OVP leads investment into clean tech

Kirkland venture-capital firm OVP Venture Partners has made its first foray into clean technology, leading an $8 million investment into M2E Power, an Idaho firm that specializes in harnessing human movement to generate electricity.

The deal, to be announced today, will help M2E develop a system to power portable electronic devices such as night-vision goggles or cellphones using energy generated when a person moves.

The company's technology relies on magnets moving through a wire coil to produce energy that is stored in a traditional battery. With such a device, the normal movement of an average person would be able to power a cellphone for 30 to 60 minutes of talking time each day, said Gerry Langeler, managing director at OVP Venture partners.

This is the first venture financing for the Boise firm, whose technology stems from research at the Idaho National Laboratory. It aims to supply the military with a light device to power combat gear so soldiers can carry fewer batteries. But the product could also be useful to cellphone makers and electricity generators, Langeler said.

"We were particularly struck by the company's ability to produce a solution that meets everyday military and consumer-usage patterns, with a stronger environmental profile," Langeler said. The company is at least a year away from "any meaningful product revenues," he said.

Other investors include @Ventures, Highway 12 Ventures and Evolution Capital Advisors.

Venture capitalists are increasingly looking at alternative energy investments. The most recent PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report put funding for clean technologies at 12 percent of the venture-capital investment nationwide.

It's the first time OVP has delved into alternative energy, but the deal is similar to its other investments in software or electronics, as it relies on proprietary technology.

"Actually, it is very much like the other things we do," he said. "There's a technology risk, a market risk, a team risk — just focused on a different space."

OVP isn't dropping everything else to jump headlong into the new sector.

"We still see so many good opportunities in our traditional tech spaces that we don't see any reasons to do a hard right turn," Langeler said.

Ángel González: 206-515-5644