Rachel Burton

Rachel Burton is a technology commercialization counselor based at UNC-Chapel Hill and is co-located with UNC KickStart Venture Services. She brings 15 years of experience building start-up companies and commercializing technologies in the agriculture and energy sectors in addition to five years focused on product innovation and team management at a top-tier global biotechnology firm.

Burton was a co-founder and owner of Piedmont Biofuels Industrial, a premier renewable fuels company in North Carolina. At Piedmont, she authored, won, and administered over 10 state and federal grants, including serving as a principal investigator (PI) for multiple Phase I and Phase II SBIR awards. Previously, Burton’s work on biotechnology advancement in renewable fuels was awarded the i2i Innovation award at South by Southwest (SXSW), a United States Biodiesel Researcher of the Year and was nominated for the Presidential EPA Green Chemistry Award. As an experienced ag-tech entrepreneur, she is passionate about helping other small businesses that are investing in the clean energy and sustainable agriculture or impacting climate change with biological solutions.