Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)

🎉 Congratulations to Relyion Energy Inc for securing its second loan from the LACI Cleantech Debt Fund for $150,000! Relyion refurbishes and optimizes recycled EV batteries for second-life energy storage, helping reduce waste while providing cost-effective, resilient grid solutions. Their proprietary battery management system extends battery life, making clean energy more efficient and accessible. Relyion is scaling fast. This funding will help fulfill existing orders and accelerate deployment of their containerized BESS at manufacturing sites, solar projects, and microgrids. We're excited to support Relyion's continued growth and impact in the clean energy space. #LACICleantechDebtFund

In addition to supporting our City Climate Innovation Challenge for Zero Emissions Delivery, The Rockefeller Foundation recently joined us at our home at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power owned La Kretz Innovation Campus to speak with LACI experts Matt Petersen, Jack Symington, and Lauren M. Harper, MPA, along with the inspiring founders from a few of our portfolio companies (Evolectric - CircularEV™ Solutions, Automotus, and Emissionless Mobility). Writer Masha Hamilton dove into the first-of-its-kind challenge, interviewing our experts and founders on current and future pilot projects, the technologies that are supporting them, and the work that goes into "turning American ingenuity into impact." We are grateful to The Rockefeller Foundation for their partnership and coverage of this important initiative. Check out the full impact story (along with some behind the scenes photos) below, and stay tuned for updates on the challenge. https://lnkd.in/gadh5tMG Jakson Alvarez & Bill B., Evolectric - CircularEV™ Solutions Max W. Yergan, Emissionless Mobility Jordan Justus, Automotus

🤝 Thanks for your partnership The Rockefeller Foundation! #innovation #entrepreneurship #zeroemissions #jobcreation

We are honored to have received a $500,000 grant from The Rockefeller Foundation to support our City Climate Innovation Challenge for Zero-Emissions Delivery. This funding couldn't have come at a better time as we help cities pilot new innovations, develop partnerships to scale them, and create good-paying jobs--all while strengthening the American economy and entrepreneurship. Specifically, funding from The Rockefeller Foundation will enable LACI to further scale the ZED Challenge by supporting pilots with: 🚛 Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure innovations to support medium and/or heavy duty delivery vehicles; 📦 Last-mile delivery innovations (e.g., e-cargo bike deployment, curb management solutions, or parcel lockers); and 📝 Developing policy for an indirect source rule (ISR), which aims to reduce pollution from warehouses and trucks. 📰 Check out the press release for full details and learn more about this first-of-its-kind initiative, which includes 9 major U.S. cities, collectively representing 1 in 6 Americans: https://lnkd.in/gdmVu3D6 C40 Cities Climate Mayors

🎉 Congratulations to our Incubation startup program participant, Molecule Systems who was selected as one of 20 companies for EPRI’s Incubatenergy Labs! Molecule Systems provides an end-to-end platform for virtual power plant (VPP) enablement and energy management. As a part of EPRI's Incubatenergy Labs, Molecule Systems will pitch live at DISTRIBUTECH 2025! They plan to showcase two of their virtual platforms, MosFusion along with their whole-home energy management and VPP pilot to participating utilities. We look forward to continuing to support Molecule Systems as they prepare for this big opportunity!

👏 Congratulations to our portfolio companies Ampaire and Evolectric - CircularEV™ Solutions for making TechNexus Venture Collaborative's Electrification 50! TechNexus Venture Collaborative, a leading investor in electrification, unveiled the inaugural Electrification 50 list, naming 2 LACI portfolio companies a part of the 50 companies identified as a hard-tech startup to watch. The list honors innovative companies across sectors that are working on promising electrification solutions. 📋 Check out the full list: https://lnkd.in/g4PDHGXf

And thank YOU, Matt Petersen, for your commitment to helping impacted communities rebuild resiliently!

Thank you Supervisor Lindsey Horvath for your leadership in creating the Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire Safe Recovery to help the residents and communities rebuild more resiliently and sustainably. Honored the Supervisor asked me to Chair the Commission--looking forward to working with our Vice Chair Fran Pavley, along with all the other amazing Commissioners to help residents and neighborhoods rebuild resiliently. Informed by community input as well as expert research from UCLA and others, the Commission will work independently to craft and put forth actionable recommendations to policymakers at the local and state level. Our goal will be to help families and communities reconstruct homes, schools, and communities more sustainably and resiliently, thereby better protecting their neighborhoods from future climate whiplash while reducing energy bills, improving affordability, unlocking innovation, and protecting public health. Together, we can help LA rise from the ashes and become a model for the world. From my previous experiences in helping with green rebuilding and mitigation post climate disasters like Hurricane Katrina, I know how important it is to help devastated communities get the resources and tools they need to rebuild better with lower energy costs and safer neighborhoods. Thanks in advance to my fellow Commissioners Mary Leslie, Ted Bardacke, Tracy Quinn P.E., Mark Gold, Marty Adams, Jonathan Parfrey, Ben Stapleton, Ron Frierson, Marissa Aho, AICP, Laurie Schoeman, Rudy Ortega, Veronica Padilla, Donna Shen Tripp, Russell Goldsmith, Roy Wright, and Laurie Johnson, FAICP along with the amazing UCLA team led by Megan Mullin and Alex Hall. Much gratitude to Miguel A. Santana for all he does for LA, including California Community Foundation’s support of UCLA’s research and our work. Finally, a huge shout out and thanks to Aaron Ordower for his hard work to support the Supervisor to bring the Commission to life.

🚙🔋 We are excited to partner with alumni company Envoy - Electric Car Share on a new pilot project at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's La Kretz Innovation Campus! Launched just this week, two Envoy - Electric Car Share vehicles powered by EV ARC chargers will be available for participants to run errands, grab lunch, or take on weekend adventures at La Kretz before the pilot expands to neighboring communities. Envoy provides a full turn key solution that offers the car-sharing service through their platform as an amenity to apartments, hotels, and workplaces. Through LACI, they have launched various pilot programs exclusive to low-income housing communities in Los Angeles. The EV ARC that will power the cars at La Kretz is an off-grid EV charging system. On Wednesday, an Envoy representative spoke to campus members and staff about the pilot and gave a great demo on how to use the electric vehicles. The pilot will assess the ARC's ability to charge up the cars during consistent use and collect data on Envoy's service to prepare for future community pilots. We look forward to testing out the service and assisting Envoy rolling out more pilots in Los Angeles.

Congratulations to ReJoule, a Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) Cleantech Debt Fund portfolio company, for their accomplishments and spotlight in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s American-Made Program 🎉 “ReJoule was the first team in Solar Prize history to win the Round 6 grand prize and a bonus contest—winning a total of more than $700,000 in cash and $150,00 in vouchers over the course of the three-phase competition. Their diagnostic tool to assess an electric vehicle’s battery health enables fast screening of used batteries and certification to repurpose them in stationary energy storage systems. ReJoule redeemed their voucher winnings at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where researchers are performing a techno-economic analysis of the tool to inform ReJoule’s value proposition to communities seeking to store renewable energy. Their promising tool has won additional American-Made competition cash prizes—such as the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Pitch Competition and Re-X Before Recycling Prize Phase 1—and has earned ReJoule two U.S. Department of Energy projects worth $16 million in total.” #cleantech #climateentrepreneur #cleanenergy #smallbusiness #climateinnovation #circulareconomy #EVs #evbattery #sustainability #energystorage