HARRISON, Ark. (Oct. 16, 2012) — reBounces, an Arkansas startup that created the world’s first bulk tennis ball repressurizing device, has advanced to the finals of the national Cleantech Open, a business accelerator competition for green companies.
The firm recently won Cleantech’s South Central regional competition held in Austin, Texas, to earn the right to compete in the national finals, scheduled for Nov. 8-9 in San Jose, Calif. The regional win earned reBounces a top prize of $10,000 in cash, and it will compete at nationals for $250,000 in cash and services.
reBounces is among roughly 20 finalists narrowed down from more than 300 U.S. companies that began the competition. The firm’s product, the Green Tennis Machine, has been proven to benefit tennis facilities by cutting new tennis ball purchases by 50 percent and greatly reducing landfill impacts. The Green Tennis Machine is covered by multiple U.S. patents and pending patents.
reBounces co-founder Cannon Fletcher called the trip to Cleantech nationals a true “feather in the cap” for his firm. Bringing new life to old tennis balls may not come to mind immediately when one thinks of going green, but Fletcher believes reBounces can have a huge environmental impact.
“We’ll be the biggest outlier of anybody there,” Fletcher said of the competition at nationals. “But we think we have a really strong position in the clean tech world.”