Investors and Grants Program

The Cleantech Open Investors and Grants Program is chartered to accelerate the funding of Cleantech Open Alumni companies by engaging the investor community and exploit grant opportunities. The program encourages two paths: maximum involvement from Angel Investors and Venture Capital firms; and assistance with grant research and writing to fund R&D efforts. Specifically, our aims are to:

• Seek contestant recommendations and referrals from investors during contestant recruitment.
• Engage investors as mentors during the competition.
• Engage investors to speak at the Academy, act as coaches during Business Clinics, and serve as speakers and panelists at other events throughout the year.
• Recruit a large contingent of Angel and VC investors to meet directly with all contestants and selected alumni at the annual Investor Forum to encourage match-making for potential funding.
• Investors are also invited to the Awards Gala for an additional round of matchmaking.
• Assist with grant seeking frmo multiple sources, including Federal Grants/Recovery, State Grants/ California Energy Commission, State & City Block Grants and Government Bid Opportunities: Federal, State & Local (via a commercial service)

More details on each portion of the program follow.

Direct Access to Early Stage Dealflow for Investors

• Access to Executive Summaries
• Access to Business Plans (with permission)
• Key Access Opportunities at Cleantech Open Events
  • Launch
  • Conference
  • Academy
  • Investors Summit
  • Expo
  • Awards Gala

Grant Program Workshops

• Federal Opportunities: DOE speaker/Grant Expert
• State Opportunities: CEC speaker/PIER Success Story
• Readiness and Risk Assessment: do you quality for government contracts, how to partner to manage the risk, self-assessment guide (Contracting expert)
• Tax Credits as Sales Tools: Marketing Consultant, Best Practices