Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I I N O. X X V I I D E C E M B E R 1 3 , 2 0 2 1 6 Lobstering union loses appeal in highest court e Supreme Court turned down a request Dec. 3 by the Maine Lobstering Union and others to end a closure of lobstering waters off the state's coast. e union, Damon Family Lobster Co. Inc., Fox Island Lobster Co. LLC and Frank ompson had filed an emergency injunction application with the court, seeking to halt enforcement of an earlier ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. at decision had stayed one by the U.S. District Court for Maine to stop a new four-month closure of 967 square miles of the Gulf of Maine to lobster fishing. e develop- ments all stem from a plan, issued by the Fisheries Service on Aug. 31, that aims to protect the endan- gered North Atlantic right whale by creating new requirements affecting Maine lobstermen. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King announced that the Department of Justice awarded the Maine Department of Health and Human Services $1.6 million and the Penquis Community Action Agency in Bangor $702,864 to combat the opioid crisis and confront substance abuse disor- ders in Maine youth. Search underway to find next USM president A national search is underway for a successor to the outgoing presi- dent of the University of Southern Maine, Glenn Cummings, whose tenure has been marked by chal- lenges like the pandemic — as well as a string of fundraising and growth successes. Cummings, who took over as president in June 2015, will step down July 1 to return to a faculty position within USM. e University of Maine System's board of trustees has formed a 17-member committee representing students, faculty, staff, alumni and other USM constituen- cies. e USM presidential search committee is chaired by UMaine System trustee James Erwin. e committee will work with Academic Search, a Washington, D.C.– based consulting firm, to identify candidates. N O T E W O R T H Y S O U T H E R N The Center for Grieving Children in Portland was awarded a $10,000 donation from National Housing Insurance Group in Falmouth. The funding will provide grief peer support services to 10 children for one year at no cost. Machias Savings Bank donated $50,000 to a capital campaign for Youth & Family Outreach, a non- profit organization in Portland, to fund the organization's ability to double its childcare capacity, build afford- able housing units and create a new community space designed to sup- port working families in the Greater Portland area. B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E S O U T H E R N Roux startup accelerator is already paying dividends B y R e n e e C o r d e s P o r t l a n d — As the first Roux Institute Techstars Accelerator cohort nears completion of the program, three of the 10 participating startups are gearing up to relocate to Maine permanently. The startup accelerator aims to build expertise at the intersection of humans and machines in areas from artificial intelligence to life sciences and data. The 13-week program, at Northeastern University's Roux Institute in Portland, is led by Managing Director Lars Perkins, a former software entrepre- neur, angel investor and consultant for startups in California. Behind the scenes, three startups from the group — with possibly more to come — are getting ready to start their next chapter in Maine by basing and building their companies here. The companies getting ready to relocate are Eskuad Inc., a Chile-based provider of a platform that streamlines field data collection and other services for users such as a forestry pro- ducers with products in 80 countries; Attention Exchange Inc., or Atten-X, a marketing technology platform whose founder is based in Massachusetts; and Circa, a Connecticut-based rent- payment provider in the fast-growing financial technology sector. Citing a positive experience with the accelerator and more broadly with Maine's startup ecosystem, all three have big plans to grow further in Maine and beyond. "For our team, being in Maine makes sense because we empower teamwork anywhere, and our field platform," Eskuad founder Max Echeverria told Mainebiz. "We focus on forests, maritime and environmental organizations, whose operations rely on field workers, spread out in remote areas with unreliable internet service. Maine has all of them in one place, and we are going to expand to other markets after." The company currently employs five people full-time, and Echeverria says in addition to moving here himself, he'll make his next hires here. Further along in that journey, Atten-X recently moved its headquarters from Boston to Portland, with an office at Think Tank Coworking. Atten-X currently employs three full- timers and four part-timers, and is looking to create five or more Maine-based jobs over the next year, said founder and CEO Noah King. "We're hiring developers, user experience designers, salespeople and customer success leads," said King, who was born in Maine. Circa's co-founders also look forward to continuing their entrepreneurial journey from Maine. They are considering Portland, as well as Yarmouth, Freeport and Westbrook. "We are so happy to be part of the first Roux Techstars cohort. The Roux team has welcomed us, Techstars is an incredible organization and Lars Perkins made this experience unbeatable," said Leslie Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Circa, who has a summer home with her husband on North Haven island. "With the support of the Maine community, we are thrilled to move Circa's headquarters to Portland or environs." P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F RO U X I N S T I T U T E T E C H S TA R S A C C E L E R AT O R B R I E F Members of the Roux Institute Techstars Accelerator class of 2021, shown here with Roux team members, include three startups planning to relocate Maine after the program wraps up. Three of the 10 startups in the first class of the Roux Institute Techstar Accelerator have plans to move operations to Maine.

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