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Biofuel firm Mascoma plans to raise up to $100M in IPO

Katie Fehrenbacher — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:06:29 +0000

Yet another Khosla Ventures-backed biofuel company has filed to go public. On Friday cellulosic ethanol company Mascoma filed an S-1, indicating it plans to raise a maximum of $100 million in an IPO. Six-year-old Mascoma has long been one of the more promising cellulosic ethanol startups and Lux Research recently went so far as to give Mascoma “top chef status” in a biofuel ranking report last year, citing Mascoma’s “strong financial support from investors,” and “potentially cost-cutting” process for breaking down cellulose and fermenting the sugar with a single microbe.

Like most cellulosic biofuel firms, the company isn’t profitable. For the full year of 2010, Mascoma generated revenues of $15.49 million, and had a net loss of $25.93 million. For the first six months of 2011, Mascoma generated revenues of $6.67 million, with a net loss of $14.54 million.

However, like most other cellulosic ethanol companies, Mascoma has long delayed building its first commercial plant. Mascoma’s commercial-scale ethanol plant in Kinross, Mich was originally planned to begin construction sometime in 2009, with cellulosic ethanol production starting perhaps by 2011. Now, according to the release back in January, the facility will break ground in 2011. Pretty much every cellulosic ethanol company has had to delay commercial-scale production due to a variety of factors like the economy, and an inability to get the manufacturing costs low enough.

One of the reasons Mascoma seemed to get back on track this year was the backing of oil giant Valero. In January of this year Mascoma annnounced that Valero would spend $50 million on the construction of Mascoma’s Kinross plant and Valero also said it would potentially enter into an off-take agreement for the plant’s ethanol. In addition, Valero has made an equity investment into Mascoma.

Beyond Valero, Mascoma has raised close to $100 million from a long list of investors including Khosla Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, VantagePoint, General Catalyst Partners, Atlas Venture, Pinnacle Ventures and car company General Motors. In addition to private funds, Mascoma has received numerous grants from the DOE totaling more than $30 million and also state grants from New York and Michigan of over $30 million.

Likely Mascoma will spend any funds raised on the public markets on its first commercial scale plant. Mascoma creates genetically-modified yeasts and bugs to convert plant waste into biofuels and biochemicals. The company now is looking to target selling its yeast to corn ethanol suppliers. Gevo, another Khosla-backed company, has taken a similar approach to sell to the corn ethanol market.

In recent months, biofuel and biochemical makers Amyris, Gevo, KiOR, and Solazyme have gone public.

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GM, Governors Team Up on Ethanol Superhighways

Craig Rubens — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:50:10 +0000

In an attempt to raise the availability of ethanol at American gas stations above a paltry 1 percent, General Motors and the National Governors Association said yesterday they will work together to expand the nation’s ethanol infrastructure to make sure there are pumps ready for next-generation biofuels. The announcement came from NGA’s chairman, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, at its centennial meeting. He said, in cryptically nationalistic terms, that the move would “Americanize” our energy sources.

GM’s commitment to expand the ethanol infrastructure dovetails with its existing investments in two next-gen biofuel startups; Coskata and Mascoma. Both of these companies say they are on the cusp of delivering cheap, cellulosic biofuels and will need a strong infrastructure to help deliver their fuel. GM has also committed to making 50 percent of their cars flex-fuel capable by 2012. GM reiterated its belief that “ethanol is the most significant near-term energy alternative to offset the increasing demand for oil” in the press release. The technological investment that ethanol represents for automakers is smaller than how much the switch to electric, or hydrogen vehicles would cost.

Very few details have been released in terms of cost-sharing, total number of new pumps or the time line for the expansion. What we do know is that the states will devise plans to expand the infrastructure and GM will use its expertise to help facilitate those strategies. GM has helped site some 300 E85 pumps — a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gas — and will use its vehicle registration information to help figure out where flex-fuel customers are to help locate new pumps. But the number of E85 pumps is still tiny; GM estimates that only 1,700 of America’s 170,000 fueling stations have ethanol pumps.

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Sneaking In To the App Store

Mike Gunderloy — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:27:16 +0000

There’s been a lot of speculation about whether the iPhone App Store would open today or tomorrow. Turns out you can see its contents right now. Here’s how. First, use Software Update on your Mac to install the iTunes 7.7 update. Then open up iTunes and search for any app you know about – “OmniFocus” works fine. Click on the application’s icon, and you’ll go to the OmniFocus page. The breadcrumb navigation at the top of the page (Apple > App Store > Productivity > OmniFocus) will let you navigate back up to the main store page, and from there you can explore to your heart’s content.

A quick scan shows a number of apps of potential web worker interest ready to ship: OmniFocus, Things, EverNote,. Funambol, Photobucket, SalesForce Mobile, TypePad, PayPal, and more. Of course, you’ll have to wait for the iPhone 2.0 software update to actually install any of these applications.

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Apple’s New Look

Arvin Dang — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:00:21 +0000

Apple certainly did “Think Different” when they began using the white body iMacs. Soon it transcended across all Apple products and accessories. Is a new trend coming? One away from the white light?

