The California Mobility Center has an agreement with Invest Alberta and Canadian investment firm EnerTech Capital to collaborate on policy and investment strategies for future clean mobility technologies.
The memorandum of understanding with Invest Alberta is one of a growing roster of agreements the Sacramento-based California Mobility Center has with international groups working on clean transportation technologies.
“They are interested in being part of our ecosystem,” said Mark Rawson, chief operating officer of the California Mobility Center.
“It’s not necessary to replicate all these efforts. We can network and collaborate and be more efficient," Rawson said.
Invest Alberta is a crown corporation in Edmonton, the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta, that is interested in making clean-tech investment in areas including clean mobility. Crown corporations in Canada are government organizations that have commercial and public-policy objectives. Invest Alberta is working on developing hydrogen technologies in transportation.
"We plan to leverage Alberta’s expertise and leadership in hydrogen technologies to attract high-impact investment to the province and expand opportunities for Alberta companies in other markets,” said Rick Christiaanse, CEO of Invest Alberta, in a news release.
California occupies about 50% of the total electric vehicle market share in the U.S. and is the leader in climate regulation and policy, which makes it attractive to groups working on clean mobility technology, Rawson said.
In March, the CMC signed a collaborative agreement with the Qatar Mobility Innovations Center based in Doha, Qatar. This latest international agreement adds to partnerships the Sacramento-based center has already struck with PEM Motion in Aachen, Germany, and several Canadian manufacturers and utilities. The CMC is also working to develop partnerships in Asia, Rawson said.
EnerTech, a venture capital firm based in Toronto, Ontario, is a founding partner of the California Mobility Center. EnerTech invests in early and growth-stage companies working in advanced mobility.
“We have been investing in and partnering with innovative companies driving change across the energy landscape for over 25 years,” said Wally Hunter, managing director at EnerTech, in a news release. “As a co-architect of the CMC, we saw how a relationship with (Invest) Alberta would help expand the mobility ecosystem that we are building in Canada."
The California Mobility Center has been years in the works, and it launched last year to support companies that need to create prototypes either to perform field demonstrations or to ramp up for market entry. The center is not an incubator to help startups create products. Rather, its goal is to help companies bring advanced technology to market, and at the same time make the Sacramento region an innovative hub in the global development of transportation technologies.
