Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
PG&E venture arm invests $60 million in SolarCity, provider of solar power system design, financing, installation, and monitoring
Pacific Venture Capital, LLC, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG) and SolarCity Corp., a national leader in solar power system design, financing, installation, monitoring and related services, today announced $60 million in tax equity financing for solar installations for U.S. homes and businesses. The investment—funded by PG&E Corporation shareholders—is expected to allow SolarCity to install more than 1,000 solar systems for U.S. homeowners and businesses via the company’s SolarLease and Power Purchase Agreement financing options. SolarCity’s financing options allow homeowners and businesses to adopt solar power with no upfront investment and to save money from day one on energy costs.
Under the agreement, in return for providing the upfront investment needed for the new systems, Pacific Venture Capital will receive lease revenues from SolarCity customers, along with the benefits of federal investment tax credits and local rebates for the solar energy projects. The transaction represents the first such tax equity financing investment by a utility holding company and the first such collaboration between a utility holding company and a solar power provider.
“This investment represents an opportunity to broaden access to renewable energy, consistent with our focus on advancing clean, low-carbon energy solutions and California’s goals to expand rooftop solar,” said Rand Rosenberg, PG&E Corporation Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development. “Equally significant, it enables us to take an initial step toward gaining valuable experience with a technology and a marketplace that may become increasingly important in the future.”
The solar systems funded under the agreement are expected to be installed in 2010, predominantly in California, with some in Arizona and Colorado. SolarCity already has more than 1,700 solar customers in Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s service area and more than 5,000 solar customers overall.
“SolarCity strongly believes solar companies and traditional energy industry players must work together if solar power is to become a mainstream source of electricity in America,” said Lyndon Rive, SolarCity’s CEO. “PG&E has always been a leader in renewable energy adoption. This agreement is yet another example of PG&E leadership in clean power generation that hopefully others can follow.”
About SolarCity
SolarCity—a national leader in solar power system design, financing, installation, monitoring and related services—was founded with the mission to help millions of homeowners and businesses adopt solar power, protect themselves from rising electricity costs and protect their environment from polluting power sources. The company’s SolarLease™, PurePower™ and Commercial Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) options can make it possible for homeowners and businesses to switch to clean, solar power for less money than they currently pay for electricity. SolarCity currently serves more than 500 communities in in Arizona, California, Colorado and Oregon.
Rand L. Rosenberg
Senior Vice President
Corporate Strategy and Development
Rand L. Rosenberg is Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development for PG&E Corporation. He is responsible for developing the corporation’s long–term strategic plan and evaluating growth opportunities, including asset acquisitions and mergers within the energy sector.
Rosenberg spent more than a decade in the field of investment banking. He was a Managing Director and Head of Global Telecommunications Investment Banking at Salomon Brothers. He also held senior positions at Goldman Sachs & Co., Lehman Brothers and Montgomery Securities, where he was a Partner and Founder of the Media and Telecommunications Group. After serving as an Engagement Manager at Marakon Associates earlier in his career, Rosenberg became Head of Corporate Development at the Pacific Telesis Group. Most recently, Rosenberg served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Infospace.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Carly Fiorina: The Dynamics of Change and Fear via Stanford ecorner
Fiorina talks about the dynamics of change and fear. She notes that entrepreneurship is about risk-taking, and this is always associated with trying something new. Fiorina concludes by asserting that change involves gathering enough energy and force to overcome the power of status quo.
Jerry Kaplan: Five Biggest Mistakes That Entrepreneurs Make via Stanford Ecorner
Jerry Kaplan, serial entrepreneur, executive, technical innovator, and author, elaborates on the five biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make:
1) Having unclear goals and an unclear mission
2) Trying to prove that they are smart
3) Greed - doing it for money.
4) Hiring people that they like rather than people that they need.
5) Not knowing when to let go.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Carbonite Raises $20 MM Mezzanine Round Financing - Crosslink Capital of San Francisco led this round with participation from all existing investors
Carbonite Raises $20 Million Mezzanine Round Financing - Crosslink Capital of San Francisco led this round with participation from all existing investors
Carbonite®, a leading provider of online backup, announced today that it has closed a mezzanine round of funding that provides approximately $20 million of new capital. This brings the total financing raised by the Boston-based company to approximately $67 million. While the company does not disclose specific terms, the valuation of the mezzanine round is a major step up from previous rounds.
Crosslink Capital of San Francisco led this round with participation from all existing investors, including Menlo Ventures, Performance Equity, and Common Angels Fund. Gary Hromadko, venture partner at Crosslink, will join the Carbonite board of directors.
"We're focused on delivering the best online backup service in the world," said Carbonite CEO and Co-founder David Friend. "This investment enhances our ability to continue to lead innovation here in the US and to expand our offerings to new foreign markets."
Carbonite launched its online backup service for PC owners in 2006. In the last year, Carbonite expanded its product offering to include a Macintosh solution and Remote File Access, which enables any Carbonite user to access backed up files from any web browser. Additionally, the company has forged distribution agreements with Seagate and Sun Microsystems.
