Type Private Founded 2005 | Industry Chemical & Fuel | |
Headquarters 500 Clyde Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043 Key people Bob Mayer (CEO), Andy Meyer (President), "Carole Cobb" (COO), David Walther (VP R&D) Website | ||
Cobalt Technologies is a Mountain View start up that specializes in the creation of biobutanol using various cellulosic feedstocks. Current feedstocks include corn cobs, treetops and limbs, dead pine trees from pine beetles. It is currently run by CEO [Bob Mayer], and President Andy Meyer. Cobalt is in the final stages of its development and R&D processes and is looking to build its first commercial plant.
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Timeline
October 20, 2008 - Cobalt raises $25 million in funds. The Series C equity round was co-led by LSP and Pinnacle Ventures and included both new and existing investors. The Series C round had strong participation from Cobalt Biofuels’ existing institutional investors, including Pinnacle Ventures, Vantage Point Venture Partners, The Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund and @Ventures. New investors included LSP and Harris and Harris.
October 29, 2008 - Cobalt names Rick Wilson as Chief Executive Officer.
September 9, 2009 - Cobalt is named to Global Cleantech 100 by Guardian News and Media and Cleantech Group
January 12, 2010 - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Silicon Valley cleantech leaders were on hand, demonstrating the importance of clean technology to the state’s future economic vitality. “It is great companies like Cobalt that will help California meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets under AB 32 and our Low Carbon Fuel Standard,” said Governor Schwarzenegger
April 7, 2010 - Cobalt Technologies is First to Create Renewable Biobutanol Fuel from Beetle-Killed Pine. Cobalt is the first company to produce a drop-in replacement for petroleum and petrochemicals from beetle-affected lodgepole pine. To evaluate the fuel's viability for commercial vehicles, the company has signed a fuel testing partnership with Colorado State University.
June 22, 2010 - Cobalt was named to the Biofuels Digest "30 Most Transformative Technologies of 2010" and ranked first in the competitive biobutanol category. More than 48,000 votes were cast during a three-week online voting process. "There is a growing recognition of the value of biobutanol as a renewable chemical and fuel and our technology has the ability to be first to market with commercial-scale biobutanol production," said Rick Wilson, CEO.
October 15, 2015 - RIP Cobalt Technologies.
California endorses Cobalt
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger paid a visit to Cobalt Biofuels on January 12, 2010. The Governor was quoted for saying "Cobalt shows us that what is good for the environment can also be good for the economy." He also is quoted for saying at the press conference "And this is a perfect example, where we can celebrate the creation of this great biofuel in a very cost-effective way and doing such a spectacular job in that direction but at the same time helping the economy because this is creating jobs. And this is what I always said, that you can protect the economy and protect the environment at the same time. In fact here -- what is great also about this is that because they are so successful, they are going to open up and expand very quickly. And they're going to go and build another plant, a big plant, much bigger than this is here, where they will have 1,300 people employed."