Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)

"How does LA create a LEGACY with hosting the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games?" ^^This was the theme I heard throughout many conversations last week while attending CoMotion and Green Tech Festival. We have such an incredible opportunity with the games coming to LA in less than 4 years and I'm excited to witness how Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and our portfolio companies will play a role! In building on the theme of legacy, it was so fun seeing so many LACI companies across several cohorts out and about last week! Saad Youssefi of Batteryze, Tiya Gordon of itselectric, Tim Huntzinger and Diego Cardenas, MSTM, BSBA of XOTO inc., Armelle Coutant of Kit Switch, Anurag Kamal of ElectricFish, Casey Castor of Mack Research, James Werbe of Wayside Energy, Emily Dinino of ThermoShade, Santiago Flores of Pure Energy Stream, Inc., Joey Pham of Eorte Brand! Finally, to wrap up this theme of legacy, I am so proud of Saad Youssefi of Batteryze for winning CoMotion's 2024 New Mobility Challenge! Taking the baton from another LACI port co Tiya Gordon of itselectric who won last year and represented on the judges panel this year.

?? Have an innovative idea that you'd like to pilot in the Los Angeles community? We have supported nearly 500 startups scale their technologies, leading to more than 250 pilots deployed across the Greater Los Angeles area. Over the past 9 cohorts, Incubation companies have received $1.4 million dollars in pilot funding. From transportation electrification efforts through e-bike lending libraries in South Los Angeles to sustainable city efforts toward off-grid agricultural sites, LACI portfolio companies are leading the charge toward a more inclusive green economy. Join them by applying to our Incubation startup program today:?laci.la/i10-apply

?? Congrats to 3 LACI active and alumni portfolio companies, Emissionless Mobility, ElectricFish, and Automotus for being selected as 3 of the 10 semi-finalists for the #TMFSustainableCities Detroit Challenge: Transforming freight! Each team will now receive a $50,000 implementation grant to develop, test and demonstrate their solutions! Excited to see what's to come!

???? Congratulations to Saad Y., Founder and CEO of Batteryze for winning CoMotion LA's New Mobility Challenge! Batteryze is a LACI portfolio company that participated in Cohort 6 of our Incubation program. As the winner, Saad has the opportunity to pitch at the Greentech Festival Startup Slam and has received an all expense paid trip to London! We are so proud of Saad for his hard work and success at CoMotion LA '24!

???? If you or a partner work with school districts in EPA Region 9, join Highland Electric Fleets for webinar on 11/19 for a "fireside chat" between Highland's own Jane Israel and Brian Buccella. This webinar can help Los Angeles County school reach our Transportation Electrification Partnership (TEP) Roadmap 3.0 goal for 40% in-use school buses and 100% of school bus sales to be electric. They will discuss federal and state funding opportunities and share lessons learned in both financing and implementing transformative school bus electrification projects. ?? Learn more about our Transportation Electrification Partnership (TEP): https://lnkd.in/g42RbAnW

?? Join us for LACI's monthly Cleantech Finance Workshop. Accessing financing in the #cleantech space is uniquely challenging. LACI has developed an innovative solution to help founders navigate the complex system of equity, debt, and grant financing. This workshop will teach founders the benefits and trade offs of dilutive and non-dilutive financing, and how to best use each to fund their businesses. We will also share specific information about the LACI Debt Fund, a first of its kind fund specifically designed to support cleantech entrepreneurs with grants, first customer contracts, and working capital needs. Register here to join us on November 20 at 1pm PST: https://lnkd.in/gQwUjakr

??? Saya Life has received the LACI Cleantech Debt Fund's largest loan to date of $500k! Saya is a vertically-integrated solution that enables multi-unit residences to bill individual water users, while predicting and preventing catastrophic damage from common leaks. Saya plans to use the funds for inventory, job creation, and their app development for web & mobile platforms. Saya has been a part of the LACI ecosystem since 2016, when they joined our Incubation program.? ?? Congratulations to Saya Life, we look forward to supporting you in your continued growth! Learn more about our Cleantech Debt Fund: https://lnkd.in/gQwUjakr

?? We are looking for #cleantech changemakers to join our startup programs! The numbers don't lie! By becoming a LACI portfolio company, you can gain access to our unique funding and financing opportunities that can help push your innovative idea to the LA market and beyond. Be a part of the #cleantech revolution and apply for Incubation Cohort 10 today! Applications close December 12. Apply today: laci.la/i10-apply

This week, LACI President & CEO Matt Petersen joined key sustainability leaders in Barcelona for the Smart City Expo World Congress, where he partook in two important sessions. In the first session, Matt joined Michael Perreault from the Port of Québec, Inés Sylverans from The Beacon | Innovation Community and Manuel Martinez de Ubago Alvarez de Sotomayor from NextPort.AI to explore how startups can effectively collaborate with port authorities to drive success, practical strategies to understand regulations in port-related industries, and the role accelerators have in strengthening these relationships. During the second session, Matt presented the vision of the City Climate Innovation Challenge and how the initiative is working with local governments and ports. The first Challenge focus on zero emissions delivery includes work with ports and cities on charging innovation, policy innovation to reduce emissions, and startup tech innovation to meet pollution and congestion reduction goals. The expo served as an opportunity to learn from other voices of expertise and to share our own efforts to electrify goods movement from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where nearly 40% of the nation's cargo arrives--more on these efforts soon! #SCEWC24

For 8 years, LACItizen Awards has honored influential individuals in the cleantech industry. This year, our first honoree is Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky. LACI President and CEO Matt Petersen says, "Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky has quickly become an environmental champion on the Council, including by introducing motions to create and fund a climate action plan for the City and pushing for accelerating zero emissions buses at Metro. The Councilwoman's actions as the chair of the city's Energy & Environment Committee also included a motion reinforcing the importance of LACI's Clean Energy 2028 Roadmap that calls for 1298 MW of clean, responsive distributed generation to power the electrification of our homes and transportation across not just the City, but the entire County of LA. Her success is thanks in part to her ability to listen, build coalitions and understand complex programs - while keeping environmental justice at the forefront." We look forward to celebrating Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky at our 8th annual LACItizen Awards on December 5! Join us:?https://lnkd.in/gQY2_a-J