Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Israel G-Tek adds three exceptional companies to its portfolio

US based Israel G-Tek LLC - a private equity fund investing in early stage greentech companies - has added three companies to its portfolio: Bloom Energy, Fisker Automotive and Serious Materials.

The recent investment brings the number of portfolio companies to four - IQwind (www.iqwind.com) being the first one. Uri Benhamron and Sami Shiro are very excited to break the news. "This adds alternative power generation, electric hybrid vehicles and green building materials to our portfolio, and it starts to bring to life our investment strategy" Mr Benhamron said.

Furthermore, these companies are on a solid path towards growth, with strong possibilities of IPO or a large M&A deal. Here are some details on the three companies:

Bloom Energy

Bloom Energy builds solid oxide fuel cells: Bloom Energy Server™ is a new class of distributed power generator, producing clean, reliable, affordable electricity at the customer site.

Fuel cells are devices that convert fuel into electricity through a clean electro-chemical process rather than dirty combustion. They are like batteries except that they always run. Our particular type of fuel cell technology is different than legacy "hydrogen" fuel cells in four main ways:
1 - Low cost materials – their cells use a common sand-like powder instead of precious metals like platinum or corrosive materials like acids.
2 - High electrical efficiency – they can convert fuel into electricity at nearly twice the rate of some legacy technologies
3 - Fuel flexibility – their systems are capable of using either renewable or fossil fuels
4 - Reversible – their technology is capable of both energy generation and storage

For more information on Bloom, please watch the following 60 Minutes clip: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml


Fisker Automotive

Fisker Automotive is a green American premium sports car company with a mission to create a range of beautiful environmentally friendly cars that make environmental sense without compromise.

They are in the early stages of their product launch, a four door sports sedan with “series plug-in electric” engine (which uses an engine only to recharge the battery – as opposed to the Prius which is a “Parallel Hybrid” and alternates power to the wheels from both engine and battery)
Sales expected to start in 2011 and ramp up to several billion in 2014, including the launching of NINA their second, lower priced model.

Recent activity in this arena includes a partnership announcement of Toyota with Tesla (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37358614/ns/business-us_business/), and the tremendous success of the Nissan Leaf full electric vehicle (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/05/nissan-sells-out-all-electric-leaf-in-35-days/57292/). In addition Tesla has filed for an IPO of $100MM in January (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0120624820100201)

This car is a higher class competitor to GM’s Volt, which has similar technology and will probably be in the market late in 2010 after much noise and speculation

The Karma:




Serious Materials

Serious Materials develops and manufactures sustainable green building materials that dramatically reduce the impact of the “built environment” on the climate

The company’s slogan of “.. aiming for breakthroughs in product performance, without requiring changes in customer behavior or in how products are used – thus speeding market adoption.”, combined with the market tide and regulatory incentives and reforms that will propel green construction standards as well as retrofitting is the key for the success of this company.

Currently they offer the following products to the market:

EcoRock: 5x Environmentally friendly than Gypsum

QuietRock: The most reliable soundproofing drywall

Serious Windows: Saves more energy than any other window, period.

QuietCoat: noise-reduction compounds. These are used in millions of personal computers, in cars, and more.

Serious Materials provided the windows for the retrofitting of the Empire State Building (http://www.seriouswindows.com/empire-state-building/home.html)

Israel G-Tek LLC contact info:
Sami Shiro sami@ig-tek.com
Uri Benhamron uri@ig-tek.com

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