investing

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Wednesday his agency would be directing more than $5 million in grants to wind energy projects.

About $1.8 million will go toward wind turbine manufacturing development, and $3.4 million of that grant money will go toward wind forecasting.

On the surface that may sound like a frivolous spending choice best left to a wet finger, but the Department of Energy says it's something that could save utilities a lot of money long-term and make wind a more reliable source of alternative energy.

The technology under development would predict fluctuations in wind surges in relation to affected wind turbines … Read more

Silicon start-up Smooth-Stone has received $48 million from a syndicate of investors including ARM, Texas Instruments, and Highland Capital Ventures.

Smooth-Stone's goal is to bring the virtues of low-power cell phone technology to servers and, as a result, bring down the staggering power consumption at large data centers. Mega data centers can house tens of thousands of servers and the largest can use between 5 and 20 megawatts of power. One megawatt, equal to 1 million watts, can power about 1,000 homes.

Smooth-Stone joins other start-ups such as U.S. Department of Energy-backed SeaMicro, which is using Intel'… Read more

Despite public approval, U.S. wind energy investment is slowing down instead of growing, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

An overwhelming majority of Americans support a renewable electricity standard, and wind energy investment in particular, according to a poll of 600 likely voters conducted in March by Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies and Bennett, Petts & Normington.

Specifically, 89 percent of Americans said increasing the amount of energy the U.S. gets from wind is a good idea. Broken down by ideology, 84 percent of Republicans, 93 percent of Democrats, and 88 percent of independents support increasing the … Read more

General Electric announced Thursday plans to invest $10 billion over the next five years in Ecomagination, the green-focused research and development program it began in 2005.

Since Ecomagination began, GE has invested a total of $5 billion in its research and development as of the end of 2009. The technology and products to come out of that program have generated $70 billion in revenue over the past five years, according to GE statistics released Thursday.

In view of that revenue success, GE has decided to double investment for the program between now and 2015. The announcement is not entirely surprising, … Read more

AppBackr, which launches in invite only beta on Tuesday, is one of the most interesting investment projects to come up in the last few years if only for its premise. It plans to offer iPhone app developers a way to get an advance paid by investors who buy into future sales, then stand to make a profit on their investment; that is, if they get in early, and the app sells.

Those are some pretty big ifs, though the bootstrapped alternative means waiting until the sales come in before ever seeing a return on what could be months of work. On top of this, there's promotion through blogs and publications--or PR agencies that can do that work for them.

What AppBackr is trying to do is roll those two extra steps of financing and promotion into a single service, while at the same time giving developers with little or no money a way to get a cash advance in exchange for some of the eventual profits.

Here's how it works: 1. Developers pay a $25 fee (per month, the first of which is waived) to list their app in AppBackr's marketplace. 2. Developers sign up with Apple as a developer (if they haven't already), then share their iTunes Connect account credentials with AppBackr so it can keep track of sales. 3. AppBackr creates a bank account for that developer, where they can funnel revenue from app sales. 4. A developer can sell lots of their sales to investors who buy them wholesale and at a discount. 5. As soon as a buyer purchases that lot, the developer gets that money in advance to actually build the app. 6. When the app sells through each lot of sales, that buyer of the lot gets paid more than they invested. How much depends on at what stage they invested.

There are obviously quite a few more details in how this works, the primary one being how much a developer and investor stand to make after Apple and AppBackr take a cut. Developers can get a 25-cent advance (out of a 69-cent cut of a 99-cent purchase), then another 11 cents when it sells. In turn, buyers can earn a 53-cent cut of either a 45- or 35-cent investment--something that is determined on whether they poured money into the app ahead of, or after its release (respectively). AppBackr also takes a 10-cent cut of the 69 cents both before it's sold, then either 5- or 2-cent post-transaction fee depending on the whether buyers invested in it before or after it went to market.

But what happens if an invested-in app simply does not sell, or even make it past Apple's sometimes stringent reviews process?

AppBackr creator Trevor Cornwell, who CNET spoke with last week, says much of the success of the program revolves around commitment. "We've created an agreement between the buyer and the seller," Cornwell said. "Look at something like Craigslist transitioning into a marketplace like eBay. On eBay, you look for buyers--in this case developers who have a good track record. We are solving a problem for a group where there's been no simple function to be able to do that." … Read more

China may arguably be the world's biggest polluter, but it seems the country is also the most serious investor in green tech.

A third of its economic recovery package was spent on green-technology investment in the form of high-speed rail trains and infrastructure, wind energy, solar energy, and energy-efficient lighting. It equates to about 3 percent of China's GDP (gross domestic product), according to a new United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) book released Wednesday.

The UNEP book, "A Global Green New Deal: Rethinking the Economic Recovery," was published by the UNEP and Cambridge University Press (CUP). … Read more

LensVector, a Silicon Valley start-up working on new lens technology that rids mobile phones of moving parts, has secured new funding to tailor its products for a group with a particular interest in tiny cameras: the United States intelligence community.

Specifically, In-Q-Tel, the CIA-based organization that invests in technology companies, has funded the Mountain View, Calif.-based start-up, said LensVector Chief Executive Derek Proudian. In addition, LensVector also is being paid to develop specific products through the deal with IQT.

Proudian declined to reveal exactly how much money is involved in the new investment and development contract. However, he did … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Rebecca Lynn's bio below.

Let's say you have an ingenious new business idea, and you're ready to seek venture capital. Knowing what venture capital investors look for in a pitch could mean the difference between a term sheet and a rejection.

As a VC, I've seen hundreds of pitches. And I can tell you that in today's environment, the best PowerPoint slide decks--whether delivered by first-time entrepreneurs or veteran company builders--share similar structure, content, and zing.

First, what's changed? I recently hosted a panel called "… Read more

Personal finance and investment management software is becoming more powerful and capable yet easier to use than ever. Case in point is Believ's flagship product, Fund Manager Personal, a comprehensive portfolio manager designed to give investors powerful reporting and graphing features that are also easy to learn, understand, and apply. Its customizable financial analysis and reporting tools make it suitable for individual investors and family finances as well as active traders and market professionals.

Fund Manager's clean, elegant, businesslike interface is anchored by a full-featured menu bar, including an excellent Help file as well as controls for the … Read more