US-listed industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE) has closed the second round of its clean-tech investment competition with 15 home energy technology companies receiving $63m.
The 10 partner technologies receiving most of the $63m are:
- Ember, a wireless communications technology connecting devices, homes and the grid that previously raised $89m from venture capital (VC) firms and strategic partners Chevron Technology Ventures, Stata Venture Partners, STMicroelectronics and Hitachi and university Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
- GMZ Energy, which provides a heat-to-electricity converter to capture solar energy and in April received $7m of a planned $13m series C round funding from VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), oil major BP’s Alternative Energy division and Japan-based financial services group Mitsui Ventures;
- Hara, a software provider for reducing energy, water, waste and carbon that last month raised $25m in its series C round with participation from Energy Technology Ventures (ETV), a $300m corporate venturing fund set up earlier this year with backing from industrial conglomerate GE, utility NRG Energy and oil major ConocoPhillips, Itochu Technology Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Japan-based conglomerate Itochu, and VC firms Focus Ventures, KPCB, Jafco Ventures, Nth Power and Navitas Capital;
- Nuventix, that operates light-emitting diode cooling system SynJet and raised $32.5m across three rounds including $18m in its series C closed in April 2009 from VC firms Braemar Energy Ventures, CenterPoint Ventures, InterWest Partners and RHO Ventures and Uniquest of Korea;
- On-Ramp Wireless, which provides the Ultra-Link Processing wireless communications system;
- Project Frog, which makes pre-fabricated green buildings and raised $6.5m in January according to its regulatory filing and $5.2m 12 months earlier;
- SunRun, a provider of residential solar services that has $400m in bank finance and $85m of equity from VC firms Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Foundation Capital;
- Viridity, a virtual power plant that in January raised an undisclosed amount from semiconductor maker Intel and VC firm Braemar for its series B round;
- VPhase, which makes a household energy control device; and
- WiTricity, a wireless charging solution for electric vehicles and consumer electronics.
A further five companies received $100,000 each for winning GE’s Innovation Awards:
- E.quinox, a UK-based company for renewable energy for developing countries, such as Rwanda where 96% of households have had no electricity since its civil war;
- PlotWatt, for smart meter analysis that also closed $1m in seed funding led by VC firm Felicis Ventures at the same time as winning the award;
- Pythagoras Solar, an Israel-based company making renewable windows and that raised $10m in February 2008 from VC firms Israel Cleantech Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital and Evergreen Venture Partners having been incubated within Precede Technologies;
- Suntulit, for climate control systems; and
- Xergy, which makes noiseless, green refrigeration systems.
GE has also decided to set up a regional competition in China, provided $5m for a seed fund in Europe with clean-tech group Carbon Trust, partnered with US-listed retailer Best Buy to help winners get their products to market more quickly and committed another $20m for scaling and commercializing ideas through an Ecomagination Innovation Council.
Along with four VC firms, GE launched its $200m Ecomagination Challenge last summer to find nascent businesses in the electric grid but for the second round, called Powering Your Home, extended it to entrepreneurs working on people’s homes and sorted through 5,000 submissions.
Through the Ecomagination Challenge, GE and its VC partners, RockPort Capital, Foundation Capital, KPCB and Emerald Technology Ventures, have now invested $134m, struck 22 commercial partnerships and made one acquisition – Ireland-based provider of real-time power line monitoring services FMC-Tech last month.
In November, GE invested $55m in a dozen companies identified through its open innovation Ecomagination competition, including FMC-Tech.
Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at GE, which plans to invest $10bn by 2015 through the broader Ecomagination plan, said: "After one year and $134m committed to new partners, we delivered on our goal to scale and commercialize the best new ideas through open innovation.
"The power of networked ideas, collaboration and partnerships to accelerate innovation represents a gathering force whose impact will be a significant driver in the future of business."
Mark Vachon, vice-president of Ecomagination, added: "The Challenge is now an established platform at GE. Looking ahead, we’ll continue to accelerate growth through new partnerships and an additional commitment of $20m to fund commercial pilots with innovators we have found through the Challenge. The Challenge has also changed how we do business at GE – we learned that accelerating open innovation across public, private and national borders can drive shared value for the company and its partners."
GE’s 2010 target of investing $1.5bn a year in new products tied to the Ecomagination plan was reached a year early, GE said.