Four Inspiring Entrepreneurs Receive Financial Awards

Bethesda Green Invests in Sustainability-Focused Local Companies

Bethesda, MD — Bethesda Green announced today that it has awarded $10,000 financial awards each to four mission-aligned companies that participated in its 2021 Innovation Lab Accelerator. These companies are led by sustainability and impact-driven entrepreneurs who have shown the skills and perspective to succeed. Their business models seek to address gaps in the marketplace to manage food waste at scale, eliminate plastic waste from carry out containers, and provide healthy and impactful food and beverage options.

Adam M. Roberts, Bethesda Green’s Executive Director, said of the awards announcement, “Today we make a sound investment in the future of four outstanding local companies, each dedicated in their own way to enriching our lives or protecting the environment. In so doing, they are better equipped to make an investment in our collective future. From what we consume to how we process waste, these company founders are, quite literally, changing the world for the better.

Recipients of the 2021 Bethesda Green Innovation Lab Accelerator Financial Awards include:

Cinnamon Tree Organics, led by Co-Founder and Chief Spice Lady Nadee Bandaranayake, brings flavor, heritage, and supply chain transparency in the form of single-origin spices sourced directly and equitably from small farmers in Sri Lanka.
Loop Closing, led by Founder & CEO Jeffrey Neal, transforms food waste into a resource for solving environmental and equity problems while reducing clients’ costs by deploying a fully supported on-site composting network.
Paradigm One, led by Founder & CEO John Hansen, is a closed-loop circular Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) company whose mission is to reduce single-use disposable products in the foodservice sector and accelerate a clean circular economy.
MāKā Superfood, led by Founder and Managing Member Brian Hill, produces an +Energized+ line of functional beverages featuring the benefits of wheatgrass as well as energy from yerba mate and guayusa that are certified organic, gluten-free, vegan safe, and refreshing.

Patty Simonton, Director of Bethesda Green’s Be Green Business Program and the Innovation Lab, praised the hard work of all the founders, and said, “These four founding teams have demonstrated a commitment to building the types of sustainable and impactful businesses that will improve our world. They recognize the importance of collaboration and have stepped up as leaders within the Innovation Lab community. I am thrilled to welcome them to our Residency program and am excited to work together over the coming years.”

Applications will open soon for the next Bethesda Green accelerator cohort, slated to launch in January 2022. Founders interested in applying to the Accelerator or any of the other Innovation Lab programs are invited to contact the team at innovationlab@bethesdagreen.org or visit our website: https://bethesdagreen.org/be-green-business/innovation-lab/

Editor’s Notes

About the Bethesda Green Innovation Lab

Bethesda Green’s Innovation Lab supports leaders who are building for-profit business models around innovative and sustainable solutions to tackle environmental and social challenges, welcoming them to a community built collaboratively through citizen engagement, environmental education, government and academic partnership, and innovative business development. Through its Innovation Lab, Bethesda Green welcomes idea through seed stage companies and directs founders to the program that best meets their needs. We prioritize our network and value the strength and diversity of our community. Our areas of focus include: 1) Environmental Innovations: Clean Energy / Water / Clean Tech / Natural Resources / Circular Economy / Waste Management / Sustainable Fashion; and 2) Sustainable Food Systems: Agriculture / Food & Beverage / Packaging / Manufacturing / Distribution / Retail.

The Innovation Lab offers four distinct sustainability-focused entrepreneurial programs:

The year-round Incubator program is designed to help entrepreneurs build a self-paced program to accommodate their schedules and vision while they work through the hurdles of early-stage business formation and launch. This program is open to all mission-aligned founders in the DMV region, including but not limited to those working in STEM / R&D.
The competitive Accelerator program involves a fast-paced, high-touch, 4-month intensive curriculum with a focus on investment readiness and commercialization assistance.
All financial award recipients automatically join the Innovation Lab Residency Program, where they continue to receive access to the many benefits and resources offered to Innovation Lab members for up to four years.
The year-round Amplifier program provides support to validation and growth stage companies who have received outside investment and seek to benefit from the growing Bethesda Green community.

About the Companies

Cinnamon Tree Organics brings flavor, heritage, and supply chain transparency in the form of single-origin spices. Sourced directly and equitably from small farmers in Sri Lanka and grown using organic farming methods, our spices are freshly harvested every growing season.

The Bethesda Green Accelerator program was the fast, foundational program we needed to structure our business for success in the real world. As immigrants without a support system, we also appreciate the community, which kept us encouraged and inspired through the pandemic.

– Nadee Bandaranayake, Founder and Chief Spice Lady, Cinnamon Tree Organics

Loop Closing transforms food waste into a resource for solving environmental and equity problems while reducing clients’ costs by deploying a fully support on-site composting network. The current centralized processing approach is stymied by high costs of hauling, land, and compliance and restrictions from zoning, permitting, and neighbor resistance. Loop Closing’s places composting machines where dumpsters now stand to compost the food waste where it’s already handled and stored. Avoiding the costs of the centralized approach more than covers the cost of the machines, local jobs providing oversight, and managing the finished compost for regenerating our soils, environment, and communities. Avoiding the restrictions provides a path to meet 100% of the need while mitigating the smells, spills, and pests that current practices exacerbate in our urban areas.

Bethesda Green’s Innovation Lab opened doors and access to clients and partners in Maryland that we have been trying to access for 3 years. They also provided highly professional support from the curriculum and team of selectively matched mentors, who provided thoughtful and rigorous insights propelling Loop Closing to best meet its vision and mission. We’re a much better company from our experience in the Accelerator. Our cohort members are also a helpful and engaged support network for each other. My only regret is waiting to apply; Loop Closing could have developed much faster and more effectively. Don’t hesitate, apply now!

– Jeffrey Neal, Founder & CEO, Loop Closing

Paradigm One is a closed-loop circular Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) company whose mission is to reduce single-use disposable products in the foodservice sector and accelerate a clean circular economy. They offer a reusable takeout container service to restaurants and their customers that makes zero-waste fun, easy, and convenient while helping food vendors save money, increase revenue, improve customer loyalty, acquire new customers, and lower their environmental footprint. They are currently building a network of restaurants and consumers across the Washington DC Metro Area that are committed to great taste, zero-waste, and a sustainable future.

Being a part of the Bethesda Green Innovation Lab Accelerator has been an amazing experience. The leadership and staff are creative, connected, and fully committed to your success, have developed a strong program structure with terrific supporting resources, and curated a wonderful network of mentors and advisors and a broad ecosystem of organizations, and actively engaging with a cohort of impact-driven entrepreneurs has been both inspiring and catalytic. We have learned an incredible amount across a wide range of critical subjects, worked to implement these learnings throughout the program, and my company is in a much better position to succeed because of our experience. Not only has been a transformative experience for our company, but for me as a professional, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone we have had the privilege of working with.

– John Hansen, Founder & CEO, Paradigm One

MāKā Superfood produces the MāKā +Energized+ line of functional beverages featuring the benefits of wheatgrass as well as energy from yerba mate and guayusa, are certified organic, gluten-free, vegan safe and are refreshing in hibiscus passionfruit, mango and lemon flavors. MāKā will be introducing a fourth flavor to the product line as well as be available in over 100 store locations stretching from Hawaii to New York by late August.

MāKā has grown substantially thanks to the mentorship and guidance provided by Bethesda Green and the opportunities from interacting with other entrepreneurs who dream of being impactful not only from a business perspective, but from an environmentally conscious perspective.

– Brian Hill, Founder and Managing Member, MāKā Superfood

Contact:
Patty Simonton, Director, Be Green Busienss
patty@bethesdagreen.org
202.425.6576