Regen Power Systems secures $5 Million from 21Ventures

ReGen Power Systems secures funding for heat capture kit
Stirling engine technology promises to turn waste heat from industrial facilities into usable electricity

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen, 21 Nov 2008

Cogeneration equipment company ReGen Power Systems has scooped $5m (£3m) in funding to help bring its stirling engine-based heat conversion technology to market.

The New Salem, MA-based firm closed the equity financing round with 21Ventures LLC and the Quercus Trust. The investment will be used to fund the production of two prototype units, designed to harvest heat from industrial plants and convert it to electricity.

The company's design uses heat exchangers to capture heat from industrial plants such as glass furnaces. The exchangers transfer the heat to piston-based stirling engines, which are used to generate electrical power instead of regular turbines.

Chief executive Dick Meloy said that the company's equipment will operate in the one to five megawatt range, which he claims is generally too small for turbines. He added that there is a $9bn revenue opportunity in selling stirling engines to smaller plants in the US alone.

The company will produce two types of stirling engine. The first will be designed to operate at higher temperatures, and will be suitable for heat intensive industrial facilities such as glass, steel, aluminium and cement works.

The second will operate at 100 degrees centigrade and will act as a steam condenser. "That suits industries that produce lots of steam, such as pulp and paper, chemicals, and petroleum refining," Meloy explained.

The stirling engines could also serve as the power conversion element in thermal solar power generation, where mirrors focus the sun's rays to create steam, he said.

The company hopes to start selling units commercially by the end of 2010, and Meloy said that when operational and manufacturing costs are taken into account, the technology could deliver electricity at about six tenths of a cent per kilowatt hour.

However, that price would not include upfront capital expenditure on the equipment, which could cost $1,200 to $1,600 per Kw, and installation costs of between $250 and $600 per Kw.

Seed Funding - 21Ventures and Cognisafe

October 1,2008 -

21Ventures announces investment in CogniSafe Ltd. - Anti-cheat software provider for online-games


New York, NY and Tel-Aviv, Israel, October 1, 2008 --- 21Ventures, a U.S. based venture capital firm, announced today a seed investment in CogniSafe Ltd. – an Israeli company providing real-time anti-cheat software solution for online games . The funding is earmarked for sales and marketing and ongoing product development. “CogniSafe brings an exciting new approach to solve the cheating problem in online games, a problem which causes significant losses to gaming companies and harms the players ability to enjoy the challenge and adventure of a cheat-free game environment. Just like online banking and commerce services, the online gaming industry is vulnerable to fraud and cheating, but no real time solution has been presented so far to solve the cheating problem. We believe that CogniSafe solution will become the standard in detection and prevention of cheating in online games and we are happy to be among the first to identify CogniSafe potential” said David Anthony, Managing Partner of 21Ventures. The cheating problem in online games causes game providers to remove tens of thousands of paying players every month, due to suspected cheating. The removal is usually done following a complaint from other players, or after a post mortem analysis of player's actions. In addition, a significant number of legitimate players abandon some game titles, and cease paying, when they feel they have been cheated. CogniSafe's solution enables online game providers to detect, in real time, any deviation from proper gaming procedures by the online players, and remove cheaters from participation in the game, thus makes cheating attempts futile and enables other players to continue and enjoy a cheat-free gaming experience. "There is a clear need in the market for a real-time solution that will enable the gaming companies to really understand the magnitude of the cheating phenomena, gather evidence against cheaters, and remove them from the game before they affect the gaming experience for other players ”, said Izik Shimon, CEO of CogniSafe. Izik continues "We are already engaged with several leaders in the online gaming industry, which understand the potential of increasing the integrity of their games and avoiding significant losses, by working with CogniSafe".

Want to read more? Check out some of these links...

• 21Ventures-Cognisafe Press Release - PDF
  
• 21Ventures Cognisafe Press Release on 21Ventures Site
  
• Read the Cognisafe / 21Ventures article on emedia- CLICK HERE!
  
• Cognisafe contact details
  
• Read about Cognisafe in WiMax
  
• Read about Cognisafe on The Individual
• Gambling News about Cognisafe
• Read about Cognisafe in Dow Jones Industrial
• Cognisafe on Lexis Nexus
• Cognisafe Microsoft Partner Page

David Anthony of 21Ventures speaking in Memphis 2008

Hey Folks, just wanted to share one of my videos with you, of me speaking in Memphis earlier this year.

You can also watch by clicking on this link - David Anthony Speaking in Memphis

Don't flutter yourself

Hey folks, just wanted to tell you about one of the companies i invest in that now offers a cool flutter application for the iphone

Juicecaster/flutter for the iphone. Send MMS from your iphone.

If your an iphone user, you should check it out, 

***

If you have a blackberry, check out the

Juicecaster for the Blackberry.

Have a great week!

David Anthony