Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator
09/16/2026 | Press release | Archived content
Fall 2026 Pre-Accelerator: Founders Put Ideas Into Action
The Fall 2026 Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator (MEIA) Phase 0 Pre-Accelerator is well underway, bringing together 15 early-stage climate technology companies working to turn promising ideas into commercially viable solutions.
Since launching in July, our cohort has hit the ground running with workshops, founder panels, and speed mentoring designed to de-risk assumptions and build clear pathways to market.
Industry leaders Kobby Osei-Kusi, Mike Ducker, Ben Margolis, and Alexis Slupe guided sessions across customer discovery, business modeling, financing, and commercialization strategies. To give teams an inside look at scaling, entrepreneurs Helen Manich, Shannon Sentman, and Ben Parry shared candid lessons from their own startup journeys, while Cyrus Etemad-Moghadam, Josh Barnes, and Ed Gibson provided hands-on expertise in product development, prototyping, and manufacturing.
This program would not be possible without the mentors and experts who volunteered for their time, alongside host partners Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation, and Mtech Ventures, who helped bring these sessions to life.
Now entering the final stretch, the cohort is actively refining their commercialization strategies as they prepare to pitch on stage this October.
Meet the Fall 2026 Cohort:
Reversible Electroadhesion, led by Paul Albertus, is developing reversible electro adhesion technology to enable the efficient recycling and reuse of lithium-ion battery packs, helping extend battery life, reduce waste, and support a more sustainable battery supply chain.
Mobile Street Plug, led by Tameka Pringle and Quenterra Carey, is developing on-demand charging for electric vehicles, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and other essential devices through fully portable, professionally operated mobile charging units.
Gostly, led by Felipe De Padua, is creating a GIS-based command center platform to monitor infrastructure in real-time. They remove siloes and improve collaboration between Transportation, Public Works and Public Safety departments, increasing response speed and reducing costs.
OperAlten, led by Sai Dinesh Devineni, has developed a Real-Time Translator, a physics-informed AI engine that identifies "silent" revenue and carbon leakage in renewable portfolios. They translate raw SCADA data into audit-grade financial metrics to allow asset owners to recover typical industry losses.
ACC Industries, led by Connor Pavlik, is developing a modular, easy to recycle electric vehicle battery that can be customized for performance. These batteries will be able to be used in any configuration for any car.
SPYRE Technologies, is a new method to produce graphene and other 2D materials, which will be the foundation of a new era of energy technologies. Their technology will be able to produce 2D materials at industrial scale, quality, and low cost.
Smart Art OnGuard, led by Elijah Abron, is an innovative energy-efficient system that seamlessly integrates high-quality speakers, visual art, and intelligent safety technology into a single wall-mounted frame. The system transforms traditional artwork into a functional smart device without adding clutter to living spaces.
Smart Solar Brooder, led by Abisai Nandi, is a solar-powered precision agriculture device that eliminates propane and grid electricity dependence during brooding, the most energy-intensive and mortality-critical phase of poultry production.
Itankwale, led by Temitope Ajibola, an AI-powered energy intelligence platform for community organizations that own clean energy assets but lack the utility-grade tools to manage them. It connects to anything that makes or stores energy and detects faults across the whole system, explaining them to the user using well-researched AI methods.
Listing Central LLC, led by Nicole Nixon, is a Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS) provider addressing how consumer personal identity data is widely exposed over the internet, poorly managed, and often used without clear consumer consent. They focus on mitigating these risks for individuals and major inefficiencies for businesses.
Leks Energy, led by Lekan Anlugbua, has developed a Modular Microgrids-as-a-Service (MMaaS) platform that delivers scalable, pre-engineered solar-plus-storage microgrid units using U.S.-manufactured renewable-energy equipment and components.
Modulus Energy, led by Jeffrey "Scott" Rayner Jr. is developing a modular, high-efficiency transformer architecture designed to improve grid resilience, accelerate deployment timelines, and reduce dependence on constrained materials such as copper and grain-oriented electrical steel.
Daylight, led by Brent Williams, is developing a homeowner-first solar SaaS and data platform that turns a household's real utility, weather, and rooftop data into an easy-to-understand savings estimate. This approach replaces high-pressure sales tactics with self-directed decisions and lowers the customer acquisition costs that are driving up US residential solar prices.
Solar Holographic Optical Elements (SHOE), led by Dr. Albert Okorogu, is developing a holographic photovoltaic technology that captures and redirects unused sunlight within solar panels to increase energy output, improve durability, and lower the cost of solar electricity.
Orivia Tech, led by, Michelle Ware-Allen, is developing an AI-powered platform that helps utilities and communities optimize energy use, improve grid resilience, and prepare for climate-related disruptions.
For these founders, the Pre-Accelerator is not an endpoint. It is an opportunity to build momentum, test assumptions, strengthen their business strategies, and take the next steps toward bringing their technologies to market.
We're proud to support the Fall 2026 cohort and look forward to celebrating their milestones in October.
Interested in joining a future MEIA Pre-Accelerator cohort or ready to take the next step through Phase 1? Learn more about MEIA's programs and how to get involved.
Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator published this content on September 16, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on October 07, 2026 at 21:30 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]