Ben Franklin Technology gives five grants totaling $150,000

The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Board of Directors recently approved the investment of $150,000 in support of regional economic development. Five early-stage companies received funding.

Molcube, LLC, Bethlehem, Northampton County, received $50,000 to develop and configure the CubeBuilder platform, a set of software tools for molecular modeling and simulations of complex biological and nanomaterial systems. Initial applications will be in the pharmaceutical sector, followed by the materials sciences market.

Polytek Development Corp., Easton, Northampton County received $25,000 to determine requirements for a new Enterprise Resource Planning system and identify a vendor and software package that most appropriately meets company needs to maximize its manufacturing footprint and output and optimize production. Polytek produces liquid rubbers and plastic coating resins based on polyurethane, silicone, and epoxy chemistries for business-to-business markets.

American Paper Bag, LLC, Sugar Notch, Luzerne County received $10,000, to review facility options and recommendations for continued growth. American Paper Bag is a leading U.S.-based producer of customizable and environmentally friendly paper bags and sells to some of the largest retail and e-commerce companies.

Martz Technologies, Inc., Berwick, Columbia County received, $40,000 to optimize energy usage, manpower, and extend equipment life for municipal water and wastewater entities using Artificial Intelligence models and advanced data analytics. The VZRscada solution integrates hardware, software and communications technologies to control, monitor and optimize critical community infrastructure.

Production Systems Automation, LLC, Duryea, Luzerne County, received $25,000 to provide facility planning and layout optimization for a plant expansion. The company produces turnkey automation solutions for the manufacturing and military sectors. The company is a systems integrator with full engineering and manufacturing capabilities focused on packaging and materials handling solutions.