StepOne

StepOne in sunny San Diego

From Andrea Chang, head of StepOne’s US office: “Jen and I are just back from accompanying one of our clients to San Diego, a hub for wireless companies in the US. StepOne is helping this client sign a commercial agreement with a US company in the area. Our preparations have paid off, as the meeting went really well and our client presented their pitch beautifully. Onto the next stage!”

Barcelona tech scene alive and well

From Cécile Baux in StepOne’s Madrid office:
“I just came back from visiting some exciting technology companies based in Barcelona. The Catalan area is full of really innovative companies ready to make their move to the US. Spanish innovation is alive and well!”

Khosla ventures raises $1.1 B for cleantech, IT startups

Those of you following Silicon Valley’s Khosla Ventures will have read last week that founder Vinod Khosla has succeeded in raising $1.1 billion for early-stage investments in cleantech and information technology startups. The money has been split into two funds: an $800 million fund for large initial investments ($5-15 million), and a $275 million fund for smaller seed investments ($2 million) in what Khosla describes as “science experiments.”

For more on this fund, read our earlier coverage of Khosla Ventures.

Good fundraising advice for entrepreneurs

From Andrea Chang, head of StepOne’s US office:
“I attended a lunch-time chat yesterday with John Bautista (a partner at Orrick) and Des Cahill (an Executive in Residence at Plug and Play). They gave lots of really useful and interesting advice regarding how startup companies should approach their valuation. One piece of advice that seemed especially relevant for StepOne clients wanting to raise money in the US was to look at convertible debt as a much less expensive and complicated option versus equity. Helping our clients decide how to approach these types of decisions is what StepOne is passionate about!”

Europe Wins Big In First Round of US Cleantech Subsidies

Good news for European green energy developers, from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:

“The U.S. government handed out $502 million in grants for a dozen wind- and solar-power projects from Maine to South Texas, the first round in a new subsidy program designed to spur renewable-energy investment.”

What’s interesting about this is that the majority of the $502 million has been awarded to European companies and private-equity controlled developers. On the Iberian penninsula alone, $294 million went to Spanish wind developer Iberdrola SA, while Energias de Portugal SA received $47.7 million, via their US subsidiary Horizon Wind Energy.

As Bradley Woods’ Dan Ripp explained during the StepOne-UIMP course earlier this summer, there are currently a number of great opportunities for smart Spanish companies to enter the US market, provided their offerings dovetail with the Obama administration’s goals for economic recovery. In this case, Iberdrola and Energias de Portugal won grants because they’re meeting three of these goals: more clean energy, more energy independence, and more jobs. From this $502 million investment, the government is expecting to create 2000 US jobs, as well the capacity to generate 850 megawatts of clean, domestically produced energy, roughly enough for 500,000 homes.

Cleantech startups take note: even if your offering is a few quarters away from export-readiness, “[t]he program has no cap and government officials pledged to award grants to all qualified applicants through 2011.”

Last night’s Harvard cleantech event at Adobe headquarters

From Andrea Chang, head of StepOne’s US office:

“I attended a great event last night in San Jose at Adobe’s LEED certified headquarters. It was a great setting in which to hear leaders in the cleantech field talk about connecting entrepreneurs with resources. This is what we at StepOne try to do as well — personally connect Spanish entrepreneurs in the cleantech, life sciences, and internet sectors to key resources in the US.”

Organizations at the event: Environmental Business Cluster, Clean Tech Open, Livingston Energy Innovations, and California Clean Energy Fund.

Nadal: to sleeve or not to sleeve

Ending the week on a lighter note, courtesy of Harper’s Magazine: a look at the debate surrounding tennis star Rafael Nadal’s new wardrobe. Not that there’s much to debate – a Nike sponsorship is what it is – but everyone needs to have their say:

“It took me such a long time to like Rafa. He was too colorful, too shirtless, too tan, too apache. Now that I’ve gotten to like him, Nike presents me with the black socks. Well, I’m not going to get used to that! I cross my arms and refuse to look at him. You lost me, Nike.”

As of August 28, Rafa is still sleeved.

Failing guaranty bank sold to Spanish BBVA

Here’s one way to fast-track your expansion into the US market: buy a failed bank. On Friday, Guaranty Bank of Texas was seized by Federal regulators and sold to BBVA Compass, the US subsidiary of Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.

While the US has seen several banks fail in 2009 (81 as of this writing), BBVA’s involvement makes this a landmark liquidation. The last time an overseas bank received federal assistance in a failed bank deal was 1991, when the Bank of Ireland bought $1.8 billion worth of deposits from four New Hampshire banks. The BBVA takeover is worth over $12 billion.

What can we take away from this? Given the current economic downtown, there’s a lot of money in play for private sector companies who are willing to split some of the recovery burden with the US government. And while preference is generally given to US companies, foreign companies can compete alongside them, provided they can make the case that their winning the bid will be a net positive for the US economy. Despite the feds absorbing significant losses from Guaranty’s failure, the end result was a far softer landing thanks to BBVA’s involvement.

US Government to release $1.2 B in electronic medical record funding

Even with Congress in the middle of its annual summer recess, healthcare news continues to come out of Washington. Vice President Joe Biden announced yesterday that, effective October 1, $1.2 billion in stimulus funds will become available for the implementation of electronic medical records in hospitals and clinics across the US. “Implementation” can include anything from upgrading old systems to creating regional networks and training providers on the new technology. Companies in the medical tech sector take note – this portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act should create plenty of funding opportunities across the board.

Open Letter to The Economist

Thank you for bringing to the attention of your readers the dire need in Spain to open up its economy and social mindset to its entrepreneurial population. While you state unfairly that Spaniards are “risk averse” (an over-statement), there is indeed a need for governments, universities and businesses to come together and make funds and grants available (and not through “small credit”–a seeming cop-out that only hits the surface and has zero impact) to our brilliant entrepreneurs who want to launch in Spain and internationalize, in particular in the US. We are a company specializing in bringing Spanish high-tech and green-tec companies into the US market; daily we see the brilliant businesses, ideas, and products Spaniards are producing but daily we see the lack of understanding of the importance in investing in these companies by the “Spanish system” in general and lack of easily accessible and understandable funds to help support them. Many Chambers of Commerce in specific regions are coming around, however, and quickly. It’s due time that Spain as the 8th largest economy in the world recognized its entrepreneurs and made a concerted effort to support them as a priority in order to boost the Spanish economy and create thought-leaders in this country that can and will have an impact throughout the world.

Jennifer Aquino, CEO, StepOne Ventures