More than 70 investors, from seed backers to established venture capitalists, lined up on Oct. 3 to hear the latest pitches by companies in the clean-technology industry.
Sustain OC and Newport Beach-based Roth Capital Partners LLC hosted Cleantech Private Capital Day, an event that provided 33 companies face-to-face time with dozens of private investors, including the local chapter of Tech Coast Angels.
Eight OC companies participated: Huntington Beach-based Newlight Technologies Inc.; San Clemente-based Swift Engineering Inc., Costa Mesa’s Zen Ecosystems; and Ice Energy (featured in the Oct. 1 edition of the Business Journal), as well as four Irvine-based companies Phoenix Energy, Lumitron Technologies Inc., Enevate Corp. and iGlass Technology Inc. The companies, many with years of experience under their belts, make a wide variety of products, ranging from energy storage devices to systems that remotely control thermostats and lights.
Each funding hopeful had at least eight 30-minute meetings with potential investors during the event at the UCI Applied Innovation center at UCI Research Park.
“This is about clean-tech economic development,” Sustain OC President and Chief Executive Scott Kitcher told the Business Journal at the event. “Our goal is to get these companies funded and on their way to market or further into market.”
The conference included panels on energy innovation, state contracts and technology trends.
It was the first co-hosted by Roth Capital Partners, which has been involved with the trade group since it was established in 2010. Chairman and Chief Executive Byron Roth has long been an advocate of the segment.
“Roth has always had a commitment to the space,” said Brian Kremer, director of Roth’s Cleantech Investment Banking Group. “We’ve become more active in trying to work with private companies.”
Sustain OC, previously Cleantech OC, is changing its name again to Sustain SoCal to reflect an expanded coverage area.
SEGA Swaps Executives
Tokyo-based video game developer SEGA Games Co. is making big executive changes at its U.S. units in Irvine.
Ian Curran, president and chief operating officer of SEGA of America Inc., will take on the same roles at Atlus U.S.A.
SEGA West Chief Executive Tatsuyuki Miyazaki will take the top post at Atlus, replacing Naoto Hiraoka, who will serve as Atlus brand owner. Hiraoka will be guiding Atlus’ brand and titles from Japan.
Hiraoka will remain on the boards of Atlus U.S.A. and SEGA of America.
The local SEGA unit develops, publishes and distributes entertainment software products for systems made by Nintendo Co., Microsoft Corp. and Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Sega acquired Atlus parent Index Corp. in 2013 for $140 million after it entered bankruptcy.
Atlus U.S.A. publishes Japanese video games, including “Persona 5,” the Shin Megami Tensei series, and action-adventure puzzle game “Catherine.”
New Director
Palo Alto Networks Inc. President Mark Anderson has joined the board of Irvine-based analytics software maker Alteryx Inc. (NYSE: AYX).
He replaces Jai Das, who was an instrumental adviser through the company’s transition and its initial public offering last year, which netted $114 million in proceeds. In 2006, Das co-founded Sapphire Ventures LLC, where he has worked as managing director since 2011.
Anderson is on a hot streak. He’s responsible for sales at the Santa Clara software security maker (NYSE: PANW), which saw revenue jump 29% to $2.3 billion in the fiscal year ended in July.
Previously, Anderson led sales at Seattle-based networking and security products maker F5 Networks Inc. and also has leadership roles at Lucent Technologies Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
“As we plan for our next phase of growth, Mark’s strong executive experience scaling companies will be a powerful resource for our company,” Alteryx Chief Executive Dean Stoecker said in a press release.
Alteryx saw second-quarter sales climb 54% to $46.8 million. Its shares have more than doubled this year to $52 and a $3.2 billion market cap.
The addition of Anderson should also bolster the security expertise of Alteryx’s board.
Alteryx was at the center of a data breach about a year ago when it accidentally exposed an online database of sensitive information on roughly 123 million U.S. households.
The information was accessible to users with an Amazon Web Services account.
“When we discovered this issue, we removed the file from AWS and also added a layer of additional security to the AWS bucket where the file was stored,” a spokesperson said at the time.
Directors on the nine-member board were paid less than $50,000 in cash last year and instead were compensated with stock awards worth from $146,000 to $224,000, according to a proxy issued in April.
