Atlanta-based General Electric Energy and its venture capital partners announced on June 23 that they will invest $63 million in ten innovative home energy technology companies – marking the second round of funding as part of the $200 million GE Ecomagination Challenge.
This phase of the Ecomagination Challenge, Powering Your Home, was launched in January as part of GE’s commitment to improve household energy efficiency through new technologies.
GE’s venture capital partners include Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and RockPort Capital and Carbon Trust (News - Alert).
The first round of Challenge funding, announced in 2010, provided $71 million to break-through technologies in energy storage, utility security, electric vehicle charging services, and energy management software – for a total of $134 to date. The Challenge has also produced 22 new commercial partnerships and resulted in the acquisition of FMC-Tech, a Houston-based company named by Fortune magazine as the World's Most Admired Oil and Gas Equipment, Service Company in 2010.
Mark Vachon, vice president of Ecomagination said, “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 $20 million 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.”
Going forward, GE will commit this additional $20 million for scaling and commercializing ideas from the Challenge through a new Ecomagination Innovation Council. GE and its VC partners plan to launch a region-specific Ecomagination Challenge in China later this year, as well as establishing a $5 million seed fund in Europe with Carbon Trust— to provide support for early stage ideas that need assistance getting off the ground. Carbon Trust, based in London, is an independent not-for-profit company set up by the UK government with support from business to take the lead on low carbon technology.
The $63 million in investments and commercial partnerships in phase two will go to ten new concepts from consumer clean tech sectors including solar, communications and software, and building efficiency. The list includes: Ember, Boston (communications and software),GMZ Energy, Waltham, Massachusetts (solar systems and services; co-investment with KPCB), Hara, San Mateo, California (Communications and software; co-investment with KPCB), Nuventix, Austin, Texas (building efficiency), On-Ramp Wireless, San Diego (communications and software) ,Project Frog, San Francisco (building efficiency; co-investment with RockPort Capital), SunRun, San Francisco (residential solar systems and services; co-investment with Foundation Capital) , Energy, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania (communications and software), VPhase, Manchester, UK (building efficiency) , and WiTricity, Watertown, Massachusetts (communications and software).
Chuck McDermott, general partner of RockPort Capital, said, “Over the past year, we have been impressed by the speed and power of the Ecomagination Challenge to bring the most promising smart grid and eco-home technologies to market. Our investment with GE in Project Frog’s green building solution will lead to cost-effective, energy-efficient buildings using the most sustainable materials and advanced technologies.”
In tandem with the investments, GE and Best Buy Co., Inc. are partnering to fast-track the commercial availability of two Challenge technologies — the VPhase home energy control device and the Suntulit air conditioning control system —so they can be ready for retail testing through select Best Buy (News - Alert) retail channels in the future. Best Buy, located in Richfield, Minnesota, is America’s largest consumer electronics retailer.
Neil McPhail, senior vice president of the new business customer solutions group at Best Buy said, “At Best Buy, we are committed to bringing new technologies to market and we praise GE’s Challenge as a groundbreaking way to accelerate new energy technologies to the marketplace. We look forward to working with GE and the Challenge winners to bring the latest technologies to consumers and encourage consumers to use technology in ways that help them save money and live more efficiently.”
Cheryl Kaften is an accomplished communicator who has written for consumer and corporate audiences. She has worked extensively for MasterCard (News - Alert) Worldwide, Philip Morris USA (Altria), and KPMG, and has consulted for Estee Lauder and the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspapers. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
