Entrepreneurship Student Wins $20,000!
Evansville, Indiana, February 9, 2023
EVANSVILLE, IN –(Ivytech Evansville News Edited) Joshua Marksberry, a student in the Garatoni School of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Ivy Tech Community College Evansville, has been announced as a winner of a $20,000 pre-seed investment for his start-up company Catena.
“We are excited and honored to win the Elevate Nexus 2022 pitch competition,” said Marksberry, CEO of Catena. “This funding will support the development of two new products: Catena Fortify, which can boost the physical properties of plastics, and Catena Grow, capable of improving yield and growth as an agricultural fertilizer enhancement.”
Joshua Marksberry explains his trajectory: “It all started in the garage. I was trying to tackle the huge issue of food waste in a sustainable manner, so I had an idea to convert it into Bio-Coal. The goal was to keep Indiana’s remaining coal firing power plants alive,” he said. “That idea failed because I came to the realization that I would need 3000+ tons of food waste per day to keep one coal power plant in continuous operation. Turns out there was not enough food waste being wasted each day in Indiana to meet that demand.
“So I scrapped that idea and tried to use the carbon I made for something else.” “Turns out that carbon nanomaterials were also made during our bio-coal process.”
Marksberry discovered that these nanomaterials have the potential to solve many of the world’s hardest problems. The only problem was that these materials were normally toxic and super expensive. The materials would cost around $75-300 per gram and because of that they were extensively used in only the automotive and aerospace industries. So he decided to investigate the nanomaterials industry so that they could become more widely available and safe for companies to use.
The first commercially-ready product will be CATENA® GROW™, It is all organic nano-fertilizer that will reduce plant cultivation cost, replace the use of conventional fertilizers, and increase plant yield.
Also Catena was shouted-out by the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership!
Link to full source:https://ivytechsouthwest.wordpress.com/2023/02/09/ivy-tech-evansville-entrepreneurship-student-wins-20000-prize-in-elevate-ventures-pitch-competition/