Got a bright idea? How about an energy-saving one? GE announced today a $200 million “open innovation challenge” that invites inventors, entrepreneurs, and startups of all stripes to compete to develop the next-generation of power grid technologies.
Called the Ecomagination Challenge, this huge investment comes only weeks after GE announced a $10 billion injection into its own eco-R&D projects.Along with four VC firms that have pledged half of the $200 million to the challenge, GE is asking the public for innovative ideas in clean technology. From now until September 30, you can head to the Ecomagination homepage to submit a proposal or vote for other user-generated ideas.
GE explained earlier today that the $200 million investment could lead to acquisition or co-development opportunities, and even trademark and licensing deals. “This is wide-open,” said another investor in the challenge, who commented that the challenge should serve as a catalyst for novel ideas, regardless of who comes up with them, whether an individual or well-funded start-up [Source].
Facebook is going to go beyond rolling out standalone applications for iPhones, Google Android devices or feature phones and start considering itself a platform for developers to distribute mobile apps with.
“Where we’re going from here is a platform strategy. We’re going away from a one-off app strategy,” said Erick Tseng in his first public appearance since joining Facebook as head of mobile products. Speaking at VentureBeat’s MobileBeat conference today, he said the company will start building out this effort over the next several months [Source].
The Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures dream team are swooping in once again to provide much-needed cash to a worthy sustainable startup. The pair recently injected millions into nuclear power startup TerraPower, and now they’re back again to invest $23.5 million in EcoMotors’s series B funding round.
EcoMotors builds a lightweight, high-efficiency, low-cost combustion engine that supposedly offer 50% greater fuel efficiency than similar conventional engines. The company’s Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder (OPOC) engine can be used in everything from passenger vehicles to auxiliary power supplies–anywhere traditional gas and diesel-powered engines can be found.
In case you weren’t one of the 700 million-plus fans to watch the World Cup Finals yesterday, Spain beat the Netherlands 1-0 in extra time. But the España football stars weren’t the only winners–and certainly the Holland footballers were not the only losers. Companies around the world were competing to increase brand awareness and boost profits–here’s FastCompany’s list of the winners and losers.
At first glance the three firms could not look more different.
DST was created in 2005 when two Russian internet investors, Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger, pooled their interests in mail.ru, a Russian web portal. Today the firm controls many of the country’s leading websites and boasts an interesting mix of owners, including Goldman Sachs and Alisher Usmanov, a Russian billionaire, who holds 27%.
Based in Cape Town, Naspers is nearly 100 years old and is the publisher of the Daily Sun, South Africa’s biggest newspaper. But it is one of the most ambitious old-media companies anywhere in its move online. It still makes most of its sales—28 billion rand ($3.6 billion) in the year to March—from print and pay-television, but it uses the cash to buy online firms.
Tencent hails from Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. Founded in 1998, it had revenues of $1.8 billion in 2009 [Full article here].
A new Google search tool to allow people to search easily for air travel and book travel plans is now on the runway. Google said Thursday that it had agreed to acquire ITA Software, a 14-year-old company that makes software that organizes flight and pricing information, for $700 million in cash.
Given that about half of airline tickets are sold online these days, it’s perhaps no surprise that Google has just snapped up ITA Software in a deal worth some $700m. The search behemoth says it is getting its hands on ITA, which gathers and processes flight information such as seat pricing and availability, to make it easier for people to find quickly the flights they want at the very best prices [Source].
GE has a whole lot faith in its ecomagination initiative. So much faith, in fact, that the company is pumping $10 billion into the project’s R&D over the next 5 years–effectively doubling its investment from the past 5 years.
The reason is simple: ecomagination is a cash cow, generating $70 billion in revenue since its inception in 2005. GE believes it will generate $25 billion in 2010, up from $18 billion in 2009. Over the next 5 years, GE hopes that ecomagination revenue will grow at twice the rate of the company’s total revenue.
Ecomagination encompasses a broad set of projects. So far, ecomagination has spawned everything from low-energy digital mammography machines and aircraft engines to gas turbines and nuclear plants. There’s plenty more on the way, including a massive battery plant in New York, a $2 billion wind project in Oregon, and a series of high-end energy-efficient front-load washers and dryers set to be manufactured in Kentucky. And we can’t forget GE’s ambitious plan into integrate appliances (i.e. hot water heaters, microwaves, and oven ranges) with smart grid technology.
VCs are on the hunt, and it doesn’t matter if a company is in Boston, Beijing, or Menlo Park, they’re looking to fund great ideas anywhere in the world. Some are even opening offices overseas in an effort to find the next big international thing.
For decades, the success of Silicon Valley has been undeniable. Venture capitalists’ investments have spawned some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Apple, Google, Intel, Cisco, Yahoo, eBay, and dozens of other household names were born and nurtured here. However, the model is changing. Venture capitalists and the companies they fund are looking beyond the Valley more often and with an eye to replicating the success of the Valley in other parts of the world ready for entrepreneurialism, risk, and reward. Find the complete article here.
The centre of the venture capital universe happens to revolve near Stanford University in California: Sand Hill Road to be precise. Explore the firms that drive the industry by clicking here for an interactive video.
Got a bright idea? How about an energy-saving one? GE announced today a $200 million “open innovation challenge” that invites inventors, entrepreneurs, and startups of all stripes to compete to develop the next-generation of power grid technologies. 
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