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Social Entrepreneurs Can Receive Up to $90,000 with Echoing Green; Apply Starting December 2, 2014

Echoing Green

December 2, 2014 is the date that applications open for the 2015 Echoing Green Fellowship. Echoing Green provides seed funding for social entreprenuers to launch new organizations.  Thusfar, Echoing Green has invested more than $36 million in seed funding to more than 600 social entrepreneurs and their organizations. 

Here are some helpful links for those considering applying:

* Learn more about the Echoing Green Fellowship Programs: echoinggreen.org/fellowship

* Sign up to receive information and application support: echoinggreen.org/appsignup

* Visit the Echoing Green Application Guidance page to prepare: echoinggreen.org/fellowship/application-guidance

Below are videos that provide some background on the Echoing Green Fellowship.

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Garage Technology Ventures Announces New Cleantech Investment Program

Garage Technology Ventures

Garage Technology Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital fund, announced earlier this week that it is is partnering with global corporate investors to launch a new investment program in the U.S.  

The initial investment focus of this new program are technologies of strategic interest to Garage’s corporate partners in the areas of materials science, energy technologies, advanced chemistry, and clean technologies. Investments will range from $500,000 to $5 million.

“Corporate investors see the need to participate more aggressively in the new venture ecosystem,” said Bill Reichert, managing director of Garage Technology Ventures. “At the same time, global strategic investors can bring a lot more than just money to an emerging technology company, if the relationship is managed correctly. The result is a win-win for entrepreneurs and for corporations.”

Additional information on this new program is available here. Interested companies can submit their executive summaries to Garage at summary [at] garage.com

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December 17 is Application Deadline for Southern California Clean Energy Technology Acceleration Program

A brief note — December 17 is the deadline for the Southern California Clean Energy Technology Acceleration Program. Selected Fellows win up to $40,000 in funding to commercialize their technologies as well as advisory services.  A brief overview of the program is listed below — complete information is available here

The von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering in conjunction the Rady School of Management, San Diego State University, CONNECT and CleanTech San Diego announce the launch of the Southern California Regional Renewable Energy Technology Acceleration Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

This program is intended to accelerate the commercialization of novel renewable energy technologies developed within research institutes and universities throughout the Southern California region.

Selected science and engineering graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from local universities or research institutes will each be awarded a fellowship of $40,000 to be used to support one or more than one graduate student and/or postdoctoral researcher on the selected project. The von Liebig Fellows will collaborate with MBA students from either the Rady School of Management at UCSD or San Diego State University and will receive business mentoring from the von Liebig Center's Technology and Business Advisors (worth an estimated $15,000) providing practical training on technology commercialization.

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Green VC Launches Green Crowdfunding Website, GreenFundraising.org

Update 5/3/2016 – Please do not send proposals until 5/9/2016.

Green VC announced today that is has launched GreenFundraising.org.  This site is an online platform to support projects that focus on environmental or social responsibility.

Entrepreneurs and non-profits can seek funding from the public (referred to as “crowdfunding”) by posting a project on GreenFundraising.org. Projects can offer rewards to contributors, but the website isn't intended for soliciting equity investment.

If you would like to have your project featured on GreenFundraising.org please submit an introductory e-mail containing the following information:

  • Organization name
  • Project summary
  • Amount of funding sought
  • Type of rewards/benefits that you could offer contributors
  • Date you’d like to start your funding campaign

You can send this information to crowdfund <at> greenvc.org

For some background on crowdfunding, a video from a June panel Crowdfunding: Disrupting Traditional Funding Models presented by the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab is provided below. This panel features:

  • Carl Esposti, Founder at Crowdsourcing.org (moderator)
  • Slava Rubin, CEO & Co-Founder at Indiegogo
  • Ryan Caldbeck, CEO, CircleUp
  • Daniel Zimmermann, Partner, WilmerHale 
  • Don Ross, Managing Director/Founder and Board Member, HealthTech Capital and Sand Hill Angels

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Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition to Award More than $1 Million

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.

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Greenstart Accepting Applications for Fall 2012 and Will Offer Additional $100K Per Startup

Greenstart

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.

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Green VC Adds Listing of Crowdfunding Sources

Green VC has recently added a list of crowdfunding sources to the Green Funding Sources section. Crowdfunding websites enable entrepreneurs, non-profits, and their supporters to solicit funds from individuals ("the crowd") via the internet.

Green VC thanks Rob Stewart, a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in Urban Sustainability at the Antioch University of Los Angeles, for his work in developing the initial version of this list.  If you have feedback or suggestions please send an e-mail to info [at] greenvc.org

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True North Venture Partners Announces Launch With $300 Million Greentech Fund

True North Venture Partners

True North Venture Partners announced this week the launch of its new venture capital company along with its $300 million greentech fund. Founded by Michael Ahearn, former CEO of First Solar, the company said the fund would be used to invest primarily in early stage companies in the energy, water, agriculture and waste industries. Investments will range from $100,000 to $25 million.

“We are focused on sectors where the global problems are pressing, the need for disruptive innovation is great and the challenges faced by early stage entrepreneurs and investors are particularly daunting,” said Ahearn. “Our goal is to identify exceptionally talented entrepreneurs with the vision, drive and business potential to significantly improve the world and help them realize their ambitions.”

“We are assembling a team of partners and advisors who combine successful investment experience with proven track records in developing start-up businesses into significant enterprises,” said Ahearn. “We can help entrepreneurs navigate the obstacles that they will inevitably face in fundamentally transforming global industries.”

True North Venture Partners, which has offices in Chicago, IL and Phoenix, AZ, has officially begun operations and expects to be fully staffed by the end of 2011.

For more information:

– This post was written by Rob Stewart, a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in Urban Sustainability at the Antioch University of Los Angeles, and edited by Leonard Adler, Founder and Publisher of Green VC.