Orlando-based HyCarb among Final Four in Competition for 8th Annual Cade Museum $50,000 Prize

Orlando-based HyCarb among Final Four in Competition for 8th Annual Cade Museum $50,000 Prize

August 11, 2017
ORLANDO, Fla. – HyCarb, Inc., a University of Central Florida Business Incubator client in the Central Florida Research Park, is one of the four finalists in the 8th Annual Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention competition in Gainesville, which will award a $50,000 prize to the Florida company determined by judges to have the most promising new technology.

Tony Longhurst, chief operating officer at HyCarb, said the firm has been working toward completing their first five product prototypes – light-weight, less toxic, long-lasting, environmentally-friendly and safer batteries with no thermal runaway, created  with HyCarb’s patented graphene and carbon nanotube technologies.  The $50,000 Cade Prize would help accomplish that goal.Two rounds of judging started the end of May with over 100 applicants narrowed down to a “Sweet 16” on July 5 and four semi-finalists by July 31.  The final round of competition will be held at an “Inventivity Bash” Sept. 23 at the Cade Museum in Gainesville. The winner will be announced at the end of the day.  Cellvana Biotechnology of Tampa, PlasmaChip of Gainesville and SmartJet of Tallahassee are the other finalists.“We are delighted that HyCarb’s innovation that will revolutionize batteries, conductivity, sensors, and more, is among the Cade Prize final four. This is an honor and recognition that is propelling our visibility and market potential,” he said.“HyCarb is also among four UCF Business Incubator clients who achieved the Cade Prize final four in the past five years. Feynman Nano and Hesperos, Inc. were in the Final Four in 2016 and Nano Discovery in 2012,” said Incubator Site Manager Carol Ann Dykes.   “Other incubator companies have been among the Cade Museum’s “Sweet 16 over the years,” she added.The Cade Museum $50,000 cash prize is made possible by a grant from the Community Foundation of North Central Florida, with legal services provided by Saliwanchik, Lloyd & Eisenschenk, intellectual property lawyers of Gainesville.