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Archive for the ‘Entrepreneurship’ Category

DOE funds 19 next-gen battery projects with $43M

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, cleantech, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Startups, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

The Department of Energy’s program that gives grants to early-stage energy projects — called ARPA-E — has allocated another $43 million for 19 battery projects, including grants for futuristic batteries made of new chemical mixes, using brand new architectures and utilizing nanotechnology. The ARPA-E program has been aggressively funding next-generation battery technologies over the years, and though these are small grants, the amount of innovation happening is substantial.

The funds go to projects that are very early stage, and are supposed to help bring disruptive R&D closer to commercialization. While Japanese and Korean conglomerates dominate the industry of producing small format lithium ion batteries for laptops and cell phones, these next-gen batteries are mostly targeted for electric cars and the power grid. Some of these projects also aren’t strictly traditional batteries, and a couple are flow batteries, which are large tanks of chemicals that flow into a containerized system and provide energy storage for the power grid (see Primus Power’s flow battery pictured).

Notable winners of the funds include big companies like Ford, GE, and Eaton, small startups like Khosla Ventures-backed Pellion, and projects out of the labs of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Here’s some of the winners (for the full list of 19 go here):

  • Ford: $3.13 million for a very precise battery testing device that can improve forecasting of battery-life.
  • GE Global Research: $3.13 million for sensors thin-film sensors that can detect and monitor temperature and surface pressure for each cell within a battery pack.
  • Eaton: $2.50 million for a system that optimizes the power and operation of hybrid electric vehicles.
  • Pellion Technologies: $2.50 million for the startup’s long range battery for electric vehicles.
  • Sila Nanotechnologies: $1.73 million for the startup’s lithium ion electric car battery that it says has double the capacity of current lithium ion batteries.
  • Xilectric: $1.73 million to “reinvent Thomas Edison’s battery chemistries for today’s electric vehicles.”
  • Energy Storage Systems: $1.73 million for a flow battery for the grid, with an electrolyte made of low cost iron, and using a next-gen cell design.
  • Battelle Memorial Institute: $600K for a sensor to monitor the internal environment of a lithium-ion battery in real-time.

Read more here.

 

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Venture capital investments pick up with strong emphasis on mobile

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, Management, Market research, National Venture Capital Association, Social Commerce, Social Networks, Startups, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , on July 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

Venture capital investments picked up significantly this quarter, with a 37 percent increase in funding and 3 percent increase in deals over the previous quarter. The period also saw strong emphasis on mobile investments and seed funding, according to a report released by CB Insights. There was a total of $8.1 billion in financing for 812 companies, the highest totals since Q2 of 2001.

About 13 percent of the activity — or 102 deals — was in the mobile sector, marking an all-time high, with 30 percent of those companies involved in photo or video technology.

“Without being too self-congratulatory, the Instagram Effect we speculated about in Q1 2012 seems to have taken shape as the mobile sector saw 102 deals, an all-time high… For skeptics, it may also be indicative of a VC herd mentality. Time will tell.”

Below is a breakdown of investments by dollar amounts in the different subsets of mobile and telecom industry:

Some other highlights from the report include:

  • Seed investing also hit an all-time high, with 22 percent of all deals happening at the seed stage this quarter, as compared to 12 percent from the same quarter in 2011.
  • The most successful sectors with respect to number of deals were internet companies with 46 percent, healthcare at 17 percent, and mobile and telecommunications at 13 percent. With respect to dollars in funding, the top sectors were internet at 38 percent and healthcare and “other” each at 19 percent.
  • 50 percent of deals occurred at either seed funding or Series A rounds, although they made up only 19 percent of funding dollars.
  • California took the most number of deals per state at 45 percent of deals, up from 40 percent in Q1. New York remained in second place with 10 percent of deals, and Massachusetts in third place with 9 percent.

Read more here.

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Institutional Venture Partners Raises $1 Billion Fund

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Entrepreneurship, FaceBook, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, IPO news, Market research, Silicon Valley, Social Networks, Startups, Strategy, tagged , , , , , , , on June 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Article from NYTimes.

 

Institutional Venture Partners has another billion to play with.

The venture capital firm, an investor in Twitter, Zynga and LivingSocial, has raised $1 billion for I.V.P. XIV, its 14th and largest fund to date.

According to a partner, Sandy Miller, the firm initially set a $750 million target but increased it on robust demand. The fund, which was raised over four months, relied mainly on capital from previous investors.

Unlike some of its peers, Institutional Venture Partners does not write a lot of checks, usually not more than a dozen a year. As a later-stage investment firm, it invests $10 million to $100 million in seasoned start-ups in three main buckets: Internet, enterprise technology and mobile.

“I hate to sound dull but we’re doing the same strategy,” Mr. Miller said.

Mr. Miller, a longtime technology investor and co-founder of Thomas Weisel Partners, is optimistic despite recent setbacks in the technology sector.

Skepticism in the public markets, most recently highlighted by Facebook‘s underwhelming initial public offering, has damped enthusiasm for some late-stage start-ups. Zynga, for instance, an Institutional Venture Partners portfolio company, has tumbled more than 44 percent since its debut last year. And plenty of experts question whether another start-up it has backed, LivingSocial, is worth such a high valuation after Groupon, its far bigger rival, has fallen about 50 percent since its I.P.O.

Mr. Miller acknowledges that some valuations may pull back, but he says he invests for the long term.

“I’ve watched the technology market over a 30-year period,” he said. “There’s more interesting, high quality companies today than there has ever been and by a very wide margin.”

He added, “In every market, most deals don’t make sense, and that’s true now, but that’s always been true.”

Read more here.

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YoBucko – Online Personal Finance Guide to Young Adults

Posted in Education, Entrepreneurship, Eric Bell, Financial Literacy, Investments, Personal Finance for Young Adults, Uncategorized, US Veterans, YoBucko on June 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Welcome to YoBucko!

YoBucko is the online personal finance guide that equips young adults with the knowledge and tools needed for financial success. Our mission is simple: to help you live a wealthier life.

Like YoBucko? Share the Wealth!

Financial Education

YoBucko helps you learn how to manage your money. From articles and videos to step-by-step guides, YoBucko connects you with reliable financial information that matters to you.

START LEARNING

Articles ArticlesPersonal finance articles and news written in plain English. No gimmicks or fine print here. Just simple and honest financial advice.

Videos VideosTired of reading. No problem. Watch videos and online tutorials on basic personal finance topics.

Financial Calculators CalculatorsAt YoBucko, you don’t need a finance degree to make smart financial decisions. Try our free online calculators and avoid the money math.

VIDEOS

YoBucko’s Guide to Budgeting

YoBucko’s Guide to Credit

INFOGRAPHICS

Student Loan Debt Statistics

How Much the Average Wedding Costs

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7 stories to read this weekend

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, IPO news, Market research, tagged , , , , , on June 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Article by Om Malik @ GigaOm.

This is going to be a busy weekend for me. While the weather in San Francisco threatens to be “summer-like,” I am going to be sitting at home and preparing for our Structure 2012 conference. Nevertheless here are seven stories that might be worth reading this weekend.

Read more here.

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