Purdue Foundry

GOLD AWARD

BLACK AWARD

FOUNDERS

Scott Massey

Founder & CEO

Scott Massey received his B.S. at Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering in Technology and Certificate of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in 2017 at Purdue University. Scott exited a career as an engineer in the oil and natural gas industry to become a research engineer at the Purdue University Horticulture College. In this role, Scott assisted in the design of a NASA-funded, automated hydroponic plant growth chamber with the goal of sustainably growing food in space colonies. This project inspired him to found Heliponix© (formerly Hydro Grow LLC) his senior year, which was backed by Purdue Ventures Ag-celerator agricultural/biological Engineering Research Fund, Elevate Ventures, and the National Science Foundation. Today, the company employs several engineers and is expanding its network of deployed GroPod© Smart Garden Appliances, which has been named “Indiana’s Best New Tech Product” by TechPoint through the Mira Award and granted the “People’s Choice Award” by the Institute of Food Technologists through the Food Disruption Challenge. Scott has participated in two Reciprocal Exchanges at the Department of State through the Mandela Washington Fellowship, one of which involved traveling to Cameroon, Africa in 2019 to facilitate workshops on sustainable agriculture in 2017 in Togo, Africa.

PROFILE

Heliponix, LLC provides consumers with the GroPod© Smart Garden Appliance, a fully-automated, modular vertical farm that consumers can use in their households. It uniquely uses the Rotary Aeroponic™ technology to achieve higher yields with less power consumption and the least amount of user maintenance to achieve the highest degree of food safety. By placing the point of produce production at the point of consumption, the entire wasteful supply chain of produce can be eliminated in favor of localized production.

The business model could be described as “Keurig for food” as users subscribe to monthly recurring shipments of G-Pods™, seed cartridges which are placed inside of the system, and harvested on a regular basis. Not only is the GroPod leading an era of environmental sustainability, but it is establishing a new precedent of quality for produce for consumers that is free of pesticides, or other undesirable compounds that could adversely affect consumer health.

FUNDING PHASE

Seed

RAISED TO-DATE

$83,000

NOW HIRING

HydroGrow is Hiring

Looking for creative individuals with a passion for sustainability, and ideas for contribution.