The Austin Clean Energy Incubator and Austin Energy announces the 5th Annual Clean Energy Venture Summit (CEVS) and the Cleantech Open Regional Judging & Awards, scheduled for September 28-29, 2011 at the AT&T Executive Education & Conference Center in Austin, Texas. The Clean Energy Venture Summit has become the premier cleantech business plan competition and educational conference in the Southern United States.
The Summit provides clean technology companies and entrepreneurs a venue for presenting their innovations to venture capitalists, angel investors, and strategic investors that currently invest in clean energy, as well as experts from utilities, corporations, academia and government. This year, the Clean Energy Venture Summit will select 10 later-stage start-up companies to present their technology to a panel of experienced investors; and, for the first time, the winners will receive cash prizes. The Summit has emerged as a major national funding resource for clean tech companies, resulting in $300,000 to $1 million of funding, on average, for each company selected to present to its audience of investors. Since the focus this year will be on later-stage companies funding figures will increase accordingly. The application deadline is September 1, 2011.
“The Clean Energy Venture Summit is a valuable opportunity for innovative cleantech companies to be center stage in front of the nation’s top clean energy investors,” said Mitch Jacobson, Co-Director of the Austin Clean Energy Incubator. “The major funding successes of ATI Clean Energy Incubator member companies such as Firefly LED Lighting and Ideal Power Converters after participating in CEVS speak for themselves.”
In addition to the later-stage business competition; the event will also host the South Central regional finals for the Cleantech Open, a national seed-stage clean energy competition with 7 companies vying for a chance to win a total of $80,000 regionally and, for three finalists, $250,000 at the Cleantech Open Global Forum in California.
Speakers this year will include Brewster McCracken, Executive Director of the Pecan Street Project, who will be moderating a smart grid panel of consumer electronics companies including Sony, Best Buy, LG, and Intel; and Larry Weis, General Manager of Austin Energy, who will participate in a utility panel focused on smart metering.
Incenergy presented their cloud-based energy management solution at CEVS 2010. Through a partnership with Pecan Street Project, Incenergy has installed energy management hardware into 200 homes this year. They have also diversified their offerings to include both natural gas and water usage monitoring.
“Presenting at the Clean Energy Venture Summit in 2010 gave our executive team the opportunity to hone the Incenergy investor message and learn from the perspective of a diverse set of venture capital firms,” said Jeff Otto, Director of Sales Solutions.
For more information on CEVS 2011 and to register to attend the event, apply to compete at the event, or become a sponsor visit www.cleanenergyventuresummit.com or email ATI Events Manager Robin Murphy at rmurphy@ati.utexas.edu or ATI Clean Energy Co-Director Mitch Jacobson at mjacobson@ati.utexas.edu. We are expecting to sell out again this year with over 400 conference participants. You can follow us @CEVS2011 on Twitter and join the conversation with #CEVS2011. Through the Web site you’ll also be able to connect with CEVS on Facebook and LinkedIn.
View the full press release HERE.
Tags: austin energy, brewster mccracken, clean energy venture summit, cleantech open, jeff otto, larry weis, laura benold, mitch jacobson, pecan street project, robin murphy
