We’ve entered the age of emotional, design-centric, e-commerce
Everlane and True & Co are part of a new wave of e-commerce startups that are using emotion and design to sell goods. Read more »
Katie Fehrenbacher
Katie is a Senior Writer & Features Editor for GigaOM and has been covering cutting-edge technology, startups and innovators in Silicon Valley for close to a decade. She launched GigaOM’s greentech channel in 2007 and closely tracks energy entrepreneurs and investors.
How data, cheap sensors and Android could be a game changer for rural farmers
Startup Re:char hopes to deliver a low cost Android gadget plug-in that can test the moisture content and fertility of soil. Kenyan farmers get ready to meet the latest in data analytics and cloud services. Read more »
The spigot of money starting to open up for installing solar panels
As a boom of solar panels continues to be installed on buildings throughout the U.S., companies, groups and even every day people can make money off of funding this clean energy transition. Read more »
After loving to hate Tesla, many scramble to show their love
Tesla is now officially a success according to blind-sided investors and media. Tesla didn’t emerge last week with a win, it’s taken a decade to deliver and true game-changing innovation takes a very long time. Read more »
Tesla could raise $830M through new offering, including $100M from CEO
Tesla could raise another $830 million in a new offering in a combination of selling common stock, and issuing senior convertible notes. That means Tesla can pay back its DOE loan early, among other things. Read more »
Meet the 6 startups from the inaugural accelerator of French telco Orange
Orange, the French telco giant, unveiled the first 6 startups in its inaugural accelerator program, including startups building hardware and software for the developing world, and startups using data to make clouds and online identities secure. Read more »
RelayRides buys up car sharing startup Wheelz for the tech
Peer-to-peer car sharing company RelayRides has bought up startup Wheelz, partly for its automated system that lets users easily unlock and drive away in a car without having to get a key from the owner. Read more »
Report: Bloom Energy raises another $130M
The Valley’s fuel cell startup Bloom Energy has now raised over $1.1 billion, according to a report. While Bloom has gotten strong traction, particularly with data center operators, fuel cell manufacturing is difficult and capital intensive business. Read more »
Elon Musk, David Sacks ditch Zuckerberg’s Fwd.us
Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration reform group Fwd.us is losing two big players this week: Elon Musk and David Sacks. A bad sign for the Valley’s latest political group? Read more »
Tiny antennas that can harvest light and heat could deliver new solar tech
photo: photo courtesy of fdtate
Capturing energy from light and heat using tiny antennas could be a way to produce solar energy at a lower cost, and capture and reuse waste heat from industrial processes. They’re still in the prototype phase. Read more »
Alarm.com buys energy software startup EnergyHub
Algorithms to manage connected thermostats and collect their data have become a hot property in 2013. Alarm.com snaps up startup EnergyHub for its thermostat management software. Read more »
Natural gas van maker, backed by T. Boone Pickens and U.S. government, shuts down
Following the Fisker debacle, another auto maker with a government loan has stopped operations. Vehicle Production Group, which made natural gas and gas-powered vans for disabled passengers, says it’s closed up shop. Read more »
Tesla shares soar almost 30% in after hours on profit news
Tesla stock jumped almost 30 percent in after hour trading on the news that electric car maker Tesla has delivered a profit for the first time. Read more »
Tesla delivers 1st profit, record revenue and boosts Model S guidance to 21K
Tesla hit its goal of the first profit in its 10-year history, and also delivered a record revenue, and boosted its guidance of Model S car sales by 1,000, to 21,000 for the year. Read more »
10 milestones Tesla hopes will make it a $43 billion company
Tesla is about to announce what is says will be one of the best quarters in the company’s history, reaching profitability for the first time. But Tesla’s ambitions are much higher than its current $6.4 billion marketcap. Read more »
How Nest and Opower quietly morphed into competitors
The leading energy data startups Nest and Opower have quietly started to look more like competitors, though with some significant differences. Read more »
How Fisker’s struggles will affect electric cars, investing and government support
We’ve got the results of our survey on how Fisker’s struggles could affect the electric car market, government incentives and cleantech investing. Check out my 21-page report I wrote for GigaOM Pro, and some of the teasers in this post. Read more »
Nest acquires MyEnergy (formerly Earth Aid), moves deeper into utility data
Learning thermostat maker Nest has acquired a Boston-based energy data startup called MyEnergy. The company will help Nest develop its energy data services and continue its missions of working directly with the consumer to reduce home energy consumption. Read more »
Beyond Meat CEO: One day eating meat will have no connection to animals
Can a Valley-backed startup help usher in a transition to plant-based proteins dominating the meat counter? Read more »
Coming to America: A new trash-to-energy plant planned for Arizona
photo: Image courtesy of purplepix
