The Net Impact San Francisco Professional Chapter and Monitor Institute will present a program on May 22 entitled The Future of Philanthropy. This program will feature a panel of philanthropy professionals who will discuss trends in the field of philanthropy and what it is like to work for a philanthropic organization. Panelists will include
Stuart Burden (Monitor Institute)
Jason McBriarty (Levi Strauss Foundation and Levi Strauss & Co)
Angie Chen (S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation)
Kelly Bathgate (Tipping Point)
Rick Noguchi (James Irvine Foundation)
This program will take place from 7:00 - 9:00pm, May 22, 2012 at HUB SOMA, 901 Mission Street, Suite 105, San Francisco, CA 94103. Additional information and registration is available here.
On May 24, Sustainable Silicon Valley (SSV) will be holding the 2012 WEST (Water Energy Smart Technology) Summit. This program will bring together thought leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs from business, government, utilities and NGOs to collaborate on innovative solutions and implementation strategies to the impacts of climate change. Speakers will include:
Hon. Dave Jones, California State Insurance Commissioner
Hon. Hiroshi Inomata, Consul General of Japan in San Francisco
Zoe McMahon, Director, Social & Environmental Sustainability and Compliance, HP
Dr. Cristina Milesi, Senior Research Scientist, CSU/NASA Ames Research Center
Gosuke Nakae, VP & GM Mitsubishi International
Pavithra Mehta, Filmmaker and Author of "Infinite Vision"
This event will take place from 8:00am - 6:30pm at the Paul L. Locatelli, S.J. Student Activity Center, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053 (directions). Thanks to our friends at SSV, readers of Green VC can receive a 20% discount by using code "GOWEST6" (without the quotes) when registering.
On April 26, 2012, pariSoma (a collaborative loftspace for coworking, classes, and events in San Francisco) will present a CleanTech Mixer. This event will feature startups in the cleantech and sustainability sectors that will be demonstrating their services (complete list available here).
This program will be held from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at 169 11th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Thanks to our friends at pariSoma, readers of Green VC can receive a 10% discount by registering here.
Energy storage technologies of various kinds are making steady progress both from a performance and cost standpoint. Whether to shift load, ease the integration of the renewables or provide reliability services to the grid, new energy storage solutions are being deployed today to meet emerging challenges presented by increased renewable energy generation and opportunities presented by smart grid networks and new markets mechanisms. In 2012 are we on the cusp of a new industry or are we still a few years away?
Our distinguished panel will give an overview of the state of the market for energy storage solutions today and discuss emerging opportunities and technologies on the horizon.
Key market drivers and value propositions in various time scales
Energy storage technology of today and tomorrow – compressed air energy storage, lithium Ion and other chemistries, flow batteries, fly wheels, etc.
Policy & regulation issues that are defining new market opportunities and incentivizing adoption
Emerging business models and near term opportunities for grid level storage
Financing for technology development and project development
The event will bring together many of the key stakeholders driving the adoption of energy storage and developing and deploying new cutting solutions; academia and research, the public sector, utilities, investors and entrepreneurs.
Speakers will Include:
Hanns Anders, Claremont Creek Ventures
Lee Burrows, VantagePoint Venture Partners
Daidipya Patwa, PG&E
Moderated by: Khaled Shami, Nixon Peabody
This program will be held from 8:00 - 10:00 PM at Nixon Peabody, One Embarcadero Center - 18th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111. Thanks to our friends at SVForum, readers of Green VC can receive a 30% discount when registering online by entering code DATA12.
The 3rd Annual UC Hastings Cleantech Roundtable will take place on April 13 at the UC Hastings School of Law in San Francisco. Registration is free for this all-day event, which will features panels on topics including "Legal Issues in Launching a Cleantech Startup." The specific panels are:
Panel 1: Startup 101: Legal Issues in Launching a Cleantech Startup This panel will explore the numerous important legal issues facing cleantech startups. These topics will include: the main legal steps in establishing a cleantech business, including corporate structure, founders shares, compensation issues, and others; structuring early stage financing; the investor’s perspective, including how investors evaluate a business idea, pitching venture capitalists, trends in VC funding, and the amount of early stage funding available; and how to manage intellectual property, including patenting and protecting your business ideas.
