NYSERDA Announces Columbia Technology Ventures to Manage State's Successful Clean Energy Business Mentoring Program
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) announced that Columbia Technology Ventures (Columbia) will administer the state's highly successful Entrepreneurs-In-Residence (EIR) program which provides mentoring and coaching at no cost to emerging clean energy companies. Accelerating the commercialization of promising new clean energy businesses supports Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's fight against climate change and his Green New Deal, a landmark plan that provides for a just transition to clean energy that spurs growth of the green economy.
Alicia Barton, President and CEO, NYSERDA, said, "Governor Cuomo's nation-leading Green New Deal has put New York at the forefront of the global clean energy transition, and supporting our state's home-grown innovators and entrepreneurs will be a key part of our strategy to tackle the climate crisis. NYSERDA is pleased to be partnering with Columbia Technology Ventures to provide the resources needed for promising cleantech startups to accelerate their growth and path to market, and to build even greater momentum in New York's thriving cleantech economy."
The program has expanded and now includes more than 40 EIRs who are entrepreneurs, business executives, subject matter experts and investors that provide a broad range of advisory services to emerging companies throughout the state. Services include providing guidance tailored to specific projects and business operations areas such as staffing for growth, budget management, resource planning, capital raising, strategic partnering and board management. The goal is to help promising entrepreneurs accelerate their path to commercialization by securing investment and partnerships, scaling up their companies, and achieving commercial success.
Since the program was launched in 2009, EIRs have provided mentoring services for more than 235 projects with 160 companies. As a result, EIR-assisted companies have generated more than $21 million in revenue, received $17 million in grants and raised over $20 million in private capital as they worked to commercialize products that contributed to New York's clean energy economy.
Columbia will build on the momentum of the state's successful program by developing new services to further support emerging clean energy companies. It has extensive experience in helping startup companies accelerate the introduction of their technologies into the marketplace. Columbia supports several accelerators as well as PowerBridgeNY, a clean energy proof-of-concept center supported by NYSERDA which accelerates the commercialization of clean energy-related technologies by linking companies to researchers, investors, entrepreneurs, and the broader ecosystem.
Jim Aloise, Assistant Vice President and Director of Strategic Initiatives, Columbia, said, "NYSERDA's EIR Program has been tremendously successful and we look forward to continuing to offer these services to promising clean energy startups. We are excited by the opportunity to work together with the New York State ecosystem in developing new innovative services that help even more clean energy startups succeed."
NYSERDA's EIR program supports Governor Cuomo's Green New Deal, a nation-leading clean energy and jobs agenda that puts New York on a path to carbon neutrality. Today's announcement builds on Governor Cuomo's October 2018 announcement regarding the availability of $27.5 million in funding for workforce development and training initiatives to help prepare New Yorkers for the clean energy industry's growing job opportunities. Clean energy jobs in New York are already growing at double the statewide average employment growth rate and with current trajectories, we expect to see over 100,000 more jobs in this sector in the years ahead.
The EIR program is a critical component of the state's overall approach to make New York the prominent place in the world for entrepreneurs to start and build clean energy businesses. In addition to the EIR program, NYSERDA supports six cleantech incubators throughout the state (Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, New York City and Long Island), offers numerous direct funding opportunities, and administers the 76West Clean Energy Competition, one of the largest competitions in the nation focused on supporting and growing emerging clean energy businesses and economic development, among other programs. As a result of NYSERDA's technology investments and business development support, more than 430 new and improved clean energy products have been commercialized.