UbiQD QD greenhouse tech wins award and grant
Company awarded USDA grant to develop glass-based version of UbiGro
UbiQD,, the New Mexico-based quantum dot company, has been named winner in the What the Future (WTF) category of the 25th Annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Innovation Awards competition, where the company showed its new UbiGro Cover greenhouse film product for enhancing crop yield using fluorescence.
Hot on the heels of this award, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has given UbiQD a Phase I Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) grant to develop a glass version of UbiGro. The $175,000 grant will also support plant trials for the new QD-glass product at University of California-Davis later this year.
“Less than 10 percent of global greenhouse acreage is covered with glass, however more than 40 percent of the industry revenue is associated with glass greenhouses, so it’s a high value segment,” said Matt Bergren, Chief Product Officer at UbiQD. “Our SXSW-winning UbiGro Cover product is a great offering for 90 percent of the market, and now we are thrilled to receive new funding from the USDA to develop QD-glass for the rest.”
