If cleantech is the innovation focus du jour, where should forward-thinking investors — and research labs hoping to tap into a strong current of market pull — look for the next hot market? Think ‘integration,’ specifically IT and cleantech, says Kef Kasdin, general partner with Battelle Ventures and Innovation Valley Partners. “Smart-grid technologies — deploying networking technologies to enable better energy utilization and to obviate the need to build more fossil fuel power plants — offer significantly differentiated, breakthrough technologies,” she says.
Kasdin, an experienced VC exec, focuses on investments in communications and energy technology. She also seeks to identify promising technologies, projects, and synergies with the National Laboratories that Battelle Ventures’ sole limited partner, Battelle Memorial Institute, manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. Kasdin takes a broad view of the cleantech sector, and the portfolio at Battelle Ventures includes companies developing solar, energy storage and efficiency, and smart-grid technologies. “We expect that innovative ideas for achievement in smart-grid technology will attract the attention of those who invest in the cleantech sector,” she says.
Those ideas include integration of renewable technologies, such as solar and wind, on the existing electricity grid, which also will require intelligence in the grid network. Advanced energy-cell and battery technology is another area of concentration within the fund. “In order to make electric vehicles practical and affordable, game-changing innovations that address the shortcomings of traditional chemical cells are needed,” Kasdin explains. “We’re seeing new developments with solid-state lithium technology with the potential to enable large-format batteries that are substantially smaller, cheaper, safer, and more powerful than is possible with existing rechargeable chemical battery technology.”
Breakthrough solutions will draw VC interest in new offerings in the cleantech space, she adds. But entrepreneurs must have a buttoned-up business plan and an executive summary that addresses the issues critical to any investor. “Show how the technology will generate returns for the investor, as well as how the solutions will have a game-changing impact on the marketplace,” Kasdin advises.
Source: NASVF
Editor’s Note: Hear more from Kasdin and other experts during our six-week webinar series, “Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors,” beginning June 3. Click here for more details.