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About Owlfly LLC
Owlfly LLC is a for-profit company based in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Our mission is to develop cutting-edge sustainable technologies and publications from idea to market. We recognize both the urgency of the global climate crisis and the great potential of engineered solutions.
Why "Owlfly"?
Owlflies are insects in the subfamily Ascalaphinae. Many have beautiful colored wings like butterflies, even though the two groups of insects are not closely related. Owlflies represent a new and offbeat path to brilliance - at once strange and wonderful - which is exactly what we strive for.
History
2020
Chris Alice "Alie" Kratzer founded Owlfly LLC in August 2020 as an opportunity to develop, produce, and market sustainable technologies and publications that demonstrate a high potential to fight back against biodiversity loss and the climate crisis.
2021
Alie hired two engineers to help with design and experimentation: Olivier Montmayeur and Liv Breglia. The team worked hard to develop several new products and technologies in parallel, with the intent to produce and market whatever worked best. The team made significant progress towards several projects, including a portable wind turbine, cardboard boxes made from pond algae, and a brand-new type of structural insulation that the team named YellowJacket™. The insulation was ASTM certified at 4.0 R/in, which places it on par with high-end fiberglass.
2022
Owlfly LLC split into two divisions: Owlfly Engineering and Owlfly Publishing. Owlfly Publishing launched a field guide about wasps called The Social Wasps of North America to critical acclaim. The publishing division broke even within 3 months of its first publication. Automation engineer Zoey Katz joined Owlfly Engineering to improve our insulation manufacturing capability with custom robotics.
2023
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Owlfly LLC $275,000 to aid in the research and development of YellowJacket™ insulation. Project information can be found here. The money will be used to fund the development of better automated manufacturing equipment and scale YellowJacket™ production to meet market demand and lower cost for consumers. We also hired Mabel Fox as a laboratory assistant.
A prototype wind turbine developed by Owlfly LLC in 2021. The design was inspired by the way crinoids swim through water.
Alie and her first book, The Social Wasps of North America, which established her as one of the youngest published field guide authors in history.
And we're just getting started!