Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator reboots its incubation program with 16-member cohort
Summary
The challenge with that was giving founders steady programming," said chief executive Matt Peterson.Nearly one-third of the founders involved in the incubators latest program are women, over half of the founders are people of color and more than 5% are veterans, making the new cohort the most diverse in the incubators history.Peterson is also flagging what he believes is a first for an incubator where startups can earn back their equity if they show hard numbers that indicate privileging diversity and access in hiring and in the availability of technologies and services to low-income communities.Some of the companies in the incubators current cohort may also provide a small degree of support -- and jobs -- to Los Angeles residents hit hard by the social distancing measures the city and state have enacted to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.Companies like SparkCharge, ePave, and CERO Bikes are all companies that could employ local residents and launch shovel-ready projects with potential funding from local stimulus plans.As LAs most established incubator, we have a strong track record of empowering and supporting entrepreneurs truly representative of our energetic, diverse and innovative city, says Matt Petersen, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. By continuing our investment in startup incubation, we will help stimulate the economy now, invest in industries that will bring future clean jobs to our communities and spur innovation to develop climate mitigation solutions.The new incubator program will last two years and is structured in a way that allows for startups to buy back equity from the incubator upon completion of certain milestones.Companies in the new class include: None Alumina Energy is a U.S.-based energy storage technology company designing and building energy storage systems for the utility, industrial and commercial scale power generation and process heat markets. None Substance Power and Mobility is founded by a team of former aerospace and automotive entrepreneurs and executives and is working on developing energy storage hardware. None Sustainable Building Council uses modified shipping containers with grid-independent water and power to make affordable housing. None TBM Designs makes self-shading window systems using thermo-bimetal to reduce energy costs by cutting the need for air conditioning.