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We use the following criteria when evaluating companies seeking investment. Please read these carefully before submitting an application.
CLIMATE TECH SOLUTIONS
The company’s technology, products, or services have the potential to significantly mitigate climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gasses (GHG) associated with the production, distribution, or use of energy.
PEOPLE
We invest in and with people with the highest integrity, intelligence and commitment to a clean energy future. We expect the management team to possess the experience, capabilities, and diversity to successfully execute their business plan. We are known for our hands-on support and guidance after investment and deeply value diversity, equity and inclusion.
INVESTMENT RETURNS
We strive to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns for both investors and founders. Factors we consider include the size of the target market, the potential to develop a sustainable competitive advantage, and whether there are strong exit options within a reasonable timeframe.
SUSTAINABLE MARKET ADVANTAGE
We prefer investments with intellectual property protection or other sustainable competitive advantages that can provide a unique defensible position for 7+ years and protect the revenue streams the company will develop after our investment.
CLOSE TO COMMERCIALIZATION
We typically invest to help promising climate tech start-ups move from the R&D stage to the Growth stage. We look for companies with a clear engineering line-of-sight to a commercially ready product or validated service within 12 to 24 months of our investment. As angel investors, we recognize that stuff happens.
CAPITAL EFFICIENT COMMERCIALIZATION
Companies we invest in typically are capital-light. They have the potential to generate a trade sale or reach EBITDA-positive for less than $50M in lifetime equity financing. We typically do not finance project developers or projects.
STAGE
We invest in pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds of early-stage companies with valuations appropriate for their current stage of technology development and market growth potential. Typical valuations are under $10 million in order to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns for investors and entrepreneurs.
LOCATION
We focus on companies located in the United States and Canada.-
This on-line application portal is for early-stage advanced energy companies seeking funding from Clean Energy Venture Group and/or Clean Energy Ventures. As sister organizations, we share a single investment pipeline for prospective investments, giving you access to more funding opportunities through a single application.
CEVG and CEV commit to screening 100% of our online submissions. Every company we fund goes through this submission process – whether you meet us at an accelerator event, hear us speak at a conference, or find us online.
A group of over 30 CEVG and CEV partners and staff reviews each submission that passes a basic pre-screening. This ensures that each application receives a fair review. In return for our commitment to review submissions, we ask applicants to be thorough and thoughtful in their responses.
CEVG partners value being a small group based on strong relationships. While we limit our membership, we add partners from time to time. We welcome those bringing deep clean energy or climate tech expertise and/or a very strong related technical background. We expect partners to engage actively in the investment process, including pipeline evaluation, deal review, scouting, due diligence, and monitoring. We look for talented potential members able to add diversity by gender, nationality, global experience, and age, and a familiarity with relevant sectors or related climate tech angel and institutional funds. We have proven our ability to function effectively as a remote group and therefore welcome individuals from all over the US and Canada.
We have a generational obligation to bring a greater diversity of voices and perspectives into both CEVG’s own activity and the cleantech community more broadly. We prize diverse views in our investment decision-making process from identification of investment opportunities, the screening of prospects, to completing due diligence. To these ends, CEVG is piloting a Fellows Program. CEVG Fellows join our operations for a nine-month period that can be extended up to a year. During the Fellowship, CEVG Fellows lead an internal seminar on a topic of mutual interest. The Program is designed to bring in a wide range of knowledge, skills, and opinions to the CEVG decision-making process. At the same time, the Fellows gain knowledge of the VC investing process, focused on climate change mitigation. CEVG Fellows are not paid. They need not be Accredited Investors and there is no expectation that Fellows will invest. It is expected that Fellows will actively participate in CEVG and will attend at least 50% of our regular meetings and participate in investment diligence (in the aggregate, roughly 10 hours per month) or portfolio support.