Cleantech.org Announces Cemvita Factory as $100,000 GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge Winner

Pitch competition showcased six energy-focused startups with cutting-edge technology addressing persistent and emerging energy transition problems

[San Francisco, CA, July 22, 2021] — After a eight week long competition, Cleantech.org selected Cemvita Factory as the $100K cash winner of the inaugural GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge.Yesterday, six finalists pitched in front of five highly experienced venture investors and executives from Shell, Amazon, GS Group, Energy Transition Ventures, and EDF to win $100,000 with no strings or dilution. Amperon Inc. and Skycool Systems came in second and third place respectively and will be considered for special consideration for a pilot project with GS Group. Veloce Energy was named the crowd’s favorite.
 

“Our top three startups face many challenges on the path to accelerating the energy transition, and we are honored to be a part of their journey. Startuplandia is a rough and tumble world, and it was a very close competition. Congrats to Moji Karimi and the Cemvita Factory team. Can’t wait to see what you do next,” said Neal Dikeman, Chairman of Cleantech.org and a partner at one of the prize sponsors, Energy Transition Ventures. “And a huge thanks to our accelerator and incubator partners. We look forward to working with everyone again in the future.”

GS Beyond partnered with organizations like Cleantech.org, Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas, Greentown Labs, Elemental Excelerator, TechStars, Third Derivative, Brite Energy Innovations, Clean Energy Business Network, Cleantech Open, Grid 110, Vertue Lab, and Women in Cleantech & Sustainability to source more than 100 applications for this competition. Semi-finalists and finalists were selected in a highly competitive multi-stage process of hundreds of startups, ranging from first-time startup teams to experienced executives, with solutions in software, carbon products, energy storage, distributed energy, and new materials and electric vehicle technology. 

“It was a pleasure to run the inaugural GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge. We are already gearing up for next year’s event and look forward to seeing what new, creative technology is being developed,” said Sungene Ryang, Chief Executive Officer of GS Beyond and Director at GS Group. “Once again, congratulations to Moji Karimi and Cemvita Factory, it was an honor to award you the first prize of $100,000, and we are excited to work with you.”

To see the complete list of finalists or learn more information on next year’s event, please visit GSBeyondEnergy.com. 

About GS Futures

GS Futures is the US corporate venture arm of GS Group, focused on investing and collaborating with World-changing teams and innovations tackling Climate Change, Energy Transition and the Future of Commerce. By marrying the existing capabilities of GS with innovations spurring from the Venture ecosystem, GS Futures seek to collaboratively disrupt for a more positive future. For more information, visit gsfutures.vc.

 

About GS Beyond

GS Beyond is the open innovation arm of GS Group, focused on identifying and fostering innovation across various industries: energy and power, retail and commerce, and engineering and construction. Based in Silicon Valley, GS Beyond builds partnerships with companies developing cutting-edge technology and innovative ideas to change the world in positive, sustainable ways. For more information, visit gsbeyond.com.

 

About Cleantech.org

CleanTech.org is the leading portal for energy & environmental technology commercialization. Their mandate is to be the access point for the growing number of individuals and companies involved in the sector. They seek to allow these participants to develop networks and access information and resources to facilitate the commercialization of clean technologies through an interactive experience. For more information, visit www.cleantech.org. 

FOR MORE ON THE COMPETITION PARTNERS:

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Technica Communications

Gabrielle Reitano

408-806-9626 Ext. 9783 

gabrielle@technicacommunications.com 

 

Cleantech.org Announces Finalists for the $100,000 GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge

Finalists include Amperon, Cemvita, EnPower, Sapphire Technologies, SkyCool, and Veloce Energy 

San Francisco, CA, June 17, 2021 – Cleantech.org announced today six finalists for the GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge in the following categories: Digitization of Energy, eMobility in Cities, and New Fuels. The finalists will pitch in a virtual pitch event on July 21, with the top team winning the cash award of $100,000 with no strings, deliverables, or equity dilution. Registration for the virtual pitch day can be found here.

“Each of these Finalists brings a different approach and technology to solving big energy and climate-related challenges,” said Neal Dikeman, Chairman of Cleantech.org and a partner at one of the prize sponsors Energy Transition Ventures. ” Startuplandia is a fast-paced, rough and tumble environment,” said Dikeman, who has founded several cleantech startups in his career. We originally thought we would select five startups, but landed on six because these were the top top applicants and each deserved their time in the spotlight on pitch day. They each have seen prior success, but only one of them is going to win the $100 thousand dollar, cash prize. It will be exciting to see where the judges land.”

