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mHUB Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing Accelerator

6-month program fast-tracks high potential startups through hands-on product development in state-of-the-art prototyping facility supported by world-class corporate and venture investors.

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Most Recent Cohort: Sustainable Water Tech

mHUB and Current’s Sustainable Water Tech Accelerator program concluded April 2026 and  supported startups developing technologies for industrial water use, reuse, monitoring, and infrastructure. As part of mHUB’s smart and sustainable manufacturing work, the program helped founders connect with industry partners, technical experts, and investors to refine their solutions and prepare for scale. 

Meet the cohort: https://mhub.org/blog/mhub-current-announce-sustainable-water-tech-cohort

Sign up below to stay up to date on the mHUB Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing Accelerator and be notified of upcoming cohorts.  

Sign Up here

Boost Your Startup

Get funding and prototyping resources from the nation’s leading hardtech innovation & product development center. mHUB’s unmatched resources help exceptional startups turn their product ideas into commercialized, scalable product businesses.

Express Interest

Rocket, Meet Fuel.

Are you the next medtech startup to join the mHUB Accelerator? mHUB has already made +46 high-growth hardtech startup investments in companies building disruptive solutions that align with industry needs. By partnering with industry leaders on each accelerator cohort, market demands are identified on the front end that leads to opportunities for pilots and investment on the backend.

Product + Business Acceleration

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Customer Discovery

Problem Validation
Customer Outreach & Development
Building Your Hypothesis
Validating Assumptions
Defining Your Value Proposition
Regulatory Aspects
Target Market

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Prototyping, Product & Manufacturing

Product Ideation
Proof of Concept
Prototype Development
Prototype Roadmap
Design for Manufacturing
Design for Sustainability
Supply Chain

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Business Viablity

Business Modeling
Financial Modeling
Unit Economics
Go to Market
Pilot Customers
Legal Structure
People and Leadership
Ethics

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Throughout

Mentor Matching
The Art of Pitching
Corporate Partner Access
Access to Investor Network
24 Month mHUB Membership
Access to Prototyping Facilities
Access to Industry Networking Events

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The Investment

mHUB Ventures invests a $200,000 initial investment, which includes $100K in cash, $30K in cash reimbursement for product development, $70,000 in-kind services for certain fees related to product development consulting, resources, and programming during a six-month highly structured incubation (with two full years of support) in exchange for 6.5% equity in each startup.

Approximately 30% of the fund’s capital is reserved for follow-on investments in a select set of our portfolio.

Learn more about mHUB Ventures and its portfolio. 

 

Six Months of Deep Dive Incubation

The mHUB Accelerator is a fast-paced program that’s designed to take your startup from concept or prototype to the foundation of a profitable, scalable and sustainable business. The 6-month, hands-on program connects surrounds teams with product engineering expertise and a hose of market and business intelligence leaders. Teams continue to receive support for an additional 18 months of continued  mHUB membership and access post program.

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Areas of Focus

 

mHUB is looking for early-stage startups working on hardtech solutions focused in smart and sustainable manufacturing. The team at mHUB is excited to hear your ideas for where you see opportunity for disruption.

Smart manufacturing value chain
To make smart and sustainable the manufacturing value chain from design throughout distribution including every aspect of machine automation and robotics in industrial settings.

Improve infrastructure security
Making infrastructure smarter requires improving security and making device management more efficient, less time consuming, and more cost effective

Circularity in Sustainability
Build circularity and sustainability into the manufacturing chain. Develop end to end solutions to enable manufacturers to recycle or reuse products or resources to reduce waste

Improve operational efficiency

Introduce smart devices and smart workflows in order to increase operational and energy efficiency - e.g. sensors, robots, digital twinning & other solutions

Focus in Safety
To improve operator and worker safety, safety in machine use / manufacturing processes, and safety in manufacturing environments, plus safety monitoring and compliance

Smart Industrial Applications

Smart tech for connected devices, predictive maintenance, machine-to-machine learning, edge computing, robotics, automation, quality control, equipment & warehouse monitoring.

Meet Your Acceleration Team

Startup teams benefit from the guidance of seasoned entrepreneurs, engineers, investors, and industry leaders who’ve built businesses, raised capital, and helped founders realize their full potential.

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Haven Allen
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder at mHUB, Managing Partner of the mHUB Spark Fund I & II

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Melissa Lederer
Chief Experience Officer at mHUB, Managing Partner of the mHUB Spark Fund I & II 

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Thierry Van Landegem
mHUB Executive Director, Climate & Energy Tech Accelerator and Smart & Sustainable Manufacturing Accelerator

Mike Sundemeier

Mike Sundermeier
mHUB Program Manager, Climate & Energy Tech Accelerator and Smart & Sustainable Manufacturing Accelerator

Deborah-Brown

Deborah Brown
Manager, Mobile IoT
Bosch

Mentor

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Jacob Babcock
CEO
NuCurrent

Selection Support Committee

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Nelda J. Connors
CEO
Pine Grove Holdings, LLC

Mentor

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Sonny Garg
Solutions Lead, Energy Uptake

Mentor

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Brian Hand
CEO
Hand Capital, LLC

Mentor

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Zach Kaplan
Chief Executive Officer
Inventables

Selection Support Committee

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Mark Karasek
Adjunct Professor
McCormick School of Engineering
Northwestern University
Mentor

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Karen Kerr
General Partner
Exposition Ventures
Selection Support Committee & Mentor

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Ushma Kriplani
Interim Associate Laboratory Director, Science & Technology Partnerships and Outreach
Argonne National Laboratory
Mentor

Tushyati-Maudgalya

Tushyati Maudgalya
Entrepreneur and Management Consultant in Manufacturing
Mentor

 

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Isaac McCoy
Dean - School of Business, Entrepreneurship, and CIS
Stillman College
Mentor

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Patricia Miller
CEO
MATRIX 4, Inc.
Mentor

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Bill Ogden
Director, Supply Chain
Avnet
Corporate Partner & Mentor

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Johnny Park
CEO
Wabash Heartland Innovation Network
Mentor

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Maureen Rinkunas
Innovation & Ventures Strategist
Mentor

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Nik Rokop
Coleman Foundation Clinical Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship
Stuart School of Business
Illinois Institute of Technology
Mentor

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John S. Thode
Clinical Professor
Innovation, Leadership, and Engineering Entrepreneurship
University of Illinois
Mentor

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Brian Tolliver
Corporate Development and Strategy Leader
Mentor

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David Weksel
Director, Strategic Growth
Panduit
Corporate Partner & Mentor

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Tony Wilkins
Managing Partner
Standing Oaks Venture Capital
Mentor

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Jenny Xu
Business Builder & Investor
Z26 Partner
Mentor

Portfolio Companies

Industry Partners

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What portfolio founders have to say: 

"The mentors, corporate partners, and the mHUB Team - it's a world-class environment for hardware and software developers."

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Anil Üzengi 

CEO & Co-founder, 

Stroma Vision

"I was really impressed by mHUB, it's prototyping shops, our international cohort with different business models & expertise. mHUB was really thoughtful about how they structured the program."

Darren-Riley

Darren Riley

Co-founder & CEO,

JustAir

"The people invested here at mHUB and the people running the program want to help and make sure the business succeeds, which is really refreshing."

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Chris Autry

CEO,

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Intrigued?

Learn more by reading through frequently asked questions, find out how to become an Industry Partner, or sign up to be notified of upcoming accelerator cohort application periods.

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