Clean Energy Angel Fund Receives Close to $11 Million in Funds

Based in San Francisco, California, the Clean Energy Angel Fund , or CEF, is a venture capital firm that is very unique in its kind. The fund is run by two angel investors who are both CEOs in the clean-tech industry. The fund is dedicated to provide seed and early stage capital to startup companies in the clean-tech industry. CEF has announced on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 that it has closed the final leg of a funding round that sums up to near $11 million.

The new capital that CEF has received comes from both strategic corporate and individual private investors who have committed capital to funding new innovations that can disrupt the clean-tech industry. What makes CEF so unique is that it has been transformed from a typical angel group to a blend of both angel investors together with both venture capitalists and other institutional investors, such as strategic corporate investors. This basically is a hodgepodge of angels collaborating with other formal investors in funding startups in the clean-tech industry. This allows for new companies who receive funding from CEF to benefit from the resources and funding from both angel and formal investors.

The chairman of the Nevada Institute of Renewable Energy Commercialization, Ian Rogoff, is an active angel investor and stated that his collaboration with CEF is that the firm’s due diligence and a network of like-minded angel investors is exceptional and stands out from the crowd. Mr. Rogoff has been actively investing together with the other angels in CEF since 2008. Mr. Rogoff further added that since his collaboration with other angel investors in the firm has given him access to unique clean-tech startups in which he could invest seed capital with the potential to grow and values the group’s investment philosophy and analysis process.

Mr. Rogoff, however, is not the only angel who enjoys working with the other investors associated with CEF. According to the general partner of CEF, Susan Preston, one of the cornerstones of CEF’s investment strategy is that the firm requires transparency from all partners. This provides a type of hybrid investment firm. Because there are angels investing with CEF, there is the informal factor of angel investors who choose to participate in investments and the more formal visibility and interaction that one would find with venture capitalists or other institutional investors. Ms. Preston further added that closing this fund in such difficult times is a testament to the success of the funding model that CEF has developed.

Some companies in CEF’s portfolio include HID Labs, Allopartis Biotechnologies, and Alphabet Energy.