Panel 2: Making the Desert Bloom: Key Issues in Developing Renewable Energy Projects This panel will address the unique legal challenges involved in developing a utility-scale renewable energy project. This panel will discuss: the governmental programs to incentivize renewable energy development; the unique risks inherent in renewable energy projects; how those risks are allocated in the key project contracts; negotiating the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA); and structuring financing for renewable energy projects.
Panel 3: The Legal Minefield: Mergers and Acquisitions in the Cleantech Industry This panel will address the current trend toward consolidation in the cleantech industry and how the parties can navigate what has been called a legal minefield of requirements on the way to successfully closing a deal. The topics will include: an update on recent M&A activity in the cleantech industry; an overview of the steps in the M&A process; common M&A deal structures; recent examples of successful cleantech transactions and how the parties evaluated the business case for the deal; negotiating the key terms of the M&A agreements; and legal requirements for public companies, including legal duties of corporate directors and compliance with federal securities laws.
Additional information and registration is available on the event website.
Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is an international business plan competition that targets mid-to-late-stage business start-ups with potential to generate an immediate impact on Michigan’s economy, as well as student concepts with longer-term business viability. The grand prize in this competition is $500,000 with other prizes to be awarded.
Complete eligibility and application information is available on the competition website. Applications are due August 8, 2012.
The agenda for this program is as follows: 6:00 - 6:30pm Doors Open and Early Networking 6:30 - 8:00pm Program 8:00 - 9:30pm Reception and Networking
This program will also include a "Regift Swap" Bring a regift. Take a regift. What is gathering dust at home may be just what someone else needs! Bring an unwrapped new, or gently used, regift (value $25 or under) to swap with others during the networking event. Unclaimed gifts will be donated to Housing Works.
This program will take place at: PricewaterhouseCoopers, 300 Madison Avenue, PwC Auditorium (SW Corner of 42nd Street). The cost for this program (includes networking reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvres) is $25 for CBSACNY, MCC Members & Students; $40 for non-members; $60 at the door.
Additional program information and registration is available here.
The 3rd Annual Silicon Valley Energy Storage Symposium will take place on Wednesday, May 30. A brief summary of this event is:
This symposium will bring together key participants — from the public and private sectors and from the academic and research communities — to engage in a discussion about energy storage and how we can move the industry forward in Silicon Valley.
The agenda will include updates on energy storage at the state and federal levels, as well as a fresh look at the local energy storage industry. The symposium will also include panel discussions about the role of storage on the grid in relation to transmission and generation, and the decision-making process for implementing storage technologies from an end-user perspective.
Featured speakers include:
Cheryl A. LaFleur - Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Steve Berberich - President and CEO, California Independent System Operator Corporation
Imre Gyuk - Energy Storage Research Program Manager, U.S. Department of Energy
This event will take place from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm at the Microsoft Auditorium in Mountain View, California (map). Thanks to our friends at Joint Venture Silicon Valley readers of Green VC can save $20 off the regular price on registration -- enter code "energy_partner" when registering online.
The fourth WaterVent conference will take place on May 11 in London. The program will feature educational sessions and presentations by water technology entrepreneurs to cleantech venture capitalists, private equity and corporate investors.
Thanks to our friends at WaterVent readers of Green VC can save 20% off registration with code "wv-london-ul". Complete conference information is available at http://www.WaterVent.com/
This event will feature three panels covering the design of innovative new products, the policy and financing barriers facing large-scale market entrants, and the sustainability of the material value chain. Following the panels will be a networking reception for attendees and panelists.
Keynote speeches will be delivered by Vinod Khosla, President of Khosla Ventures, and Elizabeth Littlefield, CEO and President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Other confirmed participants include Ashok Gadgil (Director, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs), Julian Wong (former DOE adviser), and Michael Kobori (VP of Supply Chain Social and Environmental Sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co.).
This program will be held at the Oberndorf Events Center and Vidalakis Dining Hall on the Stanford University Campus (directions).
Thanks to our friends at the Berkeley-Stanford CleanTech Conference, readers of Green VC can obtain a 15% discount on this program when registering online via this link.
The 4th Annual Global New Energy Summit will take place from Aoril 9 - 11 at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. This event will address opportunities and hurdles in the energy sector and feature representatives from science, industry, policy, and finance. The program will also include an International Expo featuring representatives from Mexico and Canada discussing their national energy policies. Speakers at this event will include:
Denis Hayes, Initial Organizer, Earth Day
Tom Daschle, Former Senate Majority Leader
Michael Bennet, US Senator, State of Colorado
Bob Bennett, Former US Senator, State of Utah
John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado
Brian Kelly, Editor and Chief Content Officer, U.S. News & World Report
Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, President, American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
Thanks to our friends at the Global New Energy Summit, readers of Green VC can receive a 20% discount on the registration price for this event. To receive the discount, please use code "SPON20" (without the quotes) when registering online. Further program information and registration can be found at:
Intersolar North America will take place from July 10-12 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. This event is a trade show and conference focusing on photovoltaics, solar thermal technology, and solar architecture.
