Scott Kitcher, president of Sustain SoCal, wants more cash—for his sector’s early-stage firms, that is.
“We’ve put the pedal to the metal,” Kitcher said shortly before investors and startups huddled at University of California-Irvine this month.
His group promotes clean, efficient tech plays in energy, water and transportation, and did so Dec. 4 alongside Roth Capital Partners of Newport Beach at their second annual Cleantech Private Capital Day at UCI’s Beall Applied Innovation.
Twenty-nine privately held clean tech firms were there, including a handful of locals.
Roth is one of the largest investment banks based in OC and is a founding board member of Sustain SoCal. Other board reps hail from area companies such as Westminster’s BioLargo Inc. and the Irvine office of Allergan PLC, with several area water districts and law firms also represented.
Startup Funding
This year’s event included companies farther along the growth curve, Kitcher said, a testimony to a higher level of prominence. At least year’s inaugural event, half were seeking seed rounds, half at Series A. This year, more than 70% were Series A or B level, with some higher still and a few seed-stage firms.
Kitcher views Series A as seeking up to $40 million and Series B as high as $100 million. Progress through levels, of course, suggest greater long-term growth.
The invitation-only UCI event included 48 investors, more than half venture capitalists. Others were strategic or private equity, family offices and angels. He said 150 one-on-one meetings were held.
The third annual event is planned for October 2020.
Sustain SoCal was formed in 2010 as CleanTech OC and now counts more than 200 members and partners—both entrepreneurs and investors, Kitcher said.
“The primary goal is to get capital infused into these companies and help them to grow.”
He points to successes in several of the organization’s initiatives including energy, water, transportation, ag-tech, and waste management.
OC’s largest publicly traded cleantech firm is Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE) in Newport Beach, with a $400 million market cap.
Energy Commission
Kitcher has a background in finance and is the only employee of nonprofit Sustain SoCal; he works out of the UCI Beall center and collaborates with a 30-person board of directors. Funding has included grants from the government-run California Energy Commission.
“It was really rewarding to bring early stage clean-tech companies together with venture investors and hopefully make the funding process just a little bit easier for everyone,” said Roth Managing Director for cleantech and industrials and Senior Research Analyst Craig Irwin after the event. “We all learned a lot from the conversations.”
Since 2014, Roth has been involved in about 75 transactions for its Cleantech & Industrial Growth clients with a total transaction value topping $2.9 billion.
Organizers said companies taking part this year included wastewater specialist BDP EnviroTech of Laguna Hills; electric-vehicle charging company EV Connect of El Segundo; water management firm Saya of Los Angeles; internal building environment specialist Blue Box Air of Los Angeles; and battery specialist Simpliphi of Oxnard.
Solar, Wind
Cleantech energy can run the gamut from solar to wind and biofuels, while hydro power has long been integrated into the clean energy mix and doesn’t often figure into current startup chatter. Cleantech also emphasizes energy efficiencies, including LED lighting among the best known, along with better building heating and cooling systems as well as transportation.
Air pollution, climate issues and population growth demonstrate the need for clean energy, said Sustain SoCal. It generally stays out of politics—heated rhetoric over trade, for instance—and seeking, Kitcher said, the “holistic” solutions to challenges.
“It’s not a realistic approach to say we can just electrify everything,” he said, and “there’s clear and present need to push forward regardless of the war of words.”
It can be a fine line.
“We just put our heads down and keep working toward a solution.”
