New York-listed industrial conglomerate General Electric said its clean-tech corporate venturing fund had invested $55m in a dozen companies identified through its open innovation competition.
Along with four venture capital firms, GE launched its $200m Ecomagination Challenge in the summer to find nascent businesses in the electric grid.
GE said it and the four VCs, RockPort Capital, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Emerald Technology Ventures, had collaborated on sourcing deals, but each firm could decide whether to invest in the clean-tech entrepreneurs. GE said it would invest $45m in the 12deals, with the remainder coming from the VCs, according to news provider VentureWire.
Out of the 12 partnerships formed with Ecomagination contestants, two US-based companies have had VC co-investments. Rockport has invested alongside GE in SustainX through the challenge while Foundation Capital and GE backed Sentient Energy.
The other deals are: Sweden-based ClimateWell, Ireland’s FMC-Tech and US-based companies Consert, JouleX, OPower, Scientific Conservation, SecureRF, Soladigm and SynapSense. The final contestant backed in the first four months was a collaboration with the Fu Foundation School for Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University in New York.
The 12 were chosen out of 70,000 entries. Per Olofsson, chief executive of ClimateWell, said: "Collaboration with GE and its VC partners gives us the jump-start we need to help bring ClimateWell’s technology to scale faster and reach new markets."
Jeff Immelt, GE’s executive chairman, said: "The Ecomagination Challenge has delivered on our commitment with partners to drive innovation and investment through collaborative action.
"We are working with these new partners to accelerate the development and deployment of these concepts on a scale that will help drive a cleaner, more efficient and economically viable grid. The partnerships formed through this Challenge represent a new way of doing business at GE as we continue to expand our broad digital energy offering in the growing power grid market."
GE expects these electric grid markets of energy storage, utility security, energy management software and electric vehicle charging services would become a $20bn business sector by 2015.