This article was published on March 23, 2011

OnGreen, the world’s largest cleantech social network launches


OnGreen, the world’s largest cleantech social network launches

How do we decrease our dependence on oil? How can we improve security measures with nuclear energy? How can we provide clean water to developing nations? How can we decrease pollution? Save our oceans? Save our planet? It’s these questions that OnGreen CEO and Founder Nikhil R. Jain hope to solve.

“We know green tech is here to stay and that we have to embrace green technologies very quickly, but there is a lack of information and clarity in the green technology field. Investors want to invest but they’re not sure which are the best technologies because clean technology companies aren’t as easy to understand as consumer facing Internet companies. With OnGreen, we are trying to improve the ratio of capital raised in clean tech to capital sought.”

-OnGreen CEO and Founder Nikhil R. Jain

OnGreen, a Los Angeles, California based company wants to remove the barriers between investors and clean tech startups to make investing in clean energy efficient and easy. In pursuit of this mission, OnGreen officially announced the public launch of its website today, establishing itself as a destination for cleantech entrepreneurs, investors and consultants. It is the world’s largest cleantech social network based on the number of projects in clean technology and the amount of money sought by startups.

“The nature of today’s global cleantech market is that innovation doesn’t always occur where capital is available,” says OnGreen CEO Nikhil R. Jain, who grew up in Bombay, a city without limited resources, and has learned to be sustainable since birth. “As a global platform, OnGreen overcomes the physical separation between innovation, capital and expertise and helps speed the time from idea to commercialization.”

The OnGreen platform is divided into three key areas:

Deal Marketplace: Rntrepreneurs seek funding for their cleantech businesses and investors make use of the search and filter capabilities to streamline dealflow.

Patent Exchange: Where inventors and companies post their intellectual property for sale or licensing and allow outside investors and enabling service providers to review them.

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Expert Community: Where business and technology experts promote their expertise, collaborate with their peers, engage in opportunity evaluations, share due diligence and make themselves available for mentoring, contract work or even employment.

To date, OnGreen has attracted 280 cleantech startups from more than 35 countries with 150 patents, raising $143 million in funding of $1.9 billion in sought after capital. Its new platform already has 25 industry experts including OnGreen’s Chief Expert Dr. Mark Bernsbein, who runs The Energy Institute for the University of Southern California.

Part of OnGreen’s strategy includes a collaboration with the University of Michigan and Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy (JUCCCE), to facilitate Chinese investment at US universities. The project will allow Chinese companies to invest in University R&D and patents in exchange for joint rights to the associated intellectual property. OnGreen will be partnering with more universities going forward.

“China has a gap between their desire to save energy and reduce pollution, and their capability to go green as fast as they are building.” She adds, “This joint research project would not only bring positive trade flow into the U .S. from China and create jobs, but also potentially help the U.S. bypass historic patent infringement issues in China.”

-JUCCCE’s Co-Founder Peggy Liu

To monetize, OnGreen is introducing programs that will vet out 12 projects from its site and take them to China next month. In this way, it will be billing itself out as a virtual investment bank. The company is using its recent $1.4 million series A investment from its own jointly owned fund between Blue Marble Ventures in Los Angeles and China Southern Hong Kong Investment Ltd. in Shanghai to provide investors with deal vetting, a larger patent exchange system, and to expand its Chinese and Indian marketplace.

Like them on Facebook. Follow OnGreen on Twitter.

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