Algae-to-Biofuel Startup GreenFuel Gets a New CEO
GreenFuel Technologies, a startup that uses recycled CO2 to grow algae, which can be turned into biofuels, has hired a new CEO…finally. Since June 2007 the company has been led by “interim CEO” (and Ethernet inventor) Bob Metcalfe; it had initially been aiming to find a permanent replacement by last December. Today GreenFuel says former Dow Chemical executive Simon Upfill-Brown will become its CEO as of July 23.
This means GreenFuel has almost completed its 7-step turnaround plan, which also included raising new funding. The company needed to “turn around” after it hit a few speed bumps over the past year that resulted in layoffs, a CEO switch and the shutting down of a greenhouse in Arizona after discovering that its algae tech was more expensive than first planned.
In May the company announced that it had raised $13.9 million of a Series B round from existing investors, and said it would announce details of a strategic Series C round “in the coming weeks.” GreenFuels also said that it will soon announce deals for scaling its algae-farming technology, so look for more news to come out of the algae-to-biofuel startup.
[...] startup GreenFuel. Metcalfe said on Tuesday that his company had finally chosen a permanent CEO (, story on that from this morning) in former Dow Chemical exec Simon Upfill-Brown. Upfill-Brown starts July [...]
[...] In July, former Dow Chemical executive Simon Upfill-Brown became GreenFuel’s CEO, taking over for interim CEO (and ethernet inventor and Polaris partner) Bob Metcalfe. The startup had initially been aiming to find a permanent replacement by at least December 2007. [...]
[...] to take over for Polaris Ventures Bob Metcalfe (former Dow Chemical executive Simon Upfill-Brown became its CEO in July), and shutting down a greenhouse in Arizona after discovering that its algae-growing technology was [...]
The firm has over $3 billion under management, more than 20 investment professionals, and current investments in more than 75 companies. For more information on Polaris, visit http://www.polarisventures.com.
How many tanked? Any failures? Polaris blames economy and not mismanagment. Always the positive spin.