iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
The Washington Clean Energy Testbeds at the University of Washington (UW) has appointed Indian American Babu Jain as its new Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR).
In this role, Jain will provide guidance to entrepreneurs and early-stage climate tech startups on areas like team formation, product development, strategic marketing, and fundraising.
The Testbeds also offer free weekly office hours, available to both aspiring and established climate tech entrepreneurs. These sessions aim to support business development and manufacturing strategy for startups in the clean energy and climate technology sectors.
“Babu’s experience as both a founder and a corporate executive will be invaluable for entrepreneurs and startups scaling ideas into products and pursuing funding to grow their businesses,” said Testbeds Managing Director Dr. Michael Pomfret.
Babu Jain is the founder and CEO of Navia Energy Inc., a renewable AI technology company, and has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UW CoMotion since 2017. He has more than 30 years of experience leading global startups as well as technology teams at Fortune 500 companies, including leadership experience in the United States, India, Singapore, and Germany.
As a founder, Jain led NavSemi Energy from launch to exit through an acquisition by Alpha Technologies Inc. (now an EnerSys company). As Vice President of Design Centers, Jain scaled Infineon’s small R&D team in Asia to 600+ engineers and scaled sales operations for Infineon India. As an engineering executive, he deployed game-changing technologies in power and industrial controls, communication, and optical networking while at Infineon and other technology corporations. Jain has an MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a BSEE from BITS Pilani (India), and holds four patents in energy systems.
“I’m thrilled to support the vibrant community of innovators at this impressive facility,” Jain said. “I’m passionate about the renewable energy startup ecosystem, and as the sector and the investing environment continue to evolve, I aim to provide founders and business leaders with guidance on building dynamic teams, business plans, and fundraising.”
The Testbeds EIR works alongside the Testbeds Investor-in-Residence (IIR) Jeff Canin, who joined in 2017. Canin is a board member of VertueLab and a co-manager of the E8 Fund. He provides free consultations on funding proposals, financial strategy, fundraising, and strategic partnerships to climate tech entrepreneurs and startups via office hours at the Testbeds. As Testbeds IIR, Canin hosts events for the climate tech community centered on identifying funding sources and raising startup financing.
(Photo courtesy: www.cei.washington.edu)