CleanTech Funding Foundations Series (Grants Part 2)

CleanTech Funding Foundations Series (Grants Part 2)

Apr 29, 2024

Join us in learning how to successfully write grants and access non-dilutive capital as you start your cleantech business!

We are excited to launch a CleanTech Funding Foundations series in partnership with CleanStart through the Sacramento Entrepreneurial Growth Alliance – Accelerate CA Hub designation by the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.

This series aims to support early stage innovators and entrepreneurs in understanding the foundations of how to raise capital especially as a cleantech startup. This series is open to founders and startups in various industries but will leverage examples from the cleantech industry.

Wednesday, May 22: Writing Successful Grant Applications

Discussion topics:

· What are the best ways to increase your success rate?

· Guest Speaker: Kula Addy, Momentum.io

· The process for getting SBIRs and STTRs from the federal government

· CalSEED grants as a high-leverage source of funding for very early stage ventures

· Beneficial uses of contests as training for pitching—CleanTech Open and others

OpenGrants: Building Relationships is a Key Strategy

OpenGrants: Building Relationships is a Key Strategy

Nov 3, 2022

On our November 1 Perspectives webcast, CEO Sedale Turbovsky (www.opengrants.io) gave a master class in how best to win grants to advance your clean tech ideas. His main point was that success depends on investing in building relationships with the granting agencies far in advance of applying for money. Otherwise, the chances of getting an award are much less. Applying for grants in a rush to avoid running out of money is exactly what not to do.

As with many things in building a company, one of the
first steps is investing in creating a network of contacts
that can help, according to Sedale. He firmly believes that granting agencies want to make awards and want to have as many high-quality applicants as possible. Consequently, potential applicants should reach out to find out what the needs of these agencies are, how programs can be shaped to improve the chances of good outcomes for the agency,
and when windows for applications will be opening up. This is the opposite of waiting for a funding announcement and then gearing up to put a proposal together at the last minute. Potential applicants need to take the time to get to understand the bigger objectives the granting agencies seek to achieve, and reflect that in the proposals.

And there are a couple of good techniques applicants can use but often do not do so: (1) Understanding the point system by which applications are evaluated and what the agency is looking for to get the highest score. (2) Getting feedback on any applications that are do not receive awards so that one can do a better job next time.

OpenGrants is positioned to help companies find the right contacts in granting agencies and begin building positive relationships. OpenGrants offers a basic “freemium” service that will develop a profile of those seeking grants and matching them through an extensive database to what might be good candidates to approach. The idea is to offer a “no-regrets” entry point to encourage people to give OpenGrants a try.

At the $29/month pro level, OpenGrants will use its AI-boosted systems to customize its recommendations. At either level, OpenGrants can connect companies to those that can help write proposals or give targeted advice. They have five specialists on-board themselves and a bench of more.

Sedale estimated that about a quarter of all those OpenGrants have helped successfully have been clean tech companies. Significantly, OpenGrants derives most of its revenues from granting agencies themselves, providing advice on how to fashion requests for proposals better. That positions them as the perfect resource to bridge between grantors and applicants.

While startup companies may ask “why bother” with smallish grants rather than going directly to investors, there are several good reasons to do so. First, grants do not involve any dilution of ownership and do not need to be repaid. Second, getting a grant is important validation that investors will use when judging whether to put money in. Sedale said companies are twice as likely to have a successful A-round if they had received grants first. Third, the process of pursuing grants opens doors to a wide array of support resources and relationships that can become very valuable later on.

This webcast was recorded and is available on our YouTube channel and below.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStart’s Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, BlueTech Valley, Revrnt, 

Moss Adams, PowerSoft.biz, Greenberg Traurig, California Mobility Center

Local Startup Empow Lighting among 6 to get Phase 2 CalSEED awards

Local Startup Empow Lighting among 6 to get Phase 2 CalSEED awards

Jan 23, 2020

Congratulations to Sergey Vasilyev and his team for a big win for Empow and its CoreGlo LED replacement product for existing fluorescent luminaires.  Empow is the first company in our region to advance to Phase 2.

Nice win! If you want more details on this product, Sergey was one of the presenters at our December 4 Connex Investor Night and we have a video of it on our Youtube Channel.  Maxout Renewables from Livermore was another winner, and we have a video of them at the same event. Other winners were Stasis Group, In-Pipe Energy, GenH and SkyCool Systems.  We hope to have some of these at our future Connex events. Watch for the announcements.

The CalSEED Press Release on the awards can be viewed here.

CalSEED Awards 7 Central Valley Companies $150,000 each, 3 in Davis

CalSEED Awards 7 Central Valley Companies $150,000 each, 3 in Davis

Aug 28, 2019

Funded by the Energy Commission, the California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development (CalSEED) Initiative handed out $3.75 million to 25 companies across the state to develop their concepts for new clean energy products.  (See the Press Announcement.)  Of those, seven were awarded to companies around the Central Valley, the highest number from this area ever to receive such attention. Three were in our CleanStart region, all from Davis:  DAE Technologies with a new lithium carbon fluoride battery, RePurpose Energy with second-life EV batteries used for stationary energy storage, and ZYD coupling heat pump water heating to hot water storage. 

The other four were P-Kap Systems in Tahoe City with a rooftop solar sun-tracking system, Solar Flexes in Lassen County with an easy deployed ground mounted solar PV system, SierraCrete from Coalinga with a new building material, and RAF Electronics in Fresno with efficient LED theatrical lighting.  You can see who won by county here.

The idea behind these awards is to let early-stage innovators develop their concepts to the product stage.  Then these will compete to receive further $450,000 grants, with only a small handful of winners. This is the third year these awards have been made, with 71 companies in total having received the first-round grants.  Over 200 companies applied this year, also the greatest number ever.

California stands out as offering this extensive and generous program for innovators to advance their products to market and get them better situated for their first rounds of outside investment.  To qualify, companies must be based in California. These awards are not loans, nor do they involve any sale of shares in the companies. They are just straight-up grants.  

Congratulations to all the winners.  Well done! If you want to see some of these innovations and more, sign up for our Central Valley Cleantech Showcase October 9th in downtown Sacramento.  It’s free and you will get to talk to two dozen of these enthusiastic startups.

Thomas Hall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, EY, Stoel Rives, Greenberg Traurig LLP

BlueTech Valley, Buchalter, Moss Adams, PowerSoft.biz

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State