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Contact |
200 N. Mangum Street
Suite 203
Durham, NC 27701
Tel. (919) 530-1177
885 Third Avenue
20th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Tel. (212) 209-3042
101 California Street
Suite 2450
San Francisco, CA 94111
Tel. (415) 659-8277
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Portfolio Company and Team Updates
GoingGreen and Inc500 Recognition
Four SJF Ventures' portfolio companies were named to the 2011 GoingGreen 200 Top Private Companies by AlwaysOn. FieldView Solutions, eRecyclingCorps, Community Energy, and CleanScapes were recognized for being leaders in pushing the bounds of their respective greentech markets.
In addition, three of SJF's portfolio companies, ED MAP, CleanScapes and Rustic Crust were named to the 2011 Inc. 5,000 list of fastest growing private companies. For a second year in a row, Inc. CleanScapes the fastest growing environmental services company in the United States.
Events for SJF Team
Dave Kirkpatrick will be speaking at SRI in Rockies on the alternative investments panel, 10/4, New Orleans. Kirkpatrick will also speak in the opening plenary on impact investing at the Opportunity Finance Network on 11/15, Minneapolis.
David Griest, Alan Kelley and Cody Nystrom will be leading a Getting Ready for Equity training in Detroit on October 20th to prepare entrepreneurs for an opportunity to pitch to investors at Inner City Capital Connections. SJF Institute works in conjunction with Initiative for a Competitive Inner City to hold these trainings which are supported by Bank of America.
Bonny Moellenbrock will be moderating a panel on "The Art and Science of Raising Capital" at Social Venture Network on October 28.
The entire SJF Ventures and SJF Institute team will also be attending the Investors' Circle Fall Conference October 26-28 in Philadelphia.
SJF Intern Appreciation
A special thanks to Grant Taylor, Amit Shah, Mia Faber and Tim Canavan who joined SJF Ventures and SJF Institute as MBA interns this summer.
Grant Taylor, who joined SJF Ventures in the New York City office, will be completing his second year at IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. Amit Shah supported Alan Kelley in SJF's San Francisco office over this past year and will be graduating from Stanford Business School next spring. Mia Faber, who joined SJF Institute in the Durham office, will be continuing to work with SJF through the fall while completing her MBA at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School. Tim Canavan is the SJF Ventures' 2011 Venture Fellow and will finish his dual Masters degree from Duke's Fuqua Business School and Nicholas School of the Environment next spring. |
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After Solyndra...
Cleantech Investing Still Makes Sense
[Excerpt from SJF Ventures' Managing Director, Dave Kirkpatrick's, blog post]
Given the recent bankruptcies of U.S. solar manufacturers Solyndra, Spectrawatt and Evergreen Solar, some are asking if cleantech investing is viable. At SJF, our cleantech portfolio companies are achieving great results, particularly utilizing capital efficient, innovative business models that can thrive in the U.S. market. These firms are applying new business models to a variety of well established sectors that have been slower to apply new ways of conducting business. These business model innovations drive efficiency gains and create economics that work today particularly in recycling, asset recovery, infrastructure, and agriculture.
Likely we will see more failures in upstream U.S. solar technology companies in the coming year, given the relentless price declines being driven by the scale up of Chinese PV module manufacturers, fueled by national and regional government subsidies. In 2006, SJF conducted a webinar on the merits of investing in downstream solar in the U.S. (installation, development, finance) in comparison to upstream manufacturing which must compete globally. We reprised this analysis in March 2010 with a discussion of the two models of cleantech VC investing, the 'today markets' approach of SJF Ventures as compared to the 'tomorrow markets' approach of much larger cleantech funds working on breakthrough technologies. Later in 2010, SJF Ventures led a Series A financing in Community Energy to carry forward that theme in the solar markets with a company that innovatively combined a downstream utility scale solar project developer with a proven wind developer and REC marketing firm scaling up its solar development business.
Read the rest of the the commentary here.