The city of Glendale, Arizona, could be one of the first in the U.S. to get a next-gen plant that gasifies trash and turns it into electricity. The tech is decades old, and popular in Europe, but new plants are not commonly built in the U.S. Read more »
Cleantech investing quietly re-emerging as smaller, more rational and capital-light
We’ve all heard that following weak returns, venture capital cleantech investing has retrenched. So what’s next? A style of investing that is a whole lot more rational, return-driven, shorter timelines and capital lite. Read more »
Another WARN class action suit for cleantech, this time for Coda Automotive
Here’s the details of the class action lawsuit filed against Coda Automotive that I referenced yesterday: it’s a complaint that Coda Automotive allegedly violated the WARN Act, that requires large employers to give employees 60 days written notice of mass layoffs. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks closes its first quarter as a public company
Smart grid company Silver Spring Networks held its first earnings call as a public company on Wednesday, and delivered a flat quarter. It’s a hard knock life in the hardware biz. Read more »
Electric car maker Coda files for bankruptcy
Electric car company Coda Automotive has filed for bankruptcy, following slow sales and lawsuits. It’s the latest electric car startup to struggle and falter. Read more »
Electric car startup Coda getting buried in lawsuits
Like Fisker Automotive, electric car company Coda Automotive is getting hit with lawsuits. It’s got over a half dozen filed within the last couple of months. Read more »
Verizon to spend $100M on solar panels, fuel cells for facilities
Verizon is making its largest commitment to clean power to date with a planned $100 million investment into installing solar panels and fuel cells at its facilities. The company joins the league of Apple and Google with its aggressive investments in distributed, renewable energy. Read more »
Remember: DOE rejected most of the electric car startups that wanted loans
While Fisker is in the spot light for failing to pay back its close to $200 million loan from the DOE, there were a half dozen other alternative car startups that wanted loans from the DOE but were rejected. Was the DOE’s ATVM performance all that bad? Read more »
Video: The trends behind the year of clean energy turbulence
Global clean energy investing dropped by 22 percent in the first quarter of 2013 says Bloomberg New Energy Finance CEO Michael Liebreich. In his keynote address for Bloomberg’s energy conference this week, he unpacked some trends in the global financing of next generation energy technology. Read more »
Tesla to offer loaner cars to customers with cars in the shop
Tesla plans to offer loaner cars to its customers when the customer’s car is in the shop and needs to be serviced. Read more »
The Fisker hearing kicks off today, meanwhile unhappy customers emerge
Fisker’s founders will testify before a House Committee in Washington D.C. this afternoon, while Fisker Karma customers come out of the wood work about how the cars aren’t working properly. Read more »
A Google Glass rival emerges from an upstart in Japan
A Japanese entrepreneur’s answer to Google Glass, but with a Japanese manga-style twist. Read more »
3D printing startup Shapeways raises $30M led by Andreessen Horowitz
Shapeways has raised $30 million led by new investor Andreessen Horowitz to grow its 3D printing service, marketplace, and reach of its API. Read more »
Fisker fails to deliver 1st government loan payment, DOE has already taken $21M
Fisker seems to move even closer to bankruptcy as it defaults on its first loan payment and has funds seized by the government. Read more »
Nest unleashes the power of its smart thermostat with data-driven services
While Nest is widely known as a consumer-focused smart thermostat maker, the startup has quietly been developing services it can offer in conjunction with utilities, which can curb customers’ energy use while also lowering their energy bills. Read more »
Grid giant ABB throws down $1B for Power-One and its solar gear
ABB plans to buy power inverter leader Power-One for around a billion dollars. The move shows the expected strong growth in solar panel installations, despite the hard times for the solar panel makers themselves. Read more »
Google calls on utilities to sell it clean energy for data centers, starting in North Carolina
Google is asking utilities to create programs that will sell companies clean power if they’re willing to pay for it, starting with Duke Energy in North Carolina. Read more »
In case you were thinking your vote counted in Kior’s annual meeting
The funny little thing about shareholder voting at biofuel company Kior. Read more »
So that’s what happened to the Synthetic Genomics, Exxon algae fuel deal
If you ever wondered what happened to the algae fuel work between Synthetic Genomics and Exxon — it was scaled back and now is focused on long term research instead of commercialization. Read more »
Building data startup Enlighted scores $20M, doubles footprint
Promising young startup Enlighted is powering up with new funds and new customers for its sensor, big data and lighting control tech that can reduce the lighting energy in buildings by 50 to 70 percent. Read more »
A look under the hood: why electric car startup Fisker crashed and burned
We bring you the behind the scenes story of how electric car startup Fisker Automotive spent over a billion dollars, took down a government loan and ultimately delivered about 2,000 cars, a small fraction of what it originally promised. Read more »
