Solutions from Our Country’s Entrepreneurs
"We are thrilled to enable great businesses that are building a better entrepreneurial economy in the U.S.” - Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital.
Denver, CO (PRWEB) October 02, 2014
SOURCE: Solutions from Our Country’s Entrepreneurs announced today that e-Chromic Technologies and PAX Pure were each awarded a venture capital investment of $50,000 as the top two ventures from a nationwide group of innovative startups addressing energy efficiency and water treatment in the United States.
e-Chromic Technologies is developing a thin, reflective electrochromic film that can retrofit existing windows and transform ordinary, energy-wasting windows into energy-efficient “smart windows.” PAX Pure offers a cutting-edge water purification and desalination solution, developed by pairing fundamental thermodynamic principles with scientific insights from biomimicry (the study of nature).
SOURCE is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between The Hitachi Foundation, Village Capital, and Investors' Circle that connects entrepreneurs with the investment capital, mentoring, and support needed to grow their businesses.
Ten ventures participated in the three-month Village Capital Energy accelerator program to address the biggest challenges facing the energy sector. Solutions ranged from retrofitting windows to rapid water testing to harnessing big data to improving water quality. Through Village Capital’s unique peer-selection model, the entrepreneurs receive mentoring from industry experts and investors, as well as each other. At the end of the program, the entrepreneurs assess each other, and the two top-ranked ventures each receive $50,000 in funding.
"We are thrilled to enable great businesses that are building a better entrepreneurial economy in the U.S.,” said Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital. “e-Chromic is building a less expensive, better functioning economy by providing window retrofitting technology that is easy and affordable. PAX Pure is addressing the resource use of the oil and gas industry, one of the largest areas of employment growth in the U.S., and making energy production more sustainable.”
The announcement of the two top ventures was made after the Village Capital 2014 Energy Venture Forum, where the entrepreneurs pitched their business plans to a group of angel investors, venture capitalists, potential partners, and customers. e-Chromic and PAX Pure also presented their business plans to a second group of potential investors at an Investors’ Circle Colorado local network meeting.
The eight other ventures that participated in the Village Capital Energy cohort are:
- Bractlet accurately verifies energy savings for Energy Service Companies’ C&I energy retrofits.
- EEme converts big data into actionable insight to mine for residential energy efficiency (EE) sweet spots, empowering electric utilities and third party EE program implementers.
- Effortless Energy offers an individually tailored package of free, easy home upgrades that make homes more valuable, easier to control from a mobile device, more comfortable, healthier, and greener while saving money.
- Integrated Microfluidic Devices markets Fluid-Screen, a portable device that detects bacteria from fluids in minutes instead of days.
- OptiEnz Sensors has developed innovative, breakthrough technology for continuously and quantitatively measuring organic chemical concentrations (real time and in-line) in water and aqueous solutions.
- Rebound Technology is developing IcePoint, a unique refrigeration cycle with embedded thermal energy storage that saves supermarkets 60 percent on their low temperature cooling costs.
- Secure Waters develops, manufactures and markets the AquaSentinel, a Water Secure Sensor that detects toxins and pollutants in surface waters.
- Sustainable Power Systems aims to reduce the cost and environmental impact of energy production in remote off-grid locations by combining and controlling renewable energy, conventional energy, energy storage, and load management technologies.
Village Capital Energy is a partnership between Village Capital, Chilton Capital Management, the Rocky Mountain Innosphere, the Rockefeller Foundation, Colorado State University, the New Belgium Family Foundation, and the Tecovas Foundation.
About SOURCE
SOURCE is a partnership between The Hitachi Foundation, Investors’ Circle, and Village Capital, with additional support from The Rockefeller Foundation and the Sorenson Global Impact Investing Center. SOURCE discovers entrepreneurs creating business solutions to social issues affecting low-wealth Americans and links them with the investment capital and mentoring needed to grow their businesses. All of the entrepreneurs are also eligible to receive investment through the Investors’ Circle network.
About The Hitachi Foundation
The Hitachi Foundation is an independent, philanthropic organization that seeks to discover, demonstrate and expand business practices that both measurably improve economic opportunities for low-wealth individuals in the U.S. and enhance long term business value.
About Village Capital
Village Capital uses its unique peer-selection model help early-stage entrepreneurs develop and connect to investors. Since 2009, Village Capital has supported over 400 companies across the U.S., Europe, East Africa, India, China, and Brazil, solving major problems in financial access, energy, agriculture, education, and health.
About Investors’ Circle
Investors’ Circle (IC) is the largest early-stage impact investing network in the world. Together with hundreds of angels, venture capitalists, foundations and family offices, IC has propelled over $175 million into more than 275 enterprises dedicated to improving the environment, education, health, and community. A nonprofit organization, IC cultivates its impact investor network, provides opportunities for high-potential impact entrepreneurs to meet impact investors, and facilitates investment.
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