US Navy invests $30M in the Energy Excelerator

We have exciting news to share: we’ve raised $30M to fund the next generation of energy entrepreneurs through our program.

This means we have a new pool of funding to help the incredible entrepreneurs we work with scale their companies. We’re especially excited to make this announcement because it’s three times larger than the amount we’ve operated on since launching the Energy Excelerator.

We’ll be using the capital to help startups building solutions in these three main areas: integrating renewable energy into the electric grid, transportation, and energy efficiency. The startups receiving funding will build pilot projects in Hawaii and be able to raise additional money as well. (Read more about this in Forbes.)

For entrepreneurs, one of the most exciting things about this funding is that it’s non-dilutive: the capital that we provide isn’t used to take equity in the companies we support. We’re able to offer this grant-based funding through a federal government program. We do collect 1% of additional fundraising to contribute back into the program.

The capital comes from the United States Office of Naval Research. Officially, it’s part of the Asia Pacific Technology Education Program, which supports alternative energy research, technology development, and education. As Dawn told TechCrunch, the decision to back the Energy Excelerator actually came through the Department of Defense, who channeled the funding through the Navy. They’re very interested in our work helping solve energy problems in the Hawaii and Asia-Pacific regions.

We’re so incredibly honored to work with the Navy and be able to provide this capital to our entrepreneurs. The Energy Excelerator is currently accepting applications for its next cohort of startups. Help us out and refer a startup that might be a fit!