HiveTech Solutions Earns State Grant for Innovative Mobile Apiary
Boulder Startup Wins $500,000 to Market Technology to Save Bees
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DENVER -- A woman-owned tech startup is half a million dollars closer to its goal of saving honeybees thanks to a generous grant from the state of Colorado. HiveTech Solutions, headquartered in Boulder, won a grant from the state’s Advanced Industries Office of Economic Development to power the launch of the company’s breakthrough technology that improves honeybee survival rates by 79 percent.
The grant announcement falls on World Bee Day, May 20, 2021.
“We are humbled and thrilled that this state is committed to supporting science and keeping tech startups like ours here in Colorado,” said Kimberly Drennan, HiveTech Solutions’ co-founder and CEO. “With this grant, we’re able to move forward and get our product to market so we can start stabilizing the pollinator population at a grass-roots level.”
HiveTech Solutions was one of only two companies to win $500,000 out of the 36 grants awarded to startups and individuals.
The company developed a mobile indoor climate-controlled apiary (MICA), a portable enclosure for hives that fits on a flatbed trailer. The device provides a safe overwinter spot for colonies and keeps honeybees in a healthy hibernation so the bees don’t fall victim to deadly swings in weather that can prompt them to end their hibernation too soon. It also enables beekeepers to prevent common seasonal spikes in varroa mites, a parasite that is a significant factor in colony decline.
Drennan, who earned her master's from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002, is an architect specializing in environmental design and high-performance housing. She teaches architecture at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she met the company’s co-founder and Chief Science Officer Chelsea Cook after discovering there were beehives near a project site for her sophomore design class. Cook was managing those hives for CU as she completed a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She’s now an assistant professor at Marquette University. The two started a research project that capitalized on their professional talents and their commitment to saving the planet’s most ubiquitous pollinator.
“For six years, we’ve been working on how we can help beekeepers and smaller operations protect their colonies with the same level of care and stability as major operations that have the resources to warehouse their bees,” Cook said. “These sideliners and hobby beekeepers are a huge component of reversing the decline of honeybee populations that threatens our entire food chain. This grant will bring us closer to doing just that.” For more information, visit hivetechsolutions.com.
Contact:
Kimberly Drennan, 210-831-9408
Chelsea Cook, 585-750-9414