From the launch of the iPhone it became clear that Apple was reinventing their look. All previous artist renderings referred to Apple’s classic white approach. But with metal, glass and black accents, it was clear Apple was entering into a new phase and a new look. The new iMac redesign became another indicator for Apple’s changing taste. Now rumors are abound concerning metallic MacBooks. Looking back on the most recent changes I think the pattern is becoming more ‘clear’. With iPods no longer offered in the classy white casing, soon nothing will be left. Even the rumored Cinema Displays will probably become twins to the new iMac casing.

Can we expect accessories to follow suite? New metallic keyboards may not fully translate the new style, but I think we’re beginning to see the picture…the new Apple. Perhaps businesses will find them more suitable? Or consumers will appreciate the finer materials? Either way, soon enough the Mighty Mouse will be the last of its kind. A plastic white figure, in an aluminum world.

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One to Watch: Qik Live Video

Liz Gannes — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:00:49 +0000

Kyte.tv, Justin.tv, Zannel, Seesmic and the like had better watch out: A startup we just heard about is doing live video streaming directly from cell phones. The service, called Qik, is a product of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Visivo Communications. We haven’t yet had a chance to talk to the company or try it ourselves, but if you have a fancy Nokia phone you should try to get into the alpha test.

Here’s the big-picture idea from the Visivo about page:

Visivo is an early stage, well funded startup that is pioneering the next generation of video communication experience that is embedded into web pages and social networks and seamlessly works across all devices – from cell phone, game consoles to computers.

The Qik site describes the product as “a little piece of software that enables you to stream videos directly from your phone to the Web.” It supports both private and public video viewing, and you can automatically send your videos to Twitter as well as archive them for later viewing. Visivo’s team, lead by CEO Ramu Sunkara, has experience with video conferencing and VoIP from Oracle and SPIRIT DSP.

As we mentioned above, the technological advance of streaming live from a handset would be a step up from personal video products from companies like Kyte.tv, Justin.tv, Zannel and Seesmic — which either have a lag time for uploading video or require a videocamera that’s an additional standalone device or attached to a cumbersome computer. There are a lot of startups attacking the same market from slightly different angles, but this is one of the first we’ve seen that may have mastered video streams right from the cell phone. We’ll have to see if Qik can survive the pitiful bandwidth we get on mobile networks.

AT&T is also running trials of a live video-sharing service, as it discussed at NewTeeVee Live.

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The five reasons why I bought a Kindle

James Kendrick — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:53:54 +0000

I know, everybody’s talking about the Amazon Kindle and how it’s either going to revolutionize the ebook business or prove without a doubt that the business is not viable. That is a worthy discussion but there are five reasons why I bought one so for all who have been asking me here they are in no particular order:

I am the perfect target market for the Kindle. I like gadgets and I have been reading ebooks exclusively since the Palm Reader first appeared on the Palm PDA. I have over 200 ebooks in my eReader account and over two dozen in the MobiPocket account I only set up a few months ago. I love reading ebooks so if the Kindle doesn’t work for me it won’t likely work for anyone. One of the big hurdles that Amazon will face selling the Kindle in the mainstream market is selling the concept of ebooks over dead tree versions. They don’t have to sell me, I’ve already seen the light.
I want to report here on the Kindle. It’s what I do and with so many interested in this new device it makes sense for me to pick one up and talk about it. You can count on me doing that.
Amazon has the clout to make this a Big Thing (BT). While I love eReader and the selection of ebooks they offer me for purchase they can be pricey, especially for new releases which comprise most of my purchases. Amazon could actually be cheaper in the long run with those same titles only costing me $9.99 believe it or not. Plus, let’s face it, they have a library of around 90,000 titles! That is huge in my book, pun intended.
The Kindle offers instant gratification. I can search for ebooks and buy them on my HTC Advantage today and that has revolutionized my experience in purchasing ebooks. I love instant gratification as much as anyone and Amazon has done this right with the Whispernet. Being able to find and buy an ebook in less than a minute is the ultimate act of instant gratification for those who love to read and I expect this will be quite good for me. While I can do this (not so quickly) with eReader this ability has only been around for a few weeks now and requires a data plan on the Advantage to make it work like the Amazon system.
I think it will make the perfect holiday gift for family members. OK, this one is personal. I always have a hard time buying gifts for my lovely bride and since she has already been introduced to ebooks but hasn’t liked a device she’s tried yet I think there’s a good chance she’ll like the Kindle once she sees it. Then I have an easy decision what to get her for Christmas. :)

So these are my five reasons for buying a Kindle. One thing I have given a lot of thought to is how much fun it will be to hack this device. It’s a closed system so of course it is crying out to be opened up a little. That said, after that thought process I don’t think I will hack the Kindle. That’s a surprise, even to me, but the fact is I have other devices that can read ebooks that do a host of other things, and do them very well. I won’t gain much if anything by hacking the Kindle. But the main reason for leaving the Kindle be is because I believe for it to be a good tool for me it must be simple and do only what it’s intended to do, and that’s make reading ebooks better. I’ll see how well it does that.

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Babes in HD

Om Malik — Sun, 28 Nov 2004 21:27:04 +0000

HDTV: Philip Swann: Some high-def networks believe the showing of flesh may result in the showing of profits. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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