The Northwest Energy Angels, a 50-person angel investment group, said today that its members invested more than $880,000 in nine clean tech startups last year. Of course, that’s a drop in the bucket, especially in the capital-intensive arena of clean technology. (The MoneyTree report found that venture capitalists invested $4.3 billion in 323 deals nationwide last year).
Nonetheless, Byron McCann, co-chair of Northwest Energy Angels, said that the group’s members continued to find good opportunities “despite the economic downturn.” Since it was created in 2006, the Northwest Energy Angels have invested $4.8 million in 31 companies.
Here’s a look at the nine investments bankrolled by the group last year, with descriptions from the NW Energy Angels.
Banyan Energy: Developed breakthrough technology for photovoltaic modules using a new category of waveguide optics known as Aggregated Total Internal Reflection (ATIR).
BioVantage Resources: Offers sustainable, bioremediation solutions for industrial, agricultural and municipal wastewater treatment.
Columbia Power Technology: Developed new wave energy harvesting devices using novel, off-shore, direct-drive, permanent-magnet generator technologies.
Flux Drive Inc.: Designs and manufactures permanent magnet, adjustable speed drives and couplings that increase the life and performance of rotating equipment while decreasing energy consumption by as much as 75%.
OneEnergy Renewables: Provides Renewable Energy Certificates and carbon offsets to business customers, offering simple, meaningful and affordable solutions to help meet renewable and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
OndaVia, Inc.: Created technology designed to provide sophisticated analyses of fluid contaminants without the constraints of a remote lab.
Virticus: Developed a scalable communication and control system that enables a 30-50 percent reduction of lighting system energy and maintenance costs.
WISErg Corporation: Developing a technology that converts compostable organic waste into valuable organically derived fertilizers and biogas..
REV Technologies, Inc.: REV’s electric vehicle (EV) energy networking technologies allow EV’s to act as high-output energy endpoints that improve the resilience and reliability of the power grid by synchronizing their energy needs with renewable power generation in real-time. (Follow-on investment)
