Growing returns in clean technology

by Jon Guice, Jaclyn Pitera and Anneke Hohl – 6.9.10

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Among all the nations of the world, the United States has an extraordinarily large and well-developed venture capital sector. Business-plan competitions play an established role in the industry: by vetting companies seeking venture funding they introduce pre-qualified entrepreneurs to investors and, along the way, inform and educate both groups.

The Cleantech Open, a nonprofit organization that runs a national business-plan competition each year for cleantech start-up companies, provides competing teams with training, mentoring, introductions to potential customers and funding sources, and—for those companies that win—publicity in high-profile events and press announcements. The connections extend beyond the circle of winners to a growing, loosely knit community of entrepreneurs and inventors, business angels and venture capital groups, as well as the more established companies and organizations that sponsor the program.

The first competition was held in 2006 in California. Since that time, the Cleantech Open has worked with about 200 contestant companies and expanded to the Pacific Northwest, the Rockies, and the North East and North Central regions. The organization plans to grow to other regions, both nationally and internationally.

Now the Cleantech Open is aiming to expand—not only into new geographic regions, but also in its role into the lifecycle of companies, working with the growing pool of ‘alumni’ companies that have entered the competition.

In 2009, the Cleantech Open held the first “Global Ideas” competition, drawing entries from as far away as Brazil, China, Denmark and New Zealand. The winner was an algae biofuels company, Bio-Lípidos of Puerto Rico.

[Click here to read entire article at sustainableindustries.com]