VERDE Receives Grant from The National Science Foundation

We’re excited to share that VERDE has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to participate in the NSF I-Corps Teams program, an intensive 7-week customer discovery initiative led by the New York I-Corps Hub.

Our founder, Danielle Pascoli, was selected to participate as the Entrepreneurial Lead, alongside Prof. Renata Bura (University of Washington) as the Technical Lead and Dennis Hall (Faculty Emeritus, Ohio State University) as Industry Mentor. Together, the team is exploring commercial pathways for using VERDE’s nanofiber technology in the coatings industry.

The national I-Corps Program provides deep training in evidence-based entrepreneurship during 7 weeks, helping research-driven startups understand real customer needs through direct interviews and market validation. Over the course of the program, Danielle and the team will engage with at least 100 potential stakeholders across industries to refine VERDE’s value proposition and commercialization strategy.

This grant marks another key milestone in VERDE’s journey to bring high-impact, climate-aligned technologies from lab to market—and we’re grateful to NSF and the I-Corps community for their support.

Learn more about NSF I-Corps here: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/i-corps