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SBA Launches Impact Initiative
The SBA has launched a five year, $1 billion Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Impact Investment Initiative. The initiative is focusing on scaling funds that back companies in the clean energy or education sectors or firms that are located in or employ residents of low-to-moderate income areas. SJF Ventures is the first national cleantech fund to receive a 'green light' letter from SBA under this initiative for the SBIC license for its third fund, SJF Ventures III, LP. |
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 Fixxbook Launches
Members of ServiceChannel's team have developed an online directory that allows facilities managers and manufacturers to find qualified service contractors. The new service, named fixxbook, catalogs the certifications and qualifications of contractor companies, thereby enhancing the ability to find experts capable of solving unique, technical problems. Fixxbook also enables facilities managers to identify minority-owned contractors and companies in underutilized business zones. The fixxbook directory contains thousands of contractor companies, representing over 25,000 individual service representatives. SJF Ventures recently invested in ServiceChannel to accelerate the roll out of the service. |
 CleanLinks Events in Raleigh-Durham and NYC
SJF will host the next CleanLinks RTP event
on Tuesday, November 8th from 5:30 - 8:00 pm at the Stockroom 230 in Raleigh, NC. The event will feature a panel of active cleantech investors including venture capitalists, corporate and angel investors. The panel will discuss the types of cleantech investments being pursued, what it takes to get a deal done and, how to reach out to this capital community. You can see more about the event and register here.
SJF will also be holding a CleanLinks NYC event on Wednesday, November 16 from 5:30 - 8:00 pm, hosted at SNR Denton's offices in Midtown. The event will feature a reception and panel discussion on "Cracking the Cleantech Sales Cycle: Selling to Large Institutions." Additional detail, including speaker bios, will be available in the next few weeks and invitations will be sent shortly thereafter. |
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Recycling Industry Grows to More than $77 Billion
A recent Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) study noted that the U.S. scrap recycling industry grew rapidly in 2010, generating $77 billion in revenues, rising 40 percent from $54 billion in 2009, particularly with a rebound in commodity prices. ISRI's latest report noted that the industry added 10,000 jobs in 2010 and now directly employs over 130,000 individuals, paying an average wage of $66,704. In addition to this, 321,500 jobs are indirectly supported by the scrap recycling industry. Note that the ISRI study does not the include reuse and asset recovery sectors, which would add to this total.
SJF has several successful recycling, reuse, and asset recovery portfolio firms, including Salvage Direct (vehicles), eRecyclingCorps (mobile phones), CleanScapes (municipal recycling, organics and waste collections), Optoro (returned retail goods), and Living Earth (organics composting). These firms and many others like them are using technology innovations to capture significant value from used goods that previous were wasted in landfills; generating incremental additional jobs, wealth, resource conservation and carbon reduction for the U.S. economy. |
 2011 Report on Sustainability Trends in US Alternative Investments
SJF Ventures invites you to join us in sponsoring Sustainability Trends in US Alternative Investments, the trailblazing report that the US SIF Foundation will publish next month.
Drawing on data from interviews with general partners that collectively manage more than 220 alternative investment vehicles, the report will document the continued dynamic growth in the assets of alternative investment vehicles that consider environmental, social or corporate governance (ESG) criteria in their investment strategies. US SIF Foundation's prior 2010 Report on Socially Responsible Investing Trends in the United States identified 177 alternative investment vehicles - including social venture capital funds, double and triple bottom line private equity funds, and hedge and property funds - that accounted for 6 to 7 percent of the assets of all funds that considered ESG criteria at the start of 2010. The upcoming report will detail the ESG criteria these funds' managers consider, the strategies they employ, and the social impact they have achieved.
The report will be officially released in mid-October. Please check back at www.ussif.org for more information. For information on sponsorship, please contact Meg Voorhes at mvoorhes@ussif.org.
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Investors' Circle Fall Conference, Oct. 26-28, Philadelphia
SJF Institute affiliate Investors' Circle will be holding its Fall Venture Fair on October 26-28 in Philadelphia. Angel and institutional investors can expect exceptional networking opportunities with active investors putting real money to work in impact companies. IC venture fairs result in more deals getting done that any other angel event!
The fair will provide access to 15 exciting deals that are seeking investment within the fields of Energy & Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Consumer Products, Community & Economic Development, Health, Biotech & Wellness, Social Media & Software and Education. You can register here or find more information online here. |
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About SJF |
SJF Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on delivering superior financial returns through investments in high-growth, positive impact companies. SJF has an eleven-year successful record of assisting visionary and talented management teams in building industry-leading firms. SJF provides strong expertise and networks in the cleantech, sustainability and tech-enhanced services sectors. SJF Ventures aligns best with companies generating $1 to $20 million in revenue seeking expansion equity capital of $1 to $5 million. SJF Institute is an affiliated nonprofit that connects, inspires and accelerates sustainable entrepreneurs and the fields that support them. Over the last ten years, SJF has assisted 1,500 entrepreneurial companies through workshops and direct advisory services. SJF has offices in Durham, NC, New York, and San Francisco and invests throughout the U.S. |
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