DBL Investors News
DBL Investors News
Bay Area Equity Fund announces support for the California Clean Tech Open
April 20, 2006
Inaugural competition challenges Californians to compete for green and features nation’s largest prize devoted to environmentally conscious technology development
SAN FRANCISCO, April 20, 2006 - Organizers today announced that the inaugural California Clean Tech Open is now accepting business proposals as committed during a press conference hosted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on March 21, 2006. The competition will select the winning proposals here in September and award the nation’s largest cash and service prize devoted to innovations that have a positive impact on the environment.
"JPMorgan’s Bay Area Equity Fund is strongly committed to investing in the clean tech sector, as we feel that clean tech companies are a natural fit with our double-bottom line approach to venture capital investing. We seek to provide market rates of return to our investors while bringing positive social and environmental benefits to the community, and clean tech fits the bill on both fronts. For example, our Fund is an active investor in PowerLight, a leading designer and installer of grid-connected solar electric systems and energy efficiency services, which is helping to establish the Bay Area as a leader in clean tech development. We are honored to sponsor the inaugural California Clean Tech Open, which we believe will help cultivate innovative new entrants in this growing category as well as create a more sustainable future." said Nancy Pfund, co-Managing Director of the Bay Area Equity Fund.
Venture capital firms invested more than $1.5 billion in clean technology companies in 2005. The wave of innovation in clean tech rivals the early days of similar technology growth drivers in California, including the semiconductor, personal computer and Internet. Initiated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Club of Northern California (MITCNC), and quickly joined by Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley, as well as charter partners Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Horn Murdock Cole, A&R Partners, and Plug & Play Real Estate, the California Clean Tech Open will help turn ideas into real businesses, creating new jobs as part of the expanding clean tech economy in California.
"Our objective is quite simply to act as an innovation catalyst in helping the 21st century become the Clean Tech age, and California the leader in making it happen said Laurent Pacalin and Mike Santullo, co-chair of the competition and market-based environmental entrepreneurs. " We are very fortunate to have visionary leaders in the Venture Capital community, key contributors in creating the new wave of innovation in California for a more sustainable future.
The competition encourages professionals and students throughout the state to submit proposals and compete for prizes in five categories: California Investor Owned Utilities Energy Efficiency Prize, AMD Smart Power Prize, Lexus Transportation Prize, Agora Foundation Water Management Prize, and the Renewable Energy Prize, which has yet to be named. Judges selected from an elite panel of experts—including venture capitalists, researchers and faculty from the state’s leading universities and research laboratories and leading industrialists from related sectors—will select a winner in each category and an overall winner.
California’s economic sustainability is threatened by the increasing global competition for natural resources. Thus, making more efficient use of today’s energy and water resources, and harnessing new resources that are more plentiful, less expensive to produce, and less harmful to society is absolutely critical. The California Clean Tech Open addresses these challenges by moving innovative technical solutions from concept to reality.
About The CaliforniaClean Tech Open
The mission of the California Clean Tech Open is to encourage the development of clean technology companies that foster a healthy natural environment — companies that provide environmental benefits in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency, pollution reduction and resource protection, and conservation. The competition will also serve as a platform to educate the public, as well as the participants, about the environmental challenges we face and new technologies that can provide solutions to those challenges. The inaugural competition opens in April 2006, and winners will be announced in September at a finals event in the Bay Area. The best plan submitted from five categories—Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Smart Power, Transportation, and Water Management—will be awarded a bundle of prizes to create a sustainable business. Prize sponsors to date include: Energy Efficiency – Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas Company, and San Diego Gas and Electric; Smart Power – AMD; Transportation – Lexus; Water Management – Agora Foundation, led by President Wynnette LaBrosse. The competition was initiated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Club of Northern California (MITCNC) with charter partners Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Horn Murdock Cole, A&R Partners, and Plug & Play Real Estate.
A group of entrepreneurs and technologists from Silicon Valley—Derry and Charlene Kabcenell, Mark Farley, Frank H. Levinson, Geoff Ralston, and Michael and Amy Santullo—have generously provided the charter funding to launch the competition. The 2006 Host City is the City of San Francisco. Venture capital partners are Advanced Technology Ventures, Chevron Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Foundation Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Venrock Associates, and JPMorgan’s Bay Area Equity Fund. Innovation partners include Electric Power Research Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Palo Alto Research Center, SRI International, and Technology Ventures Corporation. Competition partners include Clean Edge and Clean Tech Venture Network. University partners include: the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley; Berkeley Institute for the Environment; Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students; Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University; Stanford Graduate School of Business Environmental Management Club; and Stanford Graduate School of Business Energy Club. Competition supporters include California Clean Energy Fund, Environmental Entrepreneurs, CalPERS, and Natural Resources Defense Council. The competition co-chairs are Laurent Pacalin and Michael Santullo.
Acterra: Action for a Sustainable Earth, a California 501(c)3 non-profit public benefit corporation (Tax ID 23-7064937) is the administrative and fiscal sponsor of the 2006 California Clean Tech Open legally responsible for the activities of the competition. Acterra is located at 3921 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303-4303.
Additional details about the program are available at www.CaCleanTech.com.