From the two high flying deals seen with CoalTek (DFJ) and Range Fuels (Vinod Khosla) to at least two dozen either early-stage companies or commercializable technologies coming out of our universities – the great “Georgia greenrush” is really picking up.

The Deal’s Stacey Higginbotham just compiled a list of 35 clean technology startups seeking funding. Three of those companies are based here in Georgia, all in Atlanta.

• Ajeetco: Printing process for solar cells (seeking $5-8M)
• C2Biofuels: Enzymes for cellulosic ethanol from yellow pine (seeking $15M)
• LumoFlex: Organic materials for solar panels (seeking $1.5-2M)

It sure would be nice for a local VC to jump into one or more of these deals. You missed Web 2.0 – are you going to miss the cleantech movement as well?

Speaking of cleantech, mark your calendars for the morning of June 12th, 2007. You won’t want to miss our upcoming Cleantech Georgia 2007 event. I’ll post more details soon, but it really is shaping up to be a great event. We have some marquis speakers from several venture-backed cleantech companies here in Georgia, as well as a few cleantech venture capitalists that will share their views on things. As if that weren’t enough, we’ll be having a showcase area that will highlight the scores of Georgia-based cleantech companies (and emerging technologies). Chaired by Georgia Power, and brought to you by the Technology Association of Georgia and the Business and Technology Alliance.

If you are a Georgia-based early-stage cleantech company (or technology) and you are interested in participating in our showcase area, contact me.

Stay tuned!

Cheers.

The market in Atlanta is challenging. We want desperately to climb higher in the venture rankings; and why not? It certainly is in our best interest to do so. The other day, I came across the following post on another blog. I replaced the actual city in context with the word “SOMECITY” – and the actual region of the country with “SOMEREGION” – sound like somewhere familiar to you?

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