Intersolar North America will include informative conference sessions and exhibit hall with hundreds of exhibitors. Until April 12 you can obtain a free exhibit hall pass by registering here.
The Cleantech Open Accelerator and Competition is now accepting applications its 2012 program. This business plan competition has awarded more than $5 million in cash and services to support cleantech startups since 2006.
Startups can submit entries in these categories - Air/Water/Waste, Energy Efficiency, Green Building, Renewable Energy, Smart Power/Green Grid/Energy Storage, and Transportation. The deadline to enter the 2012 competition is May 8th.
There will also be a National Launch Party on March 23rd at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. For more information:
MiaSolé, a Santa Clara, CA-based manufacturer of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic solar panels, announced earlier this month that it obtained $55 million in additional funding. As reported by Greentech Media, this funding came primarily from existing investors. The company's current investors include Voyageur Mutual Funds, Kleiner Perkins, Firelake Capital, and VantagePoint Venture Partners.
"This funding comes at a time when the company has begun production of 14% modules with the industry's lowest capex per watt, which is now under 50 cents. We are pleased that investors have demonstrated a powerful endorsement of our strategy and growing success in the market," said John Carrington, CEO of MiaSolé. "This additional investment will allow us to take the company to the next level and we are focused on aggressively building the commercial side of our business with both our traditional glass-on-glass and flexible products. We have demonstrated technology leadership and are now focused on commercial performance: our investors have responded to that.”
"MiaSolé is entering into an important time in its history," said Stephan Dolezalek, Managing Director at Vantage Point Capital Partners, on behalf of the MiaSolé board of directors. "It has the right strategy, the right technology and the right team to deliver a new benchmark in solar for cost, performance and capital efficiency with the enormous benefit of being able to compete in both the traditional glass and flexible panel markets."
"MiaSole’s ability to deliver 14 percent in production with demonstrated capability to achieve 17 percent further emphasizes the progress we are continuously making against our roadmap," said Carrington. "We are excited about the road ahead and our ability to deliver the true promise of thin film technology -enabling the lowest levelized cost of electricity for our customers."
MiaSolé has stated that it has installed more than 55MW of solar modules thusfar in a variety of projects in North America, Europe and Asia. You can learn more about the company in the following video.
On March 21, 2012, SVForum will present a program entitled The State of Clean Tech. A description of this program is as follows:
Investment in the U.S. Clean Tech industry went from $286 million in 2001 to $3.7 billion in 2010. In 2010, Clean Tech represented 17% of total VC investment in the United States. In the first quarter of 2011, venture investments in Clean Tech fell 44% compared with the first quarter of 2010. VCs seem to be more cautious about the sector. Of the $1.1 billion invested in the U.S. Clean Tech sector in the second quarter, 67% went to later-stage companies. So, given these dynamics, will venture firms be able to raise the money they need to make investments in clean energy? What, if anything, does Khosla Ventures’ recent success raising a $1.05 billion fund (50% earmarked for Clean Tech) portend for the venture investing in Clean Tech? And, will entrepreneurs be able to rely on venture capital? Our panel of clean technology VCs will address these important questions and yours.
Speakers will Include:
Steve Hahn, Sr. Research Scientist, The Dow Chemical Company
Ryan Kottenstette, Investment Staff, Khosla Ventures
Matt Nordan, Vice President, Venrock
Sven Stroban, Investment Team, Mohr Davidow Ventures
(moderator) Christina Ellwood, Principal, Moreland Associates
This program will be held from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM at 6140 Stoneridge Mall Road, Pleasanton, CA 94588. Thanks to our friends at SVForum, readers of Green VC can receive a $5 discount when registering onlinre by entering code EBSMarch-2012
The White House and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are inviting interested community members to attend a networking event on Thursday, March 22nd that will focus on cleantech, energy, and environmental startups in New England.
