FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 11, 2025
Media Contact
Adam Sledd
(804) 677-3885
Adam@dominnovation.com
Dominion Energy Innovation Center Announces
2025 Accelerate Program Participants
The program, now in its sixth year, will support seven energy and climate tech startups
Ashland, VA – The Dominion Energy Innovation Center (“DEIC”) has announced the seven companies participating in its signature DEIC Accelerate utility deployment accelerator program.
Accelerate, launched in 2020, is DEIC’s virtual accelerator program connecting energy and sustainability startups with their next major utility customers. During the program, DEIC helps cohort companies connect with industry experts, navigate Virginia’s energy ecosystem, and explore pilot projects with Dominion Energy and other commercialization partners across the Commonwealth.
Participating companies will spend 11 weeks being trained and mentored as they develop pilot opportunities with DEIC partners, led by Dominion Energy. The program will run simultaneously with DEIC’s data center-focused accelerator program, Hyperscaled, from early September through November 2025.
“DEIC’s goal is to support entrepreneurs driving the innovations needed to achieve a net-zero carbon economy, and the companies selected for this year’s Accelerate cohort are working to do just that,” shared DEIC’s Executive Director Adam Sledd. “We’re pleased to welcome these innovators working on the cutting edge of important energy issues, including data center energy use, grid reliability and modernization, vegetation management, hydropower, and more.”
“Dominion Energy partners with the DEIC to help identify new startups and novel technologies that have the potential to transform the energy industry,” Nathan Frost, General Manager of New Business & Customer Solutions at Dominion Energy, said. “We’re focused on providing reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean energy to power our customers every day, and implementing critical technologies like those we work with through DEIC’s programs can help us do that.”
The 2025 Accelerate cohort includes:
- AssetCool, based in Leeds, England, is revolutionizing grid modernization with a suite of advanced photonic coatings applied using its proprietary, automated robotic application. The scalable, cost-effective solution enhances existing lines to increase capacity up to 30%, reduce energy losses by 10%, and reduce upgrade costs by 95%.
- DG Matrix, from Raleigh, North Carolina, is redefining the AI datacenter and electrification industries with revolutionary solid-state transformer solutions. The company’s core Power Router solutions unlock seamless integration of multiple energy sources and loads simultaneously with a single power-electronics system that offers unparalleled versatility, cost, efficiency, performance, and size advantages.
- Emrgy, headquartered in Atlanta, is radically reimagining hydropower by decentralizing related power generation infrastructure. The company offers a flexible and scalable modular turbine system that enables customers to generate continuous clean energy in existing flows of water.
- HomeBoost, based in San Francisco, is a home energy platform founded to provide trusted partnership at every stage of the homeownership journey. Its initial product—BoostBox—gives homeowners the tools and personalized insights they need to improve their home energy efficiency, save money on utility bills, and live more comfortably.
- Mercury Computing, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, works with utilities, grid and data center operators, and cloud providers to offer computing solutions for AI workloads. Their product helps turn data centers into flexible grid resources, managing demand, addressing the problem of large and inflexible data center loads, and meeting 24/7 carbon-free goals.
- Splight, a San Francisco-based startup, has developed and deployed a new software-based technology operational layer that utilizes real-time data streams from existing transmission assets to increase transmission capability up to 2x while adding enhanced reliability to the grid.
- Treeswift, from Philadelphia, empowers utilities with AI-augmented vegetation management that reduces risk, improves reliability, and helps maintain affordability. Treeswift’s backpack and vehicle-mounted sensors seamlessly integrate into existing patrols to gather imagery, LiDAR, GPS, and voice notes data, which Treeswift’s AI translates into actionable analytics and 360° field context for vegetation management experts, E&C teams, and tree crews.
To learn more about the program, please visit https://dominnovation.com/energy/deic-accelerate/.
About Dominion Energy Innovation Center
The Dominion Energy Innovation Center is a hub for entrepreneurial growth and innovation in Ashland, Virginia. Founded in November 2009 as a non-profit public-private partnership, the DEIC accelerates great ideas across a wide spectrum of industry sectors in addition to its focus on building the clean technology sector in Central Virginia. Founding partners of the Center include the signature sponsor, Dominion Energy, as well as Activation Capital, the Town of Ashland, and Hanover County.