minneapolis-startup
(5)
Carba
Carba is a Minneapolis-area climate-tech company that turns low-value waste biomass - dead trees, yard waste, and other biogenic scraps - into a stable, charcoal-like material called biocarbon (biochar). Using a patent-pending autothermal pyrolysis reactor and an anoxic (oxygen-starved) burial method, Carba locks carbon away for a certified 1,000+ years, most notably inside existing landfills where the material can also filter pollutants. The company sells the resulting permanent carbon-removal credits - including a five-year, 44,000-tonne deal with Microsoft - and aims to remove a billion tons of CO2 by 2035.
OTTO SPORT AI
OTTO SPORT AI is a Minneapolis-based startup building an AI-powered operating system for youth sports. Founded by veterans of SportsEngine, TeamSnap, NCSA, and FloSports and led by CEO Luke Zaientz, it consolidates fragmented tools for club management, league and tournament operations, ticketing, and athlete recruitment into one platform. Its flagship AI product, OTTO PILOT, answers parent and athlete questions from an organization's own knowledge base to cut administrative workload. The company launched publicly in January 2026 with $16.5M in seed funding and three strategic acquisitions.
Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones is the co-founder and CEO of Carba, a Minneapolis-based carbon-removal startup that turns waste biomass into a durable, charcoal-like biocarbon and buries it to lock away CO2 for more than 1,000 years. A chemical engineer with a PhD from UC Berkeley, Jones invented Carba's patented low-energy pyrolysis and storage process and describes the work as 'reversing the coal mining process.' He previously founded and exited Activated Research Company, and has steered Carba from a 2021 lab idea to a working molten-salt reactor at a Burnsville landfill, a multi-year carbon-credit deal with Microsoft, and a goal of removing a gigaton of CO2 a year.
Luke Zaientz
Luke Zaientz is the co-founder and CEO of OTTO SPORT AI, a Minneapolis-based startup building an AI-powered operating system for the messy, multi-billion-dollar world of youth sports. He has spent more than a decade turning the unglamorous back-office of clubs, leagues and tournaments into real businesses: he co-founded Reigning Champs (parent of NCSA College Recruiting), grew it past $200M in annual revenue through ten acquisitions, and saw it sell to IMG Academy and later to EQT in a deal valued at $1.2B. Before sports he co-founded RMG Networks and took it to IPO with Kleiner Perkins backing, and launched Match.com Events from zero to half a million attendees. In January 2026 OTTO SPORT AI launched with a $16.5M seed round co-led by Mamba Growth Equity and Rally Ventures, where Zaientz is also an operating partner.
Mort Fertel
Mort Fertel is the co-founder and CEO of Poplin (formerly SudShare), a nationwide peer-to-peer marketplace often called the 'Uber for laundry,' which connects customers with independent Laundry Pros across 500+ markets and 8,000 zip codes. Before laundry, he spent two decades as a globally known relationship expert and author of the Marriage Fitness system, used by millions in marital crisis and the subject of the documentary 'Back from the Brink.' He started Poplin in 2018 alongside his teenage triplet sons after his wife, drowning in laundry for their five kids, asked why she was still washing clothes like her grandmother.