A fuel cell prototype developed by GaltTec, a startup in NATO's accelerator, at the company's laboratory in Tartu, Estonia.
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Glen Kelp was visiting a startup fair last May in Estonia to scout for support for his new company, when he walked past an unexpected booth. It was from NATO. The military alliance was recruiting for its very first business accelerator.
Kelp knew the defense industry was paying more attention to technology startups — he lives in Tartu, a small Estonian city a few hundred miles from the Russian border. But that interest seemed relegated to sensors and weapons, not his field. The physicist had recently left academia with a research lab experiment: he and two colleagues had devised a method for building incredibly fine ceramic tubes, as thin as human hair, that could form lighter, more energy-efficient versions of the fuel cells used to power electronics or grids. The researchers formed a business, called GaltTec, to market their invention.