Big bucks for ecomagination

NEW YORK, US: GE and its venture capital partners will invest $63 million in 10 innovative home energy technology companies, marking the second round of funding as part of the $200 million “GE ecomagination Challenge”.

This phase of the Challenge, “Powering Your Home,” was launched in January as part of GE’s commitment to improve household energy efficiency through new technologies. At present, GE and its partners have invested or committed to invest $134MM in the home energy and power grid technology developers announced as winners of the Innovation Challenge. The Challenge has also produced 22 new commercial partnerships and resulted in the acquisition of FMC-Tech, a smart grid technology from the first phase, adds a press release.

“After one year and $134 million committed to new partners, we delivered on our goal to scale and commercialize the best new ideas through open innovation,” said Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, GE. “The power of networked ideas, collaboration and partnerships to accelerate innovation represents a gathering force whose impact will be a significant driver in the future of business.”

Going forward, GE will commit this additional $20 million for scaling and commercializing ideas from the Challenge through a new ecomagination Innovation Council. GE and its VC partners plan to launch a region-specific ecomagination Challenge in China later this year, as well as establishing a $5 million seed fund in Europe with Carbon Trust to provide support for early stage ideas that need assistance getting off the ground.

The $63 million in investments and commercial partnerships in phase two include 10 new concepts from consumer clean tech sectors including solar, communications & software and building efficiency.