This event will take place from 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm at The Venture Café, One Broadway, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA. U.S. EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe and Regional Administrator Curt Spalding will be at the event from 3:00 - 5:00 pm hosting roundtables on the importance of environmental and cleantech innovation, start-ups, and small businesses in the current economy. U.S. EPA program staff will also be on hand networking with guests for the event's entirety.
For additional information on this program please contact Dan Abrams at <abrams.dan [at] epa.gov>
Greenstart, a cleantech startup accelerator, announced yesterday that it is accepting applications for its Fall 2012 accelerator program. The application deadline is April 11 (to have the best chance of getting into the program, Greenstart suggests applying by the early application deadline - March 22nd).
Greenstart is targeting cleantech startups with an IT / software component (completeeligibility information is available here). Entrepreneurs accepted into the program will receive $15,000 in seed funding (in exchange for 5% common stock), mentoring, and introductions to leading cleantech angel and venture capital investors. In addition, entrepreneurs will the option of an additional $100,000 convertible note. Additional program information is available here.
RelayRides, a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace, today announced that it is expanding its services nationwide. RelayRides enables car owners to rent their vehicles to members of their local communities and has received more than $13 million in venture capital funding from investors including Google Ventures and GM Ventures, August Capital, and Shasta Ventures.
RelayRides' national expansion is being made possible by its new "key-exchange" program, where car owners and renters arrange for an exchange of the vehicle's keys. Prior to today's announcement RelayRides had operated in Boston and San Francisco and required vehicle owners to install dedicated equipment from RelayRides. The company also announced in 2011 an exclusive relationship that will allow millions of GM vehicle owners to leverage the OnStar system to rent out their idle cars through the RelayRides marketplace, with no additional hardware installation needed.
"Since the day we first launched in Boston, we have received thousands of requests to expand into more communities," said RelayRides founder and chief community officer Shelby Clark. "Today, we are thrilled to be able to finally meet this demand. Now that RelayRides' marketplace is available across the nation, every eligible driver can participate in this green, simple and economically sensible answer to the traditional car ownership model."
Disclosure: The founder/publisher of Green VC (and author of this post) is a car owner that uses RelayRides.
VC Taskforce will present a Cleantech VC Pitch program on March 22, 2012. This event will provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs seeking start-up funding to deliver a two-minute pitch to a panel of cleantech investors. Participants at this event will able to observe the pitches and hear feedback from the panel.
If you are an entrepreneur currently seeking capital and would like to present a pitch at this event, please contact Ashish Mahashabde at amahashabde [at] gmail.com.
The moderaor for this program is Asaf Kharal (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati) and the investor panel is:
This event will take place from 6:30 - 8:30 pm at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, 650 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA. Thanks to our friends at VC Taskforce, readers of Green VC can obtain a discount on the registration price by selecting the "Affiliate Organizations" pricing when registering online.
SolarCityannounced earlier this week that it has raised $81 million in equity financing. The round was co-led by Silver Lake Kraftwerk and Valor Equity Partners, and included investments from Nicholas J. Pritzker, partner at Tao Ventures and senior development advisor for Hyatt Hotels Corp., and Shea Ventures, an affiliate of SolarCity partner Shea Homes. SolarCity Chairman Elon Musk and existing SolarCity investor DBL Investors also participated. The company stated that these funds will support SolarCity’s expansion of sales, marketing and operations, technology development and potential acquisitions.
“Individuals and organizations of all shapes and sizes are fed up with the growing cost and consequences of traditional energy,” said Lyndon Rive, SolarCity’s CEO. “This investment provides SolarCity the resources to explore new products and services and identify new geographies and potential acquisitions as we seek to deliver better energy choices to more customers.”
“SolarCity is the leader in its space,” said Raj Atluru, co-founder of Silver Lake Kraftwerk. “The company’s unique, vertically-integrated model, paired with incentives and falling technology costs, allows it to provide solar electricity to customers at lower rates than they pay for utility power. We’ve thoroughly analyzed SolarCity’s full-service approach to solar and energy efficiency and we believe it has the ability to deliver superior customer experience and service across multiple sectors.”
“SolarCity is making clean energy more accessible and affordable, and we’re excited for the opportunity to invest in its operations,” said Antonio Gracias, CEO of Valor Equity Partners. Valor is also an investor in Tesla Motors.
According to Dow Jones VentureWire, SolarCity had raised $121 million in equity prior to this round (see prior Green VC coverage for some of these earlier investments). There have also been numerous reports that SolarCity is considering an IPO.
