Cache Energy was nominated to compete in this year’s EPIC Prize Collaboration Event, and was honored by winning first place at a White House ceremony in Washington D.C., taking home the grand prize of $30K. Cache Energy Founder, Arpit Dwivedi attended the event, giving a presentation and pitch to a panel of energy and technology executives, researchers, and investors. The event, led by Dr. Vanessa Chan, DOE Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions, honored a handful of innovators from across the nation.
The EPIC program, which stands for “Energy Program for Innovation Clusters” was created in 2020 with the mandate to “help fill critical gaps in commercializing energy and related technologies.” The program, as stated in its inaugural report in 2022, functions by awarding cash prizes to a select few, handpicked projects. These “incubators … build robust energy innovation ecosystems and stimulate energy and related development in regions across the United States.”
The event took place in the Eisenhower Executive Office building, the office of the Vice President, and part of the presidential complex in Washington D.C. Arpit and investors Ian Adams and Rachel Sebald, from Evergreen Climate Innovations, attended on behalf of Cache Energy. The day started with an introduction from Dr. Vanessa Chan, describing the success and purpose of the EPIC program and promising that “EPIC pitch competitions provide an invaluable opportunity to directly support start ups through honing their ideas with experts, and through cash prizes.”
Each team was allotted five minutes to make their pitch, explaining the vision and market need for their products as they related directly to the OTT moonshot. Cache Energy’s long duration energy storage technology was presented by Dwivedi for the panel, along with Cache’s business model and description of the team. The panel included Vanessa Chan, Victor Kane, Director of DOE Commercialization Program; Eric Hsieh, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Energy Storage and Apoorv Agarwal, Technology to Market advisor ARPA-E, as well as a handful of investors and other DOE staff. Cache Energy was the only company in attendance from the Midwest, an honor that was not lost on Dwivedi.
“It’s a testament to our team’s commitment towards building a practical long duration energy storage solution. The judges clearly saw the differentiation of our technology and its ability to leverage existing infrastructure/workforce” Said Dwivedi.
Following the pitches, there was a small networking event. Panelists, experts and startups got the opportunity to mingle with a number of white house and congressional staffers for various offices. It was a lively and exciting event.