U-M start-up ReGenerate raises nearly $200K in seed capital

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 | Source: Concentrate

ReGenerate is the newest of the promising start-ups spinning out of the University of Michigan. The two-year-old alternative energy firm has won a number of business plan competitions, securing nearly $200,000 in seed capital over the last year.

ReGenerate is developing an on-site anaerobic digester for food service operators. The idea is to divert more organic waste from creating harmful greenhouse gases and towards creating alternative energy.

"We saw this as an opportunity for the way waste is handled, specifically organic gases," says Hunt Briggs, director of marketing & finance for ReGenerate. He co-founded the start-up with Nolan Orfield, Bobby Levine and Paul Davis. "Most of the organic waste goes into landfills and creates greenhouse gases, like methane. We want to design a system to divert that waste from the landfills and generate energy from that."

The Ann Arbor-based firm calls the TechArb home. It most recently won the "Think Green" investment prize from the Rice University Business Plan Competition, beating out dozens of other student-led start-ups competing in the prestigious national event. The $100,000 award is one of seven major investment awards and goes to the best plan in the green technology sector.

Briggs hopes to use that money to continue development of the firm's prototype anaerobic digester. Commercialization could come as soon as 2012, along with an expansion of the start-up's staff of five employees and 1-2 summer interns.

Source: Hunt Briggs, director of marketing & finance for ReGenerate
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.