Bernard Hidier, director of Finsulate, accepting the grand prize for winning the Top Gun pitch contest on May 26, 2022. (Photo/MCE)

Finsulate, a Dutch cleantech company with its U.S. headquarters in Portland, won the Top Gun Showcase event and its $25,000 top prize.

The pitch contest, returning for the first time to an in-person format since 2019, was held Thursday evening at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. It is the capstone event of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs’ Top Gun business accelerator program. Founders of the five companies each had five minutes to present their businesses to a panel of judges.

Bernard Hidier, the Portland-based director of Finsulate’s U.S. subsidiary, pitched on behalf of the company. For winning the event, Finsulate will receive a $25,000 grant provided by the Maine Technology Institute.

Finsulate, based in Hoofddorp, a town in the north of The Netherlands, has developed an eco-friendly adhesive wrap that’s applied to the underside of watercraft and marine structures as a non-toxic alternative to antifouling paint, which are toxic and damaging to the environment. After a year of U.S. market research, the company recently decided to make Portland the location of its U.S. headquarters, according to an article published May 23 by Mainebiz.

The four other companies that the judges heard about on Thursday were:

  • Bijou Build, a Waterville developer of collapsible outdoor play structures with interchangeable panels
  • Rugged Seas, a Portland-based company that recycles fisherman’s gear into products and wearables
  • Seaweed Evolution, a Bangor company that reduces methane gas in livestock by utilizing Maine’s red seaweed
  • Teach 2 Move, a Lewiston-Auburn startup seeking to help schools, coaches and administrators address athletes’ social and emotional needs

“We return to this Top Gun Showcase event changed by our individual and collective experiences of the pandemic, racial injustice, volatile national politics and now a war in Europe. We are living in turbulent times and for that reason, I am especially impressed by the resilience of Maine’s entrepreneurs and encouraged by their creativity, optimism, and positive energy. We should all be proud of them,” Tom Rainey, executive director of Maine Center for Entrepreneurs, said in a statement.

The judges for the pitch contest were Kerem Durdag of GWI, Steve Musica of Lean East, Lars Perkins of Techstars, and Nina Scheepers of Maine Venture Fund. They were tasked with judging each pitch based on scalability, feasibility, innovation and presentation.

There were two other awards presented at the Top Gun Showcase event. Lew Leathersich of Seaweed Evolution received the Michael Sheehan Memorial Award from Preti Flaherty, an award given annually to a selected member of MCE’s Top Gun class.

The Victoria Hilliard Donovan Award was given to Katie Weiler of Viable Gear. The award, created by Michael Donovan and Deborah Curtis in memory of their daughter, who died in 1988, recognizes women in entrepreneurship, specifically focused around science or engineering.