Company

Dependably Powering Anywhere.

We are scientists, engineers, and creative business minds working together to make distributed electricity generation a reality. The era of the internal combustion engine is waning and Upstart is focused on providing high performance, low emission, and cost-effective fuel cell power solutions.

Headquartered outside Boston in Southborough, MA, Upstart Power is a growth-stage company, founded in 2018 by a team of serial entrepreneurs and fuel cell experts. The Upstart team is developing and commercializing solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technologies and products and changing the landscape of backup power and renewables-based generation for residential, small industrial, and remote power applications.

Upstart Power provides small SOFC generators that are cost effective, dependable, carbon – efficient and virtually silent as they convert propane or natural gas efficiently into electricity. Our products are specifically designed for cycling (many on/offs) and to operate only as needed, allowing them to pair seamlessly with storage for long – duration backup power or with solar and storage to provide 24/7/365 energy solutions.

Upstart partners with industry – leading companies to market, sell, deploy, and support its fuel cell products around the world. These partners include companies focused on residential solar deployment, backup power products, renewable power systems, remote industrial power generation, and telecommunications infrastructure.

The time is here for efficient and environmentally friendly backup power and distributed generation solutions. We are Upstart Power – delivering reliable power, on – demand, anywhere.

Backup power distribution generation for remote industrial application.

History

Upstart Power has a long and rich history in high-performance fuel cell technology and systems. Many of Upstart’s founders and employees were team members at Protonex Technology Corporation. Protonex was focused on Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, Solid Oxide (SOFC) fuel cells, and power management devices for military and commercial applications and operated privately and publicly (on London’s AIM exchange) from 2000 through 2015.

In 2015, Protonex was wholly acquired by Ballard Power (NASDAQ: BLDP) and the majority of the Protonex team remained in place as Ballard continued an impressive domestic and international growth trajectory in fuel cells.

In 2018, Ballard agreed to divest the entire SOFC portion of its business and sell it to the Protonex founders in a management buyout. Upstart Power became a reality when that transaction closed later that year.

Building internal Upgen components.

TEAM

Paul Osenar

President & CEO

Dr. Osenar has extensive experience in commercializing technology, having worked for upstart power and it’s predecessor company, Protonex since 2000. He was appointed CEO of that company in 2010 and was instrumental in the sale to Ballard Power Systems in 2015. His primary area of expertise is with fuel cells, having been named in over 50 issued and pending patents. Dr. Osenar received a B.S. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Illinois.

Nathan Palumbo

CTO

Mr. Palumbo has a background in mechanical design, technology, and product development. Before joining Upstart Power, Mr. Palumbo worked at NASA’s Dryden flight research center, at Gentex corporation, and at the University of Tennessee Space Institute. Mr. Palumbo has earned multiple patents through his work in transforming SOFC technology from continuous production to intermittent power delivery, including those in fuel cell heat transfer, fuel reactor design, and mechanical systems. Mr. Palumbo holds a B.S. from Penn State University and M.S. from Purdue University, both in Mech. Eng.

David Aubrey

VP, Finance

Mr. Aubrey has been working with the Upstart team for the past 6 years, first as controller for Protonex. Mr. Aubrey has worked for a variety of enterprises including start-ups and large, multinational companies. He holds a B.S. in accounting from the University of Massachusetts.

Rich Flathers

VP, Software & Electronics

Mr. Flathers has over 25 years of technical and leadership experience in all facets of software engineering and product development, including at Startek inc, where he led software development, at 3com where he was director of engineering and at Scope Communications where he was Chief Software Architect. Mr. Flathers holds a Sc.B. in electrical engineering from Brown University and has been awarded a patent by the USPTO in the area of software architecture.

Georg Bettenhauser

VP, Business Development

Mr. Bettenhauser comes to Upstart with over 25 years of experience in the sales, business development, channel management, commercial partnerships, and marketing of innovative high-tech products. His substantial go-to-market expertise within the renewable energy space is now squarely aimed at increasing the pace and impact of Upstart’s expanding product portfolio on a fast-growing universe of partnership & business opportunities.

Darren Hickey

VP, Fuel Cell Technology

Darren Hickey brings over 25 years of expert innovation experience in fuel cells and energy storage to the Upstart Power team. He most recently, Darren was the Director of Fuel Cell Technologies at Cummins, leading a team of expert engineers driving innovation and development of heavy-duty fuel cells as well as the Principal Investigator on multiple DOE awarded programs. Prior to Cummins, Darren was Product Design Leader at GE Fuel Cells developing SOFC systems including the base cell and stack architecture that went into pilot production. As Co-Founder of EnerVault, he built a team of engineers for the development and scale-up of an advanced flow battery for grid scale energy storage. Earlier in his career he was a member of the starting teams at Bloom Energy and Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited. Darren holds an M.S. Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona and a B.E. in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineer from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Ed Lieberman

VP, Sales

Mr. Lieberman joins Upstart Power with over 25 years of Go-to-Market leadership experience at high growth, clean energy companies. As the first member of SOFC maker, Bloom Energy’s sales team he helped ramp the company from 25 to 1,500 team members. Additionally, he was part of the executive team at Bidgely, Desalitech, and CustomerFirst Renewables and held contributor roles in venture capital and electric & gas utilities. He holds a B.S. ME from The University of Maryland and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Arthur Leach

VP, Supply Chain & Manufacturing

Mr. Leach joins Upstart Power with over 30 years of manufacturing, supply chain & operations experience. He has a demonstrated record of success in strategic and operational initiatives enabled by a focus on talent development, safety, quality, service, process improvement & cost reduction. Arthur has previously held executive leadership positions at Activ Surgical, Insulet and Covidien/Medtronic. Arthur received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Notre Dame and a B.A. from Stonehill College.

Joshua Chellappa

VP, Quality

Mr. Chellappa comes to Upstart Power with over 12 years of manufacturing experience managing multiple Quality, Supply Chain and Operation functions within the automotive, commercial vehicle manufacturing and industrial applications. Before joining Upstart Power, Joshua was the Vice President of Quality at EnerDel, Energy Storage Solutions, with an extensive expertise in Quality, Engineering, Operations and Supply Chain function ranging from Supplier Development Engineer to Continuous Quality Improvement Manager. His career spans a diverse realm of manufacturing organizations beginning with Cummins Diesel, Isringhausen Inc., Consolidated Metco, Shiloh – Dura Automotive. Joshua holds a B.S. M.E. from Anna University in India, M.E.M from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology located in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Investors

Upstart Power is a privately held venture backed company founded in late 2018 and funded by Rodgers Capital, Enphase Energy, Sunnova Energy and Itochu. For more information and to request details around potential investments in Upstart, please contact us at the form below.