The Roux Institute has selected five companies for its 2022 Founder Residency, a program designed to support first-time founders and founders from under-represented groups with high-impact, high-growth business ideas.

The five companies come from four U.S. states, including Maine, and are developing solutions in the areas of women’s health, civic engagement, eco-friendly manufacturing, intelligent wireless charging, and sustainable fishing, according to the school’s announcement.

“This was an incredibly competitive application process, and we were blown away by the quality of the founders and companies that applied to spend the year building their business in Maine,” Ben Chesler, the Roux Institute’s associate director of entrepreneurship, said in a statement. “We could not be more thrilled about the five companies who will be in residence at the Roux Institute this year.”

One of those founders is Helkin Berg, who is building a digital health platform for women called Hey Freya. Berg, who most recently was CEO of Portland-based Strimo, a software startup in the legal cannabis industry, said being accepted into the Roux’s Founder Residency program provides three things that are invaluable to her as a startup founder: resources, time and accountability.

“All of these increase my ability to progress my startup, Hey Freya, at maximum velocity,” she told Maine Startups Insider. “I figure I can accomplish about three to four years of nights and weekends work in one year as a founder resident at the Roux. There’s no price you can put on that.”

She continued: “My startup requires collaboration on a variety of subjects from computational medicine to data science. The Roux is providing me direct access to experts in the field as well as a large pool of highly talented and motivated students to help with design, research, and testing. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to do what I love: create life-changing companies for my customers.”

All the founders in the new cohort identify as female, black, indigenous, or people of color, according to the school’s announcement.

“If we want to diversify Maine’s startup ecosystem and reach founders that might not traditionally be included in the conversation, we need to think about the barriers that they face,” Chesler said.

Each founding team will receive a $25,000 grant to help build their ventures from scratch and to assist entrepreneurs who might not have the financial means to support themselves while they develop their product or technology.

The founders and companies in the 2022 Founder Residency program are:

  • Ackeem Evans and Jermaine Hartsfield of Election Bridge
  • Melissa LaCasse of Tanbark Molded Fiber Products
  • Helkin Berg of Hey Freya
  • Yousof Naderi, Kaushik Chowdhury, and Ufuk Muncuk of DeepCharge Inc.
  • Saif Khawaja of Shinkei Systems

Learn more about the founders and their companies in the school’s announcement.