Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1493274
V O L . X X I X N O. V ยง 2 S TA R T U P S S iblings Ben and Emily Davis have gained a well-deserved reputation for thinking out- side the box, and never more so than with the advent of OpBox in 2018. e Nobleboro-based business was born from an earlier venture, Port- land Container Co., which leased out recycled shipping containers. But the containers were impractical as they lacked windows, were heavy to move, and were also prone to rust. Enter serendipity. During a trip to Canada, Ben Davis came upon a unique building material that used 100% Recycled PET plastic from JD Composites of Nova Scotia. JD Composites became a joint venture partner with Acadian Com- posite Materials, which makes the panels that OpBox uses to build its portable venues. Acadian Compos- ite, an OpBox sister company, pro- duces durable, insulated panels made from recycled plastic sourced from the ocean and landfills. e Davises envisioned boxes that could be adapted for a variety of uses, from retail pop-ups to food vendors to ticket booths. e siblings went quickly to work, raising $500,000 in a seed round of funding that included a community development block grant and private capital. e money was used to bring production efforts in-house to Noble- boro, hire workers and buy equipment. OpBox continued to evolve, as the Davis siblings were named Mainebiz Next List honorees in 2018 and, in 2021, received more accolades with a SCORE Maine 2021 Business Award in the Greenlist category. Thinking outside the box for a different kind of pop-up container Siblings Ben and Emily Davis raised $500K in seed money to kickstart OpBox B y A n n F i s h e r Ben and Emily Davis, founders of OpBox, say the firm's mobile pop-ups can be outfitted for retail shops, but also for life-changing uses such as mobile showers for the homeless. F O C U S OpBox theopbox.com / Nobleboro Founded: 2018 Founders: Ben and Emily Davis What it does: Retrofits storage containers into popup retail and other uses Funding: Grants, seed round, private capital, competitions F I L E P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY M A R C H 6 , 2 0 2 3 18