Key Takeaways:
- Clean Crop Technologies received $1.2 million in grant funding from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2).
- The funding will help Clean Crop expand its team, capacity, and impact at its Holyoke, MA facility.
- Clean Crop’s Clean Current system offers a dry, fully electric, and residue-free seed decontamination process.
- The company aims to overcome capacity constraints and meet rising demand.
- Clean Crop is establishing a workforce-development training program with Springfield Technical Community College.
Clean Crop Technologies (Clean Crop) announced that it has secured $1.2 million in grant funding through the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2), administered by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech). The funding will propel the company’s growth and operational capacity.
“Seed contamination is a massive problem, contributing to $220 billion in lost agricultural revenue and impacting global food supply. Traditional seed treatment solutions can reduce contaminants but harm seed quality, require large footprints, are labor-intensive, and use fossil fuels,” explained Daniel White, co-founder and CEO of Clean Crop. “Clean Current technology decontaminates seeds without impacting seed quality or requiring any chemical or water additives while eliminating the risk of chemical run-off after planting.”
Purpose of the Funding
The M2I2 program helps bridge the gap between innovation and commercialization in manufacturing by providing grants for equipment capital expenditures. Clean Crop plans to use this funding to engage with additional contract manufacturing partners across Massachusetts to meet the increasing demand for its product. The funds will also support scaling the company’s team, capacity, revenue, and impact at its seed tolling facility in Holyoke, MA.
The Clean Current system, approved by the EPA, is a dry, fully electric, and residue-free seed decontamination process. By using electricity and air to create cold plasma, it inactivates a broad spectrum of contaminants on seed surfaces. It is the world’s first industrial-scale, cold-plasma seed treatment device, capable of treating 25 to 50+ pounds of seed per hour. To date, Clean Crop has signed $3.4 million in purchase orders for its Clean Current seed treatment from companies representing 39% of the global vegetable seed market.
Industry Recognition and Workforce Development
“These 13 companies have demonstrated immense potential to scale manufacturing in Massachusetts,” said Christine Nolan, Director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing. “The M2I2 program ensures that companies build out pilot scale production capacity and invest in their communities and employees. Manufacturing continues to be an industry that drives the Massachusetts economy and provides good paying, sustainable jobs for people with and without college degrees.”