"Carbonite is the leading independent vendor in a market with enormous potential," said Hromadko. "The management team has experience and depth, has executed on its business model and delivered excellent results each year since the founding of the company. Almost anyone in the world with a computer and a broadband connection needs a service like Carbonite. The mezzanine round that we led will help the company to accelerate its growth in the US, expand into new markets, and introduce new products. Carbonite certainly didn't need to raise more cash at this point, but this is the kind of business and management team that Crosslink likes to be involved with, so we were very pleased to be able to make the investment."
About Carbonite
The Carbonite industry-first offer of unlimited online backup service for a flat, low price revolutionized the market for consumer and small business backup services. Since 2006, the company has backed up more than 39 billion files and has restored more than 3.2 billion lost files for its customers. Carbonite backs up more than 100 million files every day to high-redundancy storage servers in its Boston and Somerville, Mass. data centers.
Team
David Friend - Chairman & CEO, Co-founder
David Friend has been a successful technology entrepreneur for over 25 years. He previously co-founded five companies: Sonexis, FaxNet, Pilot Software, Computer Pictures Corporation and ARP Instruments. He has been featured in USA Today, Tech Capital, The Boston Globe, Mass HiTech, Fortune, Forbes and Tom Peter's best-selling management book, The Pursuit of Wow!
Keith Cooper - President & COO
Keith W. Cooper is an experienced internet telecommunications entrepreneur. Prior to joining Carbonite, Keith was a Venture Partner at VIMAC Ventures in Boston focusing on investments in early stage high tech companies. While at VIMAC, Keith became Chairman and CEO of webHancer, an Ottawa based company focused on web analytics. Keith and his team reorganized and repositioned the company over an 18 month period and successfully sold the company to Microsoft.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
LivingSocial raises $5 million from Grotech Ventures, and Steve Case and Jean Case. Total funding at $10 million
LivingSocial raises $5 million from Grotech Ventures, and Steve Case and Jean Case. Total funding at $10 million since 2008. LivingSocial.com is a social discovery and cataloging network that allows people to review and share their favorite movies, books, games, music, restaurants and beer. As the most comprehensive interest-based online community, LivingSocial is now helping more than 6.4 million users catalogue their interests, seamlessly integrating with Facebook.
Tim O'Shaughnessy
CEO and Co-founder
Tim is the CEO of LivingSocial, a social discovery and cataloging network that allows people to review and share their favorite movies, books, music, games, restaurants and beer. He's part of the original visionary team behind the product, which integrates users' interest profiles seamlessly with Facebook.
Eddie Frederick
President and Co-founder
Ed is the president and co-founder of LivingSocial, a social discovery and cataloging network that allows people to share reviews of their favorite movies, books, games, music, restaurants and beer.
Contact information
twitter them @livingsocial
Your Guide to CES - Consumer Electronics Show from sin city. tablet computers, 3-d TVs, smart phones, social networking anyone?
Your Guide to CES - Consumer Electronics Show from sin city. tablet computers, 3-d TVs anyone?
Echo Nest, music intelligence technology, raises $1.3 million
The Echo Nest, a music intelligence company powering smarter music applications for leading online music companies and developers, today announced it secured additional venture financing. The company adds three new notable investors: Donald L. McLagan, Nicholas Negroponte and James J. Pallotta.Donald L. McLagan most recently served as Chairman, President and CEO of Compete, Inc., which was acquired by Taylor Nelson Sofres. Previously, he was the founder, Chairman and CEO of NewsEdge Corporation, served as Vice President and General Manager of the Information Services Division of Lotus Development Corporation, and was Executive Vice President of Data Resources, Inc. (DRI). Mr. McLagan joined The Echo Nest board of directors in October of 2009.
Nicholas Negroponte was a co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory and is founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child non-profit association. He serves on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc. and as general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment.
James Pallotta is Chairman and Managing Director of Raptor Capital Management. Previously, Mr. Pallotta was employed by Tudor Investment Corporation. Mr. Pallotta joined Tudor as Managing Director of the U.S. Equity Securities Group in 1993, became a Member of the Management Committee of Tudor in 1996 and Vice Chairman of Tudor in 2005. He has 27 years of experience in equity research, analysis and investment, with a deep background in media and technology. Mr. Pallotta is also a member of the Executive Board of the Boston Celtics.
The Echo Nest's existing investors, including Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Argos Management and other angel investors, including Thomas DiBenedetto and MIT Media Lab co-founder Barry Vercoe, all participated in this most recent investment round. The Echo Nest will use the additional capital for planned major enhancements to its music application development platform and to expand its engineering team.
"We're thrilled to welcome such a world-class group of experienced investors to our team," said Jim Lucchese, CEO of The Echo Nest. "We have been lucky to bring together investors that not only offer financial support, but bring a remarkable depth of expertise in helping us to make online music smarter."
Founders:
Tristan Jehan, Ph.D. (Co-Founder & CTO)
Tristan earned a doctorate in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT in 2005. His academic work combined machine listening and machine learning technologies in teaching computers how to hear and make music.
Brian Whitman, Ph.D. (Co-Founder & CTO)
Brian is recognized as a leading scientist in the area of music and text retrieval and natural language processing. He received his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 in Machine Listening and a masters degree in Computer Science from Columbia University's Natural Language Processing Group.
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