Binghamton, East Syracuse firms win funding in FuzeHub’s commercialization competition

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — A Binghamton startup captured the top funding prize

during the FuzeHub commercialization competition held Oct. 16-17 in Saratoga Springs.

The event was part of this year’s New York State Innovation Summit.

Ashlawn Energy, LLC, which operates at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator in Binghamton, won $150,000 in the competition. DUB Biologics Inc. of East Syracuse was among six finalists that secured a $50,000 investment.

Startups from Schenectady, Rochester, New York City, and two from Brooklyn were also awarded $50,000 in funding. FuzeHub awarded a total of $450,000 to seven startups during its commercialization competition.

Albany–based FuzeHub is a nonprofit that connects New York’s small and mid-sized manufacturing companies to the resources, programs, and expertise they need for technology commercialization, innovation, and business growth.

FuzeHub is the statewide New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program (MEP) center, supported by Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology & Innovation (NYSTAR).

“We are proud to work alongside these entrepreneurs and continually support them as they progress on their journeys,” Elena Garuc, executive director of FuzeHub, said in the organization’s news release. “It is so gratifying to see them grow. We are fostering relationships and strengthening the community of people actively pursuing new ways to solve modern problems.”

About the firms’ products

Ashlawn Energy will use its $150,000 as it works to commercialize its VanCharg vanadium flow battery energy storage system, per the FuzeHub news release.

VanCharg is a rechargeable-battery system that stores power off-peak and uses power at peak times, “reducing energy consumption during peak periods.” This system is described as “safer, [with] a longer life, and a lower cost of ownership than current alternatives.”

The project will implement Ashlawn Energy’s in-house battery stack assembly in Binghamton to “profoundly benefit” Ashlawn Energy’s economics, profitability, and “create a key competitive price advantage over other battery technologies, reduce assembly cycle time from one week to one day, and create manufacturing jobs.”

DUB Biologics Inc. of East Syracuse will use its $50,000 investment to help commercialize the anti-fibrotic self-delivering siRNAS.

As described in the FuzeHub news release, the fundamental underpinning to one in three fatalities in the world is fibrosis. DUB Biologics is developing a therapeutic that helps reduce fibrosis, which is also known as scarring. Tissue function is impaired by scarring. For example, scars in the eye contribute to vision loss. DUB Biologics’ therapeutic aims to “return function to functional tissues.”