Clean Energy Trust is an impact investor that fuels innovation to create a healthier environment and more prosperous future.
They launch, fund, and grow early stage clean energy businesses in the Midwest through direct investment, venture development, and advocacy.
Clean Energy Trust is a 501C3 public charity. Its unique funding model gives our fund the flexibility to invest in earlier-stage technology than traditional funds. The philosophy is to be “first money in” and work closely with promising young companies to achieve growth milestones and successful exits.
They have developed unique relationships with investors, labs, large corporations, and entrepreneurs to source quality companies for investment and rely upon a broad pool of scientific and business experts to evaluate their investment potential.
To date, CET has awarded $3.2M in funding to 29 clean energy startups. Startups benefitting from our programs have gone on to raise an additional $70M in follow on funding – and have created over 300 jobs.
Clean Energy Trust specializes in commercializing research from labs and universities into the market. They invest between $50 – $500k in seed stage rounds to enable startups to develop a prototype or complete a market milestone to attract further investment.
Interested faculty and students are encouraged to visit the Clean Energy Trust website: http://cleanenergytrust.org/challenge/