Arizona State-led Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine funds 8 tech startups – KTAR.com

ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Mar 16, 2025, 9:06 AM
BY PAYNE MOSES
KTAR.com
PHOENIX — The Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SWSIE), a multi-institutional tech group spearheaded by Arizona State University, announced Wednesday it has invested $1.5 million into eight startup companies in Arizona, Nevada and Utah.
SWSIE was launched in 2024 as one of the first 10 tech groups under the umbrella of National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines. It specifically received its own startup funding of $15 million to research and execute solutions for water scarcity and equitable energy access in extreme desert conditions.
The eight startup companies being doled out funding are being supported in the commercialization process of their “proven model or prototype,” according to a press release. Models or prototypes awarded funding deal with finding industry solutions for semiconductor manufacturing, solar power, mining, atmospheric water harvesting and other environmental issues.
SWSIE processed more than 220 grant applications from 16 states before ultimately narrowing down their selections.
“These startups emerged from a competitive selection process due to the promise of their technologies, which stand to advance new industries and future-proof existing ones,” SWSIE CEO Brian Sherman said in the release.
Sherman added SWSIE’s funding is just beginning, as this will be the first of “many funding cycles” while the innovation group continues to grow itself.
A few solutions SWSIE is actively working on in the Valley are saving water needed for semiconductor manufacturing (it is estimated to use eight million gallons daily by 2030), expanding the capacity of silicon-based solar cells and recuperating carbon emissions into fuel and “other sustainable carbon products.”
In addition to receiving funding for prototypes, the eight startups will have the opportunity to introduce their businesses to investors at SWSIE’s Innovation Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 21-22.
“The overwhelming response to this funding opportunity underscores the dire need for investment in technologies at this stage, as well as the broad interest in new solutions for critical resource management,” SWSIE chief innovation officer Katie Pettinger said in the release.
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