“The energy transition space is very spread out.  Our Cleantech.org challenge has been a great way to network with those at the forefront of the energy transition, and find technologies we’d like to deploy in Korea,” said Sungene Ryang, Executive Director of GS Beyond, the Challenge host and sponsor. “Congratulations to the Finalists, and I’m looking forward to running pilots with some of our semifinalists and finalists.“

Cleantech.org partnered with some of the largest accelerators and incubators in the sector for the Challenge. Semi-finalists and finalists were selected in a highly competitive multi-stage process of hundreds of startups, ranging from first-time startup teams to experienced executives, with solutions in software, carbon products, energy storage, distributed energy, and new materials and electric vehicle technology.  

The finals’ judges are five highly experienced venture investors and executives from Chevron, Amazon, GS Group, Energy Transition Ventures, and EDF. Viewers can register to watch the Finals pitches and judging at GSBeyondEnergy.com.  

 

Finalists are:

Amperon: Building real-time electricity demand analytics for energy retailers, utilities, grid operators, and energy traders.

Cemvita: Applying synthetic biology to reverse climate change, by engineering microbes to use carbon dioxide or methane as a feedstock for the production of carbon-negative industrial chemicals.

EnPower, Inc.: A lithium-ion battery company expanding production in Phoenix, AZ to build high performance batteries for various electric mobility applications.

Sapphire Technologies: Startup’s energy recovery systems convert the energy wasted in pressure reduction processes into clean electric power, providing financial returns for customers and reducing the global carbon footprint.

SkyCool Systems: Developed a breakthrough cooling technology that passively rejects heat to the sky in order to efficiently and sustainably run air conditioning and refrigeration systems.

Veloce Energy: Enabling the electrification of transportation by removing physical and financial barriers to EV charging deployment and the development of grid edge infrastructure. 

 

About GS Futures

GS Futures is the US corporate venture arm of GS Group, focused on investing and collaborating with World-changing teams and innovations tackling Climate Change, Energy Transition and the Future of Commerce. By marrying the existing capabilities of GS with innovations spurring from the Venture ecosystem, GS Futures seek to collaboratively disrupt for a more positive future. For more information, visit gsfutures.vc.

About GS Beyond

GS Beyond is the open innovation arm of GS Group, focused on identifying and fostering innovation across various industries: energy and power, retail and commerce, and engineering and construction. Based in Silicon Valley, GS Beyond builds partnerships with companies developing cutting-edge technology and innovative ideas to change the world in positive, sustainable ways. For more information, visit gsbeyond.com.

About Cleantech.org

CleanTech.org is the leading portal for energy & environmental technology commercialization. Their mandate is to be the access point for the growing number of individuals and companies involved in the sector. They seek to allow these participants to develop networks and access information and resources to facilitate the commercialization of clean technologies through an interactive experience. For more information, visit www.cleantech.org. 

FOR MORE ON THE COMPETITION PARTNERS:

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Technica Communications

Gabrielle Reitano

408-806-9626 Ext. 9783 

gabrielle@technicacommunications.com  

 

Cleantech.org Announces 24 Semifinalists for the $100,000 GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge

The pitch competition celebrates purpose-driven startups that address persistent and emerging hurdles of the energy transition 

San Francisco, CA, June 17, 2021 – Cleantech.org announced today that it has selected 24 Semifinalists for the GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge. 5 of the semi finalists will be selected to pitch in the virtual pitch event on July 21 to win the cash award of $100,000 with no strings, deliverables, or equity dilution. 

“This is not like the cleantech sector was 10 years ago.  Getting down to 24 was hard.  Getting down to 5 finalists will be extremely challenging”, said Neal Dikeman, Chairman of Cleantech.org and a partner at one of the prize sponsors, Energy Transition Ventures. “We’re excited to have some great diversity across the semi-finalists, companies from across the country, and products ranging from energy software, storage, hydrogen and carbon, smart grid, and consumer products. The judges include highly experienced investors and executives from Chevron, Amazon, GS Group, and EDF.”

Semifinalists were selected in a highly competitive multi-stage process of hundreds of startups, in the following categories: Digitization of Energy, eMobility in Cities, and New Fuels.  Startups participated from almost every major accelerator and incubator in the sector, including competition partners Greentown Labs, Elemental Excelerator, Third Derivative, Austin Technology Incubator, and Techstars, as well as NREL Innovation Center, Cleantech San Diego, Cleantech Open, CleanStart, Plug &*Play, LACI, and BMW Urban-X among others.  The semi finalists have collectively raised well in excess of $100 mm in equity and non-dilutive funding to develop products for the next generation of energy.  They range from pre-seed to late stage companies, and have been backed by over a hundred different venture capital funds, corporations and investors.

