Alumni

Student-Led Startup Aclarity LLC Nets $225,000 from NSF Small Business Program

Aclarity co-founders Julie Bliss Mullen and Barrett Mully (right) are pictured with Isenberg School of Management vice dean Tom Moliterno at the Valley Venture Mentors event on May 24.
Aclarity co-founders Julie Bliss Mullen and Barrett Mully (right) are pictured with Isenberg School of Management vice dean Tom Moliterno at the Valley Venture Mentors event on May 24.

Aclarity LLC, a startup water technology company founded by civil engineering Ph.D. student Julie Bliss Mullen and Barrett Mully, a spring MBA graduate of the Isenberg School of Management, was recently awarded $225,000 by the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant program.

The company, which developed a method for purifying water with electricity, won $26,000 in seed funding in the Berthiaume Center’s Innovation Challenge last year, has garnered additional financial support in recent months, including $27,500 from the Valley Venture Mentors Accelerator in May. In April, Aclarity was awarded $65,000 from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center in April to develop five prototypes using its patent-pending electrochemical technology.  

After incorporating under Aclarity in May 2017 and the start of a collaboration with industry leader Watts Water Technologies, Inc. for the residential market, the venture also participated in Berthiaume’s inaugural Summer Accelerator last summer.