Dive Brief:
- JPMorgan is backing Atlanta’s clean energy infrastructure by investing $600,000 in the Georgia Cleantech Innovation Hub (GACIH) — a partnership between the public, private and academic sectors that seeks to drive clean technology innovation and increase market access.
- The funding aims to scale technologies and businesses focused on saving energy and water, reducing pollution, cutting waste and increasing efficiency, JPMorgan said in a press release last week. The financing will also help develop the workforce needed to oversee and grow the clean energy infrastructure.
- The bank’s grant will support programs at local universities that aim to cultivate future clean tech professionals and businesses focused on “real-world learning,” according to the release. The grant will also help in the early stages of building Atlanta’s first “build and test” facility for clean tech startups.
Dive Insight:
JPMorgan said the grant will be administered through the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Partnership for Innovation Network, which advances entrepreneurship across Georgia and the Southeast. The grant will also allow Georgia State University, Morehouse College and Spelman College to launch programs that link students with clean tech entrepreneurs and give them exposure to career pathways in the sector.
The initiative seeks to bridge the current talent gap between the skilled workforce needed to scale clean tech infrastructure, according to the bank.
“A strong innovation economy needs talented entrepreneurs who can design, test, and produce innovations to solve critical problems, and skilled talent who can create and fill jobs in high-growth industries,” JPMorgan Vice President of Global Philanthropy Suganthi Simon said in a March 31 release. “We’re proud to support GACIH because the talent pipeline and the startup innovation pipeline are tightly linked and have the power to boost our communities, build wealth and grow our economy.”
The funding will also support site identification and feasibility planning for a new clean tech incubator facility in Atlanta, which aims to repurpose underused industrial spaces for early-stage startups focused on clean tech.
The GACIH partnership is the latest to come from JPMorgan, which has been increasingly investing in initiatives and technologies that accelerate decarbonization. Last month, the bank announced it was backing clean iron startup Electra through $30 million in new capital, provided through a venture debt facility, in a bid to scale the company’s low-carbon iron.
