North American EV charging company FLO has just announced plans to open its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Michigan in 2022. This is part of a plan to accelerate execution of its U.S. market strategy to support electric vehicle charging infrastructure. FLO’s new facility will be located in the north Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, and expects the new location will make a major contribution to Michigan’s electrification future.
Ann Arbor-based renewable energy O&M solutions startup SkySpecs has just announced an $80 million strategic capital raise led by the Sustainable Investing business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management with additional participation from a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources and other existing SkySpecs investors including Statkraft Ventures, Equinor Ventures, Evergy Ventures, UL Ventures and Huron River Ventures. This is one of the biggest startup raises in Michigan history.
Evergreen Climate Innovation’s 501vc Investment Fund now invests $200k – $300k in early-stage climate tech startups in the Greater Midwest. This climate tech-focused investment fund is looking to support climate startups specifically in the tech space that are headquartered in places like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and the surrounding states, a location that is historically under-funded for climate tech.
North American EV charging company FLO has just announced plans to open its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Michigan in 2022. This is part of a plan to accelerate execution of its U.S. market strategy to support electric vehicle charging infrastructure. FLO’s new facility will be located in the north Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, and expects the new location will make a major contribution to Michigan’s electrification future.
Ann Arbor-based renewable energy O&M solutions startup SkySpecs has just announced an $80 million strategic capital raise led by the Sustainable Investing business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management with additional participation from a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources and other existing SkySpecs investors including Statkraft Ventures, Equinor Ventures, Evergy Ventures, UL Ventures and Huron River Ventures. This is one of the biggest startup raises in Michigan history.
Evergreen Climate Innovation’s 501vc Investment Fund now invests $200k – $300k in early-stage climate tech startups in the Greater Midwest. This climate tech-focused investment fund is looking to support climate startups specifically in the tech space that are headquartered in places like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and the surrounding states, a location that is historically under-funded for climate tech.
The Clean Energy Business Network has created a database of funding opportunities for cleantech businesses. This helps pair eligible businesses with funding for climate technologies based on stage of the company or technology and by industry. As businesses become more aware of their climate impact and look for ways to green their business processes or technology, we wanted to highlight some ways to connect with people who can provide technology or help cleantech entrepreneurs grow their business anywhere in the U.S.
University of Michigan students and faculty have just launched a student-run investment fund focused on supporting early-stage climate tech companies.
In June, Aeroseal, LLC, a climate tech company shrinking carbon emissions from residential and commercial buildings, announced it raised $22 million in funding. The Series A round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) with participation from Energy Impact Partners and Building Ventures.
Combining a shift to electric vehicles over the next decades and paying to offset emissions, General Motors announced yesterday a plan to finally put internal combustion engines and their climate-altering pollution in the rearview within 2 decades. Historically, GM is not known for quick corporate change or for prioritizing the planet over shareholder value, but the writing has been on the wall now for over a decade between government regulations and urgent climate change priorities shifting how consumers aim to purchase next vehicles. GM has worked for a number of years to retrofit older vehicle designs with hybrid and electric options, and recently put nearly all of its R&D budget into designing electric vehicles from the ground up, signaling a serious commitment to EVs. Currently, electric vehicle sales are in the single digits percentage-wise of vehicles sold, but rising quickly as more practical options become available and rapid charging becomes viable for the average consumer.
“We recently closed on $17 million in funding, reinforcing our commitment to the wind industry,” says Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs, a sustainable energy company in Ann Arbor that uses drones to inspect wind turbines. “We’ve doubled down our focus on the wind industry.”
Russell Schindler is the head of TCNewTech in Traverse City, which at 1600 members averages 200 people per meeting. He’s also the CEO and founder of a company called SampleServe that uses technology to update the antiquated process of environmental sampling, from municipal water supply testing to cannabis. It sounds simple, and some of the technology is, but, Schindler tells us, the state of Michigan updated the standards for environmental sampling of soil, water, and the like, a number of years ago, and all of a sudden, it became much harder for companies to not only purchase specialized equipment required to conduct their sampling, but also to process all the data.
Ten years ago, this editor was writing about climate change and green technology that could make a difference through Inhabitat, the web’s largest green design blog. It did help get the word out with millions of monthly subscribers. We Cronicle founders even got to drive Elon Musk’s personal first-gen all-electric Tesla Roadster for a test drive before the company had a test fleet. Seems like ages ago now that you could walk into Tesla’s old Los Altos headquarters and get thrown the keys to Elon Musk’s personal vehicle. It kind of was. Burnout is common among people working on climate change or other urgent global issues, and it wasn’t easy watching one deadline after another to stop climate change pass while the world was actually accelerating in the wrong direction.
