OnGreen— a professional networking and collaboration website that connects clean tech entrepreneurs with potential investors— today announced that it has raised a $1.4 million series A investment of its own from a jointly owned fund between Blue Marble Ventures in Los Angeles, and China Southern Hong Kong Investment Ltd. (CSHK) in Shanghai.

The company aims to build the world’s largest database of green technologies and entrepreneurs globally, and to create funding opportunities for these through its platform. Chief executive and founder of OnGreen, Nikhil R. Jain explains:

“Entrepreneurs post deals, or standardized summaries of their business plans and funding needs to OnGreen. More than 250 deals have been posted from 30 countries, with around 30% of those hailing from outside of the U.S. so far. [Desirable teams] are contacted by investors as a result of posting, and according to our September survey half of those who posted were contacted by potential investors. But entrepreneurs can also use the site to get feedback on their business plans and to network in what is a somewhat fragmented industry.”

According to Jain, OnGreen will use the series A capital to launch a Chinese version of its site, build its presence in China and India during the next year, and to launch a patent exchange in coming weeks (Nov. 16, 2010) a collaboration with the University of Southern California Energy Institute.

Currently, OnGreen plans to generate revenue through advertising, lead generation, events, custom clean tech and green industry research, and other sources. The company is on target to become profitable by the end of 2011, Jain says.

Crunchbase

• BLUE MARBLE VENTURES

Financial-organization: Blue Marble Ventures

Website: bluemarbleventures.com

Blue Marble Ventures focuses on the so-called ‘micro-fund’ level of funding to help inventors and entrepreneurs reach proof of concept stage and prepare for an institutional round of capital or other strategic path. The Fund’s mission is to invest capital and management resources in promising, very early-stage technologies and business models, primarily within the green/clean technology space.

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