Two Rocky Mountain Region Startups from Tucson Win Awards at 2013 Cleantech Open

The 2013 Global Forum for the Cleantech Open was held this week in San Jose, California.  As a business accelerator competition, the purpose of the forum is to not only get startups, mentors, and investors working on Cleantech technology together at a single forum, but also to choose winners from a variety of categories for the competition. And the Rocky Mountain Region, Arizona, and Tucson did very well.

Here is the official press release announcing the winners:

This year we were pleased to see that two Tucson Arizona based companies that worked their way through the Rocky Mountain region received awards:

• HJ3 Composites from Tucson was a runner up for the Cleantech Open 2013 Grand Prize and was the National Winner for the Chemicals and Advanced Materials category.  HJ3 Composites manufactures, engineers, and installs advanced composite systems that have been used on over 10,000 successful applications worldwide.
• Grannus, also based in Tucson, was the runner up for the 2013 National Sustainability Award. They have a unique process for creating nitrogen fertilizer (urea).

Unfortunately other business kept PADT from attending this years forum, which was a big disappointment for us. We would have loved to stand with two other Arizona companies showing off the advanced technology that is coming out of our home state.

PADT is a regional sponsor of the Cleantech Open, supporting the competition in the Rocky Mountain region with funds, mentoring, and in-kind services.  This years regional finalists were a strong group that really stood out at the national competition.  Looking at the other winners, it seems that Arizona tied California with two winners each this year.

Nice job all around. We look forward to further encouraging technology companies in Arizona as well as the rest of the Southwest, especially those with technologies that can have a positive impact on the world.  The next crop of participants should be just as exciting, and we can not wait to see how they do at the 2014 competition.