Waseca business receives state innovation grant aimed at helping start-ups grow

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Design in Design Innovation | 0 Comments

WASECA, Minn. (KEYC) – A Waseca company is one of 17 start-ups in the state to receive innovation grant funding from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Mike Hermel is the CEO of Vortrex, which designs eco-friendly electric terrain vehicles for industrial purposes.

“It’s a vehicle that runs on electric motors. It has tracks, so it’ll be very quiet, very friendly for the environment. Very small carbon footprint,” Hermel said.

“We’re also looking at different things for example, search and rescue in mountains and even around here need be. And then also like firefighting type apparatus,” he said.

DEED awarded over $450,000 in this round of Launch Minnesota Innovation Grants to start-ups like Vortrex.

“We officially kicked off in October of 2019. This initiative is to help accelerate start-ups and really grow Minnesota’s innovation ecosystem,” Mollgaard said.

Since the company is starting from the ground up, Hermel said the money will help him start developing his first set of products.

Holly Bernstein is a multimedia journalist, weekend anchor, and producer at KEYC News Now. She began her career at KEYC in May 2019.