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If Jeff Kuhn succeeds, Maui could play a key role manufacturing parts for the next generation of telecommunications, which Kuhn calls “an internet in space.”

And it’s more than a science fiction pipe dream. Kuhn’s startup,  is one of dozens of companies to benefit from the latest round of grants from the Hawaii Technology Development Corp., a state agency.

The $150,000 Hawaii Small Business Innovation Research grant gives the Kula-based company enough money to get started manufacturing high-tech mirrors that can be used in telescopes and satellites. 

And Kuhn isn’t alone. Last week, the HTDC announced it had awarded 99 grants totaling $5.7 million for a range of companies to promote economic development. Awardees include tech startups like MorphOptic; , an aerospace tech company; and Pacific Hybreed Inc., a shellfish aquaculture breeder.

HTDC awarded another 62 grants totaling $1.8 million to support manufacturers, mostly food processors, brewers and distillers. They included Manoa Honey Co., Koloa Rum Co., Lanikai Brewing Co. and Simonpietri Enterprises, which is working to process construction debris and plant waste into jet fuel and fertilizer.

The HTDC Manufacturing Assistance Program provides reimbursements of 20% of what small manufactuers invest in production facilities, up to $100,000.

“It’s huge help,” said Dave Yarber, owner of SKY Kombucha in Waimanalo. 

Yarber invested in two new fermenters and a canning line for his company, which has been making kombucha since 2011 and now finds itself competing in an increasingly crowded space against national companies. 

HTDC also provided nine grants totaling $1.9 million for business accelerators: , the , , , the , ,  and two affiliated with the group . 

Many of the HTDC’s  involve diversifying the state’s economy. They include helping to grow start-up companies and commercialize local innovation and technology.

No Political Drama This Time

But that’s not always been the vision some politicians have had for the agency. Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, the influential chairman of the Hawaii Senate Ways and Means Committee, has for years sought to get the HTDC to focus its attention — and many millions of taxpayer dollars — toward developing a massive new campus for first responders in his district.

Dela Cruz was so intent on pushing the project through during the 2023 legislative session that the senator initated a secretive, 11th-hour campaign to get rid of an HTDC board member who had openly questioned the project. In effect, Dela Cruz and his allies pushed through last-minute bill amendments to make legislative funding of the 2023 HTDC grants program contingent on axing the offending board member, Vassilis Syrmos, the University of Hawaii’s vice president for research and innovation.

In the end, Gov. Josh Green saved Syrmos’ board position by vetoing Dela Cruz’s bill and funded the grants program with discretionary money.

This past session, HTDC’s funding made it through the Legislature without the drama and intrigue of 2023.

In an interview, Syrmos said MorphOptic shows how the startup ecosystem, including university research and the HTDC grant programs, can work together.

“Jeff is the perfect example,” Syrmos said of Kuhn.

Hopes For A Maui Manufacturing Facility

A former UH astronomy professor who helped build ,  is essentially working to commercialize telescope technology for broader applications.

Now on leave from UH, Kuhn launched MorphOptics through a university business accelerator program and was able to land an equity investment from UH, Syrmos said.

Kuhn landed a $100,000 proof of concept grant from the U.S. Air Force to help fund research and another $1.25 million from the U.S. Space Force to continue the work and demonstrate the feasibility of making mirrors that are lighter, cheaper and better at concentrating and reflecting light.

“He has been extremely successful in funding the technology he developed,” Syrmos said.

One potential application is to concentrate sunlight and beam it onto photovoltaic panels to create more energy, Kuhn said. Another idea is to make bigger telescopes: Kuhn envisions being able to build a telescope with a 50-meter diameter array of mirrors thanks to the light, powerful mirrors. 

But perhaps most practical is being able to use the mirrors to send signals between space satellites, Kuhn said. That, he said, is essential for endeavors like SpaceX’s  and , which is deploying “thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit linked to a global network of antennas, fiber and internet connection points on the ground.”

“I think of it as just an internet in space,” said Kuhn, who said he spends about half the year at Spain’s , doing research funded by the European Union. 

MorphOptics now employs only five people, Kuhn said. But if the company keeps growing it could help Maui’s economy diversify, with the addition of a high-tech manufacturing company. 

“That’s the idea,” he said.

“Hawaii’s Changing Economy” is supported by a grant from the as part of its CHANGE Framework project.