LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI) is the City of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

's official

cleantech Clean technology, also called cleantech or climate tech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental prote ...

business incubator A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture ...

established to accelerate the commercialization of

clean technology Clean technology, also called cleantech or climate tech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant Efficient energy use, energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, o ...

and job creation in the Los Angeles region. LACI's staff of entrepreneurs, market specialists, and researchers combined with its 60+ mentor/advisor network provide expert advice on a full range of issues facing early to growth stage companies, including CEO coaching, financial management, business development, IP, and more. The organization is run "by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs" and pursues public objectives by harnessing private methods and resources. In 2014, LACI was ranked by UBI Global as the Number 6 university-affiliated business incubator in the world out of 800+ incubators in 67 countries.

History

LACI was founded in 2011 to empower the City of Los Angeles' primary economic strategy, which is to drive the innovation and growth of Los Angeles'

green economy A green economy is an economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without environmental degradation, degrading the environment. It is closely related with ecological econ ...

. LA Cleantech Incubator was funded by the CRA/LA and the LADWP for the City of Los Angeles, as well as a federal award from the

Small Business Administration The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent agency of the United States government that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and str ...

, and is a result of the Clean Tech Los Angeles (CTLA) alliance among the Mayor's office, the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...

, the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, the

Art Center College of Design The ArtCenter College of Design is a private art college in Pasadena, California. It was incorporated in 1930 as a degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the visual arts and design. ...

, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, the Los Angeles Business Council, the

Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is Southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing the interests of more than 235,000 businesses in L.A. County, more than 1,400 member companies and more than 722,430 emplo ...

, LADWP, and the CRA/LA. At LACI's official launch night, Los Angeles Mayor

Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa (; né Villar Jr. on January 23, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Villaraigosa was a national co-chairman of Hillary C ...

said, ''"The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator is an important investment in the future of our great city. LACI will have an important role in developing new profitable businesses and creating jobs right here in LA. With this project, we take a big leap forward, toward a stronger and more sustainable economy that will help distinguish LA as a center of innovation and prosperity."''

Company

LACI is located in Los Angeles' emerging Cleantech Corridor in the

Arts District An arts district or cultural district is a demarcated urban area, usually on the periphery of a city centre, intended to create a 'critical mass' of places of cultural consumption - such as art galleries, theatres, art cinemas, music venues, and p ...

of downtown Los Angeles. Situated in a four mile long strip between the

Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River (), historically known as by the Tongva and the by the Spanish, is a major river in Los Angeles County, California. Its headwaters are in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and it flows nearly from Canoga Park ...

and Alameda in the eastern part of downtown, the Cleantech Corridor is the cornerstone of the city's green economy strategy. Startups apply to become an LACI Portfolio Company online through a process that includes an analysis of the applicant's business model, interviewing the management team, reviewing financials, and checking references. In August 2023, LACI received a $1.5 million Community Project Funding grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). With this, it will help install public charging infrastructure for electric freight trucks going between the Port of Los Angeles and other distribution centers. In its first 10 years, it helped 340 clean technology startups raise almost $680 million.

Strategic Imperative

LACI's Strategic Imperative is to move "the country off of its dependence on foreign fuels...California has already put its stake in the ground with AB 32, requiring all utilities to get 33% of their energy from

renewable sources A renewable resource (also known as a flow resource) is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...

by 2020. And Los Angeles is ahead of every major city by achieving almost 20% of its energy from renewable resources by 2010. The new strategic imperative is to focus the private and public sectors on the processes and technologies regarding the sustainable consumption of our natural resources."

La Kretz Innovation Campus

The La Kretz Innovation Campus is a cleantech center for cleantech innovation and commercialization activities opened on October 7, 2016. The 3.2-acre campus includes a 61,000 square-foot warehouse that hosts a variety of cleantech companies and municipal bodies, as well as a

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

facility and a work force training center. LACI moved its operations into the La Kretz Innovation Campus upon completion of construction. The building is an

adaptive reuse Adaptive reuse is the reuse of an existing building for a purpose other than that for which it was originally built or designed. It is also known as recycling and conversion. The adaptive reuse of buildings can be a viable alternative to new con ...

of an old warehouse and was designed b
John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects

References

{{US Business Incubators Business incubators of the United States