Semi-finalists are:

 

Company Category Location
Allume Digitization of Energy Los Angeles, CA & Melbourne, Australia
Amperon Digitization of Energy New York, NY and Houston, TX
Blue Planet Energy Digitization of Energy Honolulu, Hawaii
Brimstone Energy New Fuels Oakland, CA
Cemvita New Fuels Houston, TX
Dianomic Digitization of Energy Menlo Park, CA
EnergyHawk eMobility in Cities Boston, MA
EnPower New Fuels Phoenix, AZ
Hygge Power Digitization of Energy Boulder, Colorado
KUHMUTE eMobility in Cities Flint, MI
Lumin Digitization of Energy Charlottesville, VA
Mekaworks eMobility in Cities Austin, TX
Origen Hydrogen New Fuels San Carlos, CA
Packetized Energy Digitization of Energy Burlington, Vermont
Pantonium eMobility in Cities Toronto, Canada
Quibbitek Digitization of Energy Vista, CA
ReJoule eMobility in Cities Signal Hill, CA
SaaSCharge eMobility in Cities New York, NY
Sapphire Technologies New Fuels Cerritos, CA
SkyCool New Fuels Mountain View, CA
South 8 Technologies New Fuels San Diego, CA
Switched Source LLC Digitization of Energy Vestal, NY
Teratonix New Fuels Pittsburgh, PA
Veloce Energy eMobility in Cities Los Angeles, CA, & Houston, TX

About GS Beyond

GS Beyond is the open innovation arm of GS Group, focused on identifying and fostering innovation across various industries: energy and power, retail and commerce, and engineering and construction. Based in Silicon Valley, GS Beyond builds partnerships with companies developing cutting-edge technology and innovative ideas to change the world in positive, sustainable ways. For more information, visit gsbeyond.com.

About Cleantech.org

CleanTech.org is the leading portal for energy & environmental technology commercialization. Their mandate is to be the access point for the growing number of individuals and companies involved in the sector. They seek to allow these participants to develop networks and access information and resources to facilitate the commercialization of clean technologies through an interactive experience. For more information, visit www.cleantech.org. 

FOR MORE ON:

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Technica Communications

Gabrielle Reitano

408-806-9626 Ext. 9783 

gabrielle@technicacommunications.com  

Techstars Joins Cleantech.org $100,000 GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge

Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, joins the Cleantech.org GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge as an Accelerator Partner

San Francisco, CA, May 24, 2021 – Cleantech.org and Techstars announced today that Techstars is joining the Cleantech.org GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge as an Accelerator Partner. Applications are open for the $100K prize until all semi-finalist slots are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis and are filling up rapidly.  

Finalists will be selected from a pool of 21 semi-finalists, five of which will be invited to participate in the virtual pitch event scheduled for July 21, judged by a diverse panel of select venture capitalists, executives, and corporate venture investors representing some of the top investors in the energy transition. 

The pitch competition winner will win a cash award of $100,000 with no strings, deliverables, or equity dilution provided by GS Beyond, the Silicon Valley-based innovation arm of the South Korean headquartered global energy, power, construction, and retail conglomerate GS Group. Semi-finalists have opportunities to pitch to prospective investors and customers.

“We have over 180 startups working on climate and sustainability efforts across our global portfolio today and growing,” said Cody Simms, SVP, Climate & Sustainability at Techstars. “Entrepreneurs create a better future for everyone, and supporting them as they build to address climate change and the future of energy is a mission that resonates deeply with us.”

The challenge is accepting applications via GSBeyondEnergy.com to energy sector startups in the US with a minimum viable product (MVP) or working prototypes in the earliest seed funding stage to those in later stages with customers. The competition looks for companies in the following categories: Digitization of Energy, eMobility in Cities, and New Fuels.  

The challenge is supported by some of the top incubators and accelerators in the cleantech sector. “I’m excited to support and work with Techstars and include startups from one of the largest accelerator programs in the world,” said Neal Dikeman, Chairman of Cleantech.org and a partner at one of the prize sponsors Energy Transition Ventures.  

Visit GSBeyondEnergy.com for FAQ, details and to apply. Check with your incubator or accelerator on coaching. Join the discussion on this competition or ask questions of the project managers in the Cleantech.org group.  

About GS Beyond

GS Beyond is the open innovation arm of GS Group, focused on identifying and fostering innovation across various industries: energy and power, retail and commerce, and engineering and construction. Based in Silicon Valley, GS Beyond builds partnerships with companies developing cutting-edge technology and innovative ideas to change the world in positive, sustainable ways. For more information, visit gsbeyond.com.

About Cleantech.org

CleanTech.org is the leading portal for energy & environmental technology commercialization. Their mandate is to be the access point for the growing number of individuals and companies involved in the sector. They seek to allow these participants to develop networks and access information and resources to facilitate the commercialization of clean technologies through an interactive experience. For more information, visit http://www.cleantech.org/. 

