Just a quick update on the upcoming Cleantech Georgia 2008 event, which is being held this coming Wednesday, May 14th.

In addition to having featured speakers from Coca Cola, Southern Company, Suniva, Hardin Construction, and Valhalla Partners, we are thrilled to have locked in Mike McQuary as a speaker. If you don’t Mike, or know of him, he was one of the original principals behind Mindspring (later merged with EarthLink). McQ is doing something really neat these days. Among other things, he is the CEO of Ruff and Tuff, a manufacturer of electric vehicles. Rumor has it that he will actually have one of their vehicles on display at the event.

Also, here is the list of startups that will be delivering a 3 minute fast-pitch at the event:

• Ride Cell
• i-Linc Technologies
• Radiance Energies

If you’d like to attend, here are the specifics.

Thanks again to all of my fellow board members of the TAG Business & Technology Alliance for helping to pull this together. It should be a great event! A special thanksto board member Cindy Cheatham of the ATDC. Cindy has really gone above and beyond to help bring this event together.

Cheers.

Building upon the success of last year’s event, Cleantech Georgia 2008 is gearing up to be even better! The date is fast approaching (May 14th) Attendees will have an opportunity to:

• Discover the many exciting Georgia innovations that are happening in the cleantech space
• Listen to venture capitalists, cleantech entrepreneurs, and other subject matter experts share their insights
• Enjoy fast venture pitches by a handful of select up-and-coming Georgia cleantech companies
• Explore our “cleantech showcase”, which will feature many emerging Georgia clean technologies

While we haven’t fully fleshed out the lineup yet, it is shaping up to be pretty strong:

• John Baumstark, CEO, Suniva: a solar cell play which just completed a $50M round of venture capital
• Dan Gordon, Valhalla Partners
• David Kirkpatrick, Managing Director, SJF Ventures
• Tom Johnson, Southern Company

Suniva should be fun to see - they are one of the biggest investments made in Georgia (cleantech or otherwise) in quite some time. David Kirkpatrick will be returning as well - his insights into the cleantech space were very valuable at last year’s event (check out his recent appearance on the StartupLounge.com podcast as well).

And of course, my favorite part - the early-stage entrants.

If you are a Georgia-based cleantech/green energy startup, and you’d like to be considered to be one of 3 hand-picked startups that will get to deliver a 3 minute fast-pitch at this event, please contact me so I can get you into the mix. Also, if you want to take advantage of our free “showcase” area for cleantech companies, contact me.

We have a number of industry players, angel investors and venture capitalists that will be in attendance as well - many of them have expressed to me their desire to learn more about the space, and to see what sort of innovations are coming out of Georgia.

For more information on the event, stay tuned to the TAG web site - more information will be posted soon.

Thanks to all of my fellow board members of the TAG Business & Technology Alliance for helping to pull this together. It should be a great event!

Cheers.

Georgia Cleantech 2007 is fast approaching (June 12th)! I’ve briefly mentioned this event before (here and here), but as the date approaches I am getting even more excited about it. Attendees will have an opportunity to:

• Discover the many exciting Georgia Innovations that are happening in the cleantech space
• Listen to venture capitalists, cleantech entrepreneurs, and other subject matter experts share their insights
• Enjoy fast venture pitches by hot, up-and-coming Georgia cleantech companies
• Explore our “cleantech showcase”, which will feature many emerging Georgia clean technologies

We’ve lined up a very strong set of speakers and panelists as well:

• David Bell, Resource Policy & Planning, Georgia Power
• Rolando Sanz-Guerrero, Vice President, CoalTek
• Murrary Campbell, Chairman, First United Ethanol LLC (FUEL)
• David Kirkpatrick, Managing Director, SJF Ventures
• Michael DeRosa, Managing Director, DFJ Element Ventures
• Bruce Wobeck, Partner, Morris Manning & Martin

I am particularly excited about hearing from CoalTek - they’re one of the most highly capitalized (via Draper Fisher Jurvetson) cleantech deals in the past few years, and have been largely running in stealth mode until now. In many ways, this is a bit of a coming out party for them. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say. Same for FUEL, which raised some cash, and broke ground on their ethanol plant this year.

A special thanks to my friends at SJF Ventures (David Kirkpatrick ) and DFJ Element Ventures (Mike DeRosa) for helping us out. They’ll be bringing the venture capital perspective to the table. I’m at a bit of an advantage as I’ve seen David’s presentation already, but it is chock full of good stuff.

Of course, being a startup geek, I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to work some of the younger companies into the mix. We’ll have three Georgia cleantech startups doing their fast pitch (C2Biofuels, Edge BioEnergy, and OMT Energy.) Plus, we’ll have an “Alternative Energy Showcase” area where start-up or established cleantech companies can set up a table with posters, demonstrations and materials to share their innovative ideas for alternative energy.

We have a number of angel investors and venture capitalists that will be in attendance as well - many of them have expressed to me their desire to learn more about the space, and to see what sort of innovations are coming out of Georgia.

Space is limited, so if you have an interest in attending, you’ll want to sign up sooner rather than later (click here). I say sooner, rather than later, because cleantech is a very hot space right now, and there are a lot of folks out there wanting to learn more about the industry.

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

Thanks to all of my fellow board members of the TAG Business & Technology Alliance for helping to pull this together. It should be a great event!

Cheers.

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.

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.

There has been a mini-explosion for Georgia in the clean energy technology (cleantech) space over the past couple of years. And the Technology Association of Georgia’s Business & Technology Alliance (B&TA) is responding by putting together an event around the subject for later in the year.

We have enlisted the aid of Wes McDowell, CIO of Georgia Power to help put together the event.

If you are aware of Georgia-based investors or companies that are playing in the alternative energy, renewable/sustainable energy, or some other segment of the cleantech space, I welcome you to reach out to them and have them contact me through this blog (or just drop a comment below), so we can see how they may be able to participate in the event.

I’m not an cleantech expert, but the space does fascinate me.

And in case you haven’t heard, Vinod Khosla recently committed north of $200M to build a wood-based cellulosic ethanol plant here in Georgia. That is definitely an investment in the long term, and it will be interesting to see how it pans out. Vinod is a rockstar VC with a proven track record.
Cheers.