Calit2 Affiliate San Diego Supercomputer Center to Support Winners as Commercenet Awards Seven Next-Generation Internet Grants
Palo Alto, CA; July 22, 2002-CommerceNet is awarding highly coveted Next Generation Internet (NGI) Grants to seven elite California-based companies that are forging real-time value chain (RTVC) innovations. Avere, Blue Titan, CRIA Technologies, Open Harbor, Saltare, StoragePoint, and WebV2 are among the winners of grant funding.
CommerceNet manages the NGI Grant Program in partnership with the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency's Division of Science, Technology and Innovation. The Program is designed to fuel California's economy and further the state's technological leadership. The program identifies, supports, and funds companies developing business applications that drive the build-out of the next generation Internet.
"CommerceNet's mission is to facilitate the advancement of business applications and business models that establish an interoperable electronic marketplace," says Marty Tenenbaum, founder of CommerceNet. "The NGI Program is a central part of this vision and our partnership with the State of California has enabled us to fund seven innovative companies focused on providing solutions to address the uncertainly and complexity in value chains."
In this round of grants, CommerceNet commits funds to innovative application technologies that will advance e-Business and improve value chain efficiencies. The grants were awarded based upon an open competitive process. Criteria for grant selection included the applicants' forecasted ability to create new jobs, quality and commitment of industry partners, prospects of raising matching funds, and the significance of their work to RTVC innovations.
The following is a list of the grant awardees, their locations, and a description of their services:
- Avere's (Palo Alto) alwaysON suite enables real-time planning and execution for outsourced supply chains. It is the only solution on the market today that can perpetually balance supply and demand. The solution incorporates advanced and proven optimization technology to drive better decision-making. Avere is backed by Accenture. http://www.avere.org/
- Blue Titan Software (San Francisco) joins the loosely coupled world of Web services with the mission-critical demands of enterprise computing by providing origin-to-edge Web services networking software. http://www.bluetitan.com/
CRIA Technologies (Palo Alto) enables customers and providers to jointly manage outsourced services using the innovative CRIA network and CRIA's inter-enterprise application suite. http://www.criatech.com/ - Open Harbor's (San Carlos) global trade system makes seamless cross-border transactions by reducing customs delays and compliance penalties. http://www.openharbor.com/
- WebV2 (San Francisco) provides distributed, server-less application integration and Web Services process orchestration for automating business processes within and across enterprises. http://www.webv2.com/
In addition to technology development, the grantees will apply their NGI funding to develop valuable partnerships, improve operations, and hire sales, marketing, engineering and support staff. According to the strategic business plans of the grantees, NGI funds are expected to help create 2500 jobs over the next five years.
Two high-tech applications centers, CalNGI at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and Net21 at UC Berkeley, were established last year under the NGI program. CalNGI and Net21 will assist the grant recipients in technology and project administration and will provide advanced networking and computing resources for research and development.
CommerceNet's management of the NGI Program for the past year has garnered critical acclaim for identifying companies that are making significant technological and sociological impact. The first grantees awarded in 2001 will create more than 1000 jobs during the next five years and the new grantees are expected to achieve similar results. Additional achievements from the first grantees include: Kenemea that enables enterprise applications to communicate in real time with one another over the Internet, Pangea Foundation that creates technologies that allow people with disabilities to participate fully in the digital economy, and 3DGeo that provides improved oil and gas reservoir imaging and enhanced recovery monitoring, reducing California's energy costs.
About California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency's Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation (DSTI)
DSTI is a division of the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency (TTCA), the lead state organization responsible for economic development, job growth and job retention in California. DSTI exists to nurture and foster California's tech-based economy by working with federal and local governments, non-profit organizations, and California-based private companies to increase and improve tech-based economic development in California. For additional information about TTCA, see http://commerce.ca.gov/state/ttca/ttca_homepage.jsp/
About CommerceNet
CommerceNet, a global, not-for-profit organization is setting the business and technical agenda for the real-time economy by advancing global business on the Internet. Possessing technology and business expertise, CommerceNet selects and funds initiatives that address essential technology, educational, and business concept chasms and advances the development of critical standards and policies. CommerceNet's primary initiatives focus on creating a real-time networked economy by fostering the growth of Interoperable Markets, Business Web Services, Business Risk Management and Real-time Value Chains. By concentrating on these areas and supporting pilots and projects within world-renown testing facilities and application centers, CommerceNet is accelerating market convergence. Learn more about CommerceNet at http://www.commerce.net/
About CalNGI and Net21
The San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego is home to the Southern California Next Generation Internet (CalNGI) Application Center; UC Berkeley is home to the Northern California NGI center, called Net21. Both centers assist in the development, testing, incubation, and demonstration of new business and applications. With funding from the State of California, CalNGI and Net21 were set up by CommerceNet through a partnership with the California TTCI-DSTI and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC). For more information about CalNGI, seehttp://www.calngi.org/
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