East Bay Economic Development Alliance Innovation Awards

While the Val­ley tends to get much of the medi­a’s atten­tion when it comes to Cal­i­for­ni­a’s inno­va­tion cul­ture, there’s a lot to be said for the East Bay when it comes to high fly­ing tech firms.  Tal­ent in the East Bay rivals that of any­where else in the state, and the suc­cess­es of com­pa­nies call­ing the East Bay “home” bear that out.

On Jan­u­ary 31st the East Bay Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Alliance (East Bay EDA) announced the win­ners of its inau­gur­al Inno­va­tion Awards at the Fox The­ater in Oakland.

Four DBL port­fo­lio com­pa­nies includ­ing Tes­la, Eco­log­ic Brands, Pan­do­ra and Live­scribe, Inc., were sin­gled out for help­ing “advance the region’s cul­ture of inno­va­tion and con­tribut­ing to region­al prosperity.”

“The East Bay is home to a wide vari­ety of inno­va­tors in job sec­tors that include clean fuels, food pro­duc­tion, dig­i­tal ani­ma­tion, med­ical devices, and many more,” said Kei­th Car­son, Alame­da Coun­ty Board of Super­vi­sors and Chair­man, East Bay EDA Board of Direc­tors. “We want to cel­e­brate those accom­plish­ments, raise aware­ness about the for­ward-think­ing busi­ness­es that are based in the East Bay, and inspire oth­er com­pa­nies to think out­side the box.”

Here’s a lit­tle about each win­ner and the cat­e­gories they won:

DBL Part­ners’ Man­ag­ing Part­ner, Nan­cy Pfund with three port­fo­lio com­pa­nies and Win­ners of the East Bay EDA Inno­va­tion Awards

Win­ner: ECOLOGIC

Cat­e­go­ry: Clean Tech

Clean Tech: Prod­ucts, ser­vices, and process­es that har­ness renew­able mate­ri­als and ener­gy sources, dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduce the use of nat­ur­al resources, and cut or elim­i­nate emis­sions and wastes.

Here’s a lit­tle about each win­ner and the cat­e­gories they won:

Win­ner: TESLA

Cat­e­go­ry: Advanced Manufacturing

Advanced Man­u­fac­tur­ing: Activ­i­ties that (a) depend on the use and coor­di­na­tion of infor­ma­tion, automa­tion, com­pu­ta­tion, soft­ware, sens­ing and net­work­ing, and/​or (b) make use of cut­ting-edge mate­ri­als and emerg­ing capa­bil­i­ties enabled by the phys­i­cal and bio­log­i­cal sci­ences to make exist­ing prod­ucts in new ways or make new prod­ucts emerg­ing from these new, advanced technologies.

 Win­ner: PANDORA

Cat­e­go­ry: Engi­neer­ing and design

Engi­neer­ing and Design: The use of sci­ence, math, or artistry to solve prob­lems or plan or present some­thing in a new way.

Win­ner: LIVESCRIBE

Cat­e­go­ry: Infor­ma­tion and/​or Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Technology

Infor­ma­tion and/​or Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Tech­nol­o­gy: The devel­op­ment, imple­men­ta­tion, and main­te­nance of com­put­er hard­ware and soft­ware sys­tems to orga­nize and com­mu­ni­cate infor­ma­tion electronically.

Con­grats to our com­pa­nies for an absolute­ly huge show­ing at the awards!  It’s great to see oth­ers rec­og­nize your efforts and val­i­date the promise of your respec­tive pursuits.