5 clean technologies drawing intense VC interest

from VC Ratings by Joshua Jaffe

The Deal's Tech Confidential was released last week and profiled five clean technologies that venture capitalists are showing increased interest in. Here's a quick rundown on those technologies and some venture-funded startups working in each area:

3G Solar - The third generation of solar companies include HelioDynamics, which is working on manufacturing rotating parts that can follow the sun as it moves across the sky. Energy Innovations, which has raised $29 million, and crosstown peer Practical Instruments are making "concentrators" that use mirrors to focus sunlight more precisely. Konarka Technologies, which has raised about $60 million in venture capital, and HelioVolt are working on materials other than traditional silicon, such as copper indium gallium selenium, and developing processes that allow solar cells to be printed onto surfaces other than roofs, such as windows.

Fuel Cells - Fuel cells remain problematic because the chemical reactions either generate too much heat or require supercool temperatures. One answer to this problem could be nanomaterials. Promising companies in the field include CTP Hydrogen and Franklin Fuel Cells.

Biofuel - There are many ways to produce this. One potential source of biofuel is the methane stored in garbage and animal waste. Startups such as Ze-gen are paving the way for methane-to-power conversion. Even pond scum may one day have a role to play. GreenFuel Technologies has raised $20 million to work on generating biofuel from algae.

Water - Obstacles remain, but New York's Verdant Power and Ocean Power Delivery in Edinburgh, Scotland, which has raised $39.5 million, are vying to develop wave power technologies.

Wind - Southwest Windpower, which has raised $10 million, and Mariah Power are developing wind turbines for residential areas. Some startups are developing kites and balloons that can generate wind power. For example, Magenn Power makes floating wind turbines that the Ottawa company says are superior to conventional turbines.

There are other areas as exemplified by the investment segmentation that Vinod Khosla has done in this area. But, these five areas are a good place to start for venture capital firms just starting to get active in this area.

For more on venture interest in cleantech startups, see: TechConfidential PodTech.net

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Google's MyMaps threatens, but won't destroy Platial

from VC Ratings by Joshua Jaffe

In the time honored tradition of Web 2.0, Google's launch of a new product last week prompted predictions of the imminent death of hundreds of startups offering a similar service. This time the culprit was Google's MyMaps, a personalized map making service for individuals.

The presumed victim was Platial, a startup backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, along with hundreds of less serious mashup tools. But, as has been seen previously in comparison shopping, social networking and vertical search, Google's entry into a new area isn't equivalent to a death knell for all startups that find themselves suddenly competing with the web giant.

Platial CEO Di-Ann Eisnor wrote last week that Google has indeed disrupted Platial's business but it was neither surprising nor devastating. That's because Platial can compete on features such as community, privacy and functionality.

And even if Google begins to dominate the market for personal online mapmaking, it will do so by expanding the number of people participating in it, which should compel companies such as Ask.com, Yahoo and MSN to begin to participate in it more deeply. This should only make the best online map startups more valuable.

For more on Google's MyMaps release, see: O'Reilly Radar Robert Scoble

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Searching for the hottest Silicon Valley startups

from VC Ratings by Joshua Jaffe

LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman is using his company's question and answer service to boost deal flow. The busy angel investor posted a question on LinkedIn's Answers service last week wondering "What are the three hottest companies in Silicon Valley currently?" Something must be in the air because Matt Marshall of VentureBeat asked his readers the same question a few days before.

The responses show that after Facebook, there really is no consensus answer. NetSuite, Linden Research, LinkedIn, AdMob, Digg, NanoSolar and Tesla received multiple nominations. Bebo, AdBrite and Aggregate Knowledge, companies I think are building fast growing, profitable businesses, each received a mention. One I didn't see in the response section yet that I think holds tremendous potential is TechMeme.

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NBC/GE VC fund the latest media entrant

from VC Ratings by Joshua Jaffe

A new $250 million venture capital fund announced earlier this week by GE and NBCU joins a crowded filed of media companies targeting early stage startups. As The Deal's Richard Morgan writes:

By targeting "developing technologies, platforms or business models with a strong strategic fit with NBC Universal" — then paying up to $15 million for each opportunity that passes muster — the General Electric Co. units are playing catch-up with other conglomerate-size strategics. Among existing entries are Time Warner Investments, which began life as the venture capital arm of America Online Inc.; Steamboat Ventures, which the Walt Disney Co. founded in 2000 but kept from investing until 2002; and Comcast Interactive Media, which the largest U.S. cable company set up in 2005 to, in its words, "develop compelling online interactive services."

None of those companies have made much of an impact with their venture funds, so there's plenty of room for the GE/NBCU vehicle to differentiate itself. Beth Comstock (pictured above), President of integrated media at NBCU, said the goal of the fund is to gain access to and influence cutting edge media technology.

The main question for all these media funds is what happens when times get tougher? Where do these venture funds rank on the list of corporate initiatives most likely to be eliminated as part of overall cost cuts? Instead of launching a fund during good times, it might make more sense to launch one during tough times when valuations and competition are lowest.

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India trying to save the world from yoga patents

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Western governments are granting patents, trademarks, and copyrights over yoga to con-artists who claim to have invented the millennia-old practice. The Indian government is retaliating by publishing a giant, multi-lingual database of yoga-stuff so that patent examiners can see that "yoga didn't originate in a San Francisco commune."

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued 150 yoga-related copyrights, 134 patents on yoga accessories, and 2,315 yoga trademarks. There's big money in those pretzel twists and contortions - $3 billion a year in America alone. It's a mystery to most Indians that anybody can make that much money from the teaching of a knowledge that is not supposed to be bought or sold like sausages.

The Indian government is not laughing. It has set up a task force that is cataloging traditional knowledge, including ayurvedic remedies and hundreds of yoga poses, to protect them from being pirated and copyrighted by foreign hucksters. The data will be translated from ancient Sanskrit and Tamil texts, stored digitally, and available in five international languages, so that patent offices in other countries can see that yoga didn't originate in a San Francisco commune.

It is worth noting that the people in the forefront of the patenting of traditional Indian wisdom are Indians, mostly overseas. We know a business opportunity when we see one and have exported generations of gurus skilled in peddling enlightenment for a buck. But as Indians, they ought to know that the very idea of patenting knowledge is a gross violation of the tradition of yoga.

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