capital, the New Belgium Family Foundation and Sustainable America awarded Idle Smart the funds. As part of the program, Idle Smart also received mentoring from industry experts and potential investors.
Founded by CEO Jeff Lynch in 2012, Idle Smart is based in the Kansas City Startup Village and owns a patent on its smart thermostat tech. In July, Startland News named the company as one of its top under-the-radar startups in Kansas City.
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Why NMotion gives founders (without a startup) $100K and tells them to forget their assumptions
Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. LINCOLN,…
Missouri receives $95M from federal initiative to boost startup, small business growth
A newly announced $27 million in federal funds earmarked to support small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs is headed to Missouri, representing the first of three awards approved by the U.S. Department of Treasury — totaling $95 million — to be deployed through the Missouri Technology Corporation. The funding comes via the State Small Business Credit Initiative,…
Startup: Stop wasting brain power on work that doesn’t matter; founders strike their own work-life balance in rural MO
Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. This series is possible thanks to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which leads a collaborative, nationwide effort to identify and remove large and small barriers to new business creation. MOBERLY,…
Build Trybe outgrows incubator mode, taking over Maker Village KC to train at-risk youth in trades
When Nick Ward-Bopp launched Maker Village KC more than five years ago near Martini Corner, he never dreamed the maker space would incubate a program for at-risk youth that ultimately would build beyond it. Set up in a once-vacant Midtown building he rehabbed with co-founder and longtime friend Sam Green, the space started as a…