About Techstars

The Techstars worldwide network helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2006, Techstars began with three simple ideas—entrepreneurs create a better future for everyone, collaboration drives innovation, and great ideas can come from anywhere. Now we are on a mission to enable every person on the planet to contribute to and benefit from entrepreneurs’ success. In addition to operating accelerator programs and venture capital funds, we do this by connecting startups, investors, corporations, and cities to help build thriving startup communities. Techstars has invested in more than 2,200 companies with a combined market cap valuation of $29 Billion.  www.techstars.com

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Technica Communications
Gabrielle Reitano
408-806-9626 Ext. 9783 
gabrielle@technicacommunications.com  

Cleantech.org Presents the $100,000 GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge

The pitch competition celebrates purpose-driven startups that address persistent and emerging hurdles of the energy transition 

San Francisco, CA, May 3, 2021 – Cleantech.org announced today that applications are open for the GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge. Hosted and provided by GS Beyond and GS Futures, the Silicon Valley-based innovation and investment arms of the South Korean headquartered global energy, power, construction, and retail conglomerate GS Group. The pitch competition winner will win a cash award of $100,000 with no strings, deliverables, or equity dilution. The top three startups will also be considered for pilot projects with GS Group. 

Finalists will be selected from a pool of 21 semi-finalists, five of which will be invited to participate in the virtual pitch event scheduled for July 21. The top three semi-finalists will receive special consideration for a pilot project with GS Group. 

“Open innovation is challenging in general and hard across the Pacific Ocean,” said Sungene Ryang, host and Executive Director of GS Beyond. “The cash prize is free from any conditions, and this is by design. We want companies to feel free to build their companies as they see fit and trust them to use the funds to their advantage. While I don’t have a hand in picking the winner, I’m certainly eager to learn who it is and how they could fit into the GS ecosystem.” 

The challenge is now accepting applications via GSBeyondEnergy.com to energy sector startups in the US with a minimum viable product (MVP) or working prototypes in the earliest seed funding stage to those in later stages with customers. The competition is looking for companies in the following categories: Digitization of Energy, eMobility in Cities, and New Fuels. The judging panel for the event covers the spectrum of the energy transition ecosystem, from venture capitalists and corporate venture arms, to international energy providers. 

 “In the 15 years since we founded Cleantech.org, and built it up to 40,000 online members, we have striven to connect startups with the best venture capitalists in the industry”, said Neal Dikeman, Chairman of Cleantech.org and a partner at one of the prize sponsors, Energy Transition Ventures. “We are excited to present the GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge and continue connecting great companies with influential investors. When you flatten the commercialization cycle in energy and put engineers and executives from passionate fast-moving startups and multinational energy companies in the same room, world-changing things tend to happen.”

The challenge is supported by some of the top incubators and accelerators in the cleantech sector. Incubation Partners for the Cleantech.org GS Beyond Energy Innovation Challenge include Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas and Greentown Labs, the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America which is headquartered in Boston and recently launched its second location in Houston—anchoring the city’s new innovation district.  Accelerator Partners include Elemental Excelerator, a global non profit climate technology startup accelerator, and Third Derivative, a vertically-integrated, global climate tech acceleration program founded by RMI and New Energy Nexus.

“In order to combat the climate crisis we need to rapidly scale climatetech solutions across the greatest GHG emitting sectors and accelerate the energy transition.  We’re proud to see the GS Beyond Energy Challenge focusing on these areas,” said Dr. Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs. “We’re thrilled to support the program as an Incubation Partner and can’t wait to meet and support the entrepreneurs who participate!”

Visit GSBeyondEnergy.com for details and to apply. Join the discussion on this competition or ask questions of the project managers in the Cleantech.org group.

About GS Beyond

GS Beyond is the open innovation arm of GS Group, focused on identifying and fostering innovation across various industries: energy and power, retail and commerce, and engineering and construction. Based in Silicon Valley, GS Beyond builds partnerships with companies developing cutting-edge technology and innovative ideas to change the world in positive, sustainable ways. For more information, visit gsbeyond.com.

About GS Futures

GS Futures is the US corporate venture arm of GS Group, focused on investing and collaborating with World-changing teams and innovations tackling Climate Change, Energy Transition and the Future of Commerce. By marrying the existing capabilities of GS with innovations spurring from the Venture ecosystem, GS Futures seek to collaboratively disrupt for a more positive future. For more information, visit gsfutures.vc.

 About Cleantech.org

CleanTech.org is the leading portal for energy & environmental technology commercialization. Their mandate is to be the access point for the growing number of individuals and companies involved in the sector. They seek to allow these participants to develop networks and access information and resources to facilitate the commercialization of clean technologies through an interactive experience. For more information, visit www.cleantech.org. 

FOR MORE ON:

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Technica Communications
Gabrielle Reitano
408-806-9626 Ext. 9783 
gabrielle@technicacommunications.com