![bluetech valley bluetech valley](https://images.slideplayer.com/42/11465338/slides/slide_4.jpg)
“If we are to truly enable the clean energy transition, we need to be aware of the impact we have on communities that have historically been left behind or bear the brunt of the impact of climate change.” “I love how the program encourages diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Zora Chung, Co-Founder of ReJoule, a company from the second CalSEED cohort. ReJoule, a cleantech startup that designs and builds battery diagnostics to enhance performance of lithium batteries and founded by a brother and sister from an immigrant family, is one of them. Nearly $9M have been awarded to entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups through the program. “The availability of a moderate amount of funding in the early stage of a technology startup is so critical as it could very well mean the difference between continuing forward and closing shop.”ĬalSEED’s approach starts with ‘social equity in, social equity out’, by which we encourage a diverse pool of applicants and equitable clean energy solutions that are accessible to everyone.
![bluetech valley bluetech valley](https://i2.wp.com/oem-radio.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/a3448929178_16.jpg)
#Bluetech valley software#
“Without CalSEED, we would have spent a significant amount of time for fundraising that would have distracted the team from focusing on developing our technology and refining it with our early customers,” said Cheng Jin of Powerflex, a software company that enables workplaces to support mass EV charging using renewable energy and was acquired by EDF Renewables in 2019. Several CalSEED awardees have proven this model successful by raising large sums of money in seed round investing, including Cuberg and Coreshell from CalSEED’s 3 rd cohort and Gridware from the 4 th cohort, who just last month raised $5.3M for their wildfire prevention technology. The CalSEED program is designed to incubate key energy innovations across the “valleys of death” and readies them for equity investment and full-scale commercialization. Since 2017 a total of 97 start-ups have received around $20M. In 2020 for the fourth cohort, 28 companies were selected for an award. Over the past 5 years, CalSEED has successfully funded 4 cohorts of entrepreneurs developing break-through technologies for California in the Concept ($150,000) and Prototype ($450,000) stage through non-dilutive funding up to $600,000. “The Energy Commission is proud to partner with New Energy Nexus with the next round of CALSEED funding and to help these innovators bring new clean energy technologies to life.”
![bluetech valley bluetech valley](https://www.ptgwe.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/bluetech-forum-2016.jpg)
“The CALSEED program has been successful in helping entrepreneurs working on promising climate solutions to get the support they need to scale up,” said David Hochschild, Chairman of the CEC. Through the CalSEED initiative $25M will be deployed to back over 80 startups in coming years. CalSEED is funded through the CEC’s EPIC program which invests approximately $120M annually for innovative clean energy technologies and approaches benefiting the ratepayers of California’s three largest electric investor-owned utilities. Lindsey Roark – CA – The California Energy Commission (CEC) announced today that it has reauthorized funding for the California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development (CalSEED) program through 2025.