VentureWire reported today that CoalTek, a Georgia-based developer of clean burning coal technology, has raised an additional $33 million in its third round of outside capital. The investment deal was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, but also included participation by Warburg Pincus, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ Element and Braemar Energy Partners. Draper was also one of the earlier investors.

CoalTek’s technology converts “low rank” coals into high-rank, clean coal alternative fuels for use by coal-fired electric utilities.

Total # of Georgia VCs in the deal: 0

My guess is they weren’t invited to the dance, but who knows. There seems to be a lot of this going around lately, for reasons I’ll probably blog about sooner or later.

CoalTek is one of those rare companies that has attracted a substantial amount of venture capital, yet has one of the worst web sites I have ever seen for a business. They are running DotNetNuke, and you actually have to create an account on the web site to even see basic information about the company. And today, the web site wasn’t even functioning (blank page). Hopefully, they’ll take some of their newly raised capital and put it towards the development of a viable online presence.

In any event, this company is seriously chopping wood and solving a real problem.  There are lots of people running around trying to solve the energy problems through the creation of new energy sources.  But this country is still powered largely by coal, and CoalTek has developed a way to do that cleaner and more efficiently. With Draper behind them now in two rounds, they are poised to explode.
Cheers.

In case you weren’t aware, this week (Feb 24th through March 3rd) is EntrepreneurshipWeek USA, sponsored by the Kaufmann Foundation.

According to the official web site, there are a number of events happening here in Georgia.

The sad part is, I just learned about it today (the 25th). Whoever was responsible for promoting this thing in Georgia really dropped the ball, in my opinion. Granted, with a one year old daughter at home, I am lucky to remember my own name these days, so it could just be that I missed something.

I don’t see any events organized by any of the usual entrepreneurial support groups here in Georgia (TAG, MIT Enterprise Forum, IEI, AEA, StartupLounge.com, etc.) I assume this is (again) the poor marketing at work. It is a shame, as this seems like a great idea.

Does anyone else see the irony in a group of entrepreneurs not being able to get the word out effectively?

Cheers.