Vice President Kamala Harris toured the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator in downtown L.A.’s Arts District on Monday afternoon to highlight how the Biden-Harris administration is supporting clean energy entrepreneurs and encouraging people of all backgrounds to join America’s green technology industry.

The L.A. Cleantech Incubator’s mission is to foster an inclusive and innovative green economy in Los Angeles. LACI offers funding, training and office space for clean energy startups with a focus on supporting female founders and founders of color. It also creates pathways for people to enter green technology careers through workforce development programs and education outreach efforts.

“The work that is happening at LACI is a worldwide model around what happens when we invest in talent, when we invest in innovation, when we invest in people who have really great, smart ideas,” Harris said on April 17. She went on to say that such ideas are “born out of an understanding and a belief that we can create things that have never been done before, and that can really change the world.”

LACI has helped 375 portfolio companies raise more than $1 billion in funding, generated $335 million in revenue, and created 2,626 jobs in the Los Angeles region. It was founded in 2011 as an economic development initiative by the city and L.A. Department of Water and Power.

“We’re very excited to have the Vice President of the United States of America come to our campus,” said L.A. Cleantech Incubator CEO Matt Peterson in an interview on Monday. “We’re just thrilled and honored and excited to show her this great facility that is more than a place … It’s a movement to create an inclusive green economy.”

During a tour of the facility at 525 S. Hewitt St., Harris met with several entrepreneurs who received funding from LACI — as well as graduates of the organization’s workforce training programs who now have full-time well-paying jobs in L.A.’s clean energy industry.

“We want these green jobs of the future that are being created today to be filled by people in our community,” said Peterson. “That’s why we’re doing green workforce training, and that’s why we’re helping our startup founders scale their equitable climate solutions.”

Harris is not the only high-ranking official to recently tour the much-lauded facility. In August of 2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was joined by Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, for a tour of the incubator as they celebrated $370 billion in climate investments included in the federal Inflation Reduction Act.

Other key climate legislation passed under the Biden-Harris administration includes the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which is aimed at advancing climate resilience and environmental justice, and the CHIPS and Science Act, which is intended to boost clean energy innovation.

Harris said that combined, the climate-focused pieces of legislation represent an estimated $1 trillion investment in clean energy over the next ten years.

“Just imagine what that means as the boost, as the leap frog, into where we need to be, because we lost some time over the last few years,” said Harris, referring to a lack of clean energy investment during the Trump administration. “That’s the federal government piece — think about what that will do to spur private investment and the synergy that will create.”

As vice president, Harris has been outspoken about focusing on a clean energy future and preparing for the impacts of climate change. In January, she visited the San Fernando Valley’s Tujunga Spreading Grounds to highlight the need for drought- and flood-resilient infrastructure, after extreme flooding was seen across Southern California.

At the White House, Harris has convened climate leaders from local, state, and national level organizations to discuss the Administration’s climate investments and hosted the Accelerating Lead Pipe Replacement Summit. Later this week she will travel to Miami to discuss the need to build community resilience against extreme weather.

During her speech at LACI, she praised the way the organization focuses on recognizing innovation and talent in local communities and ensures that founders can access capital that they need to make their visions a reality.

“The work that is happening here is about access to capital, something that I’ve worked on for years even when I was in the Senate,” said Harris. “So often when they (entrepreneurs) go to a big bank, the folks who are there don’t necessarily understand the talent, the skills, the capacity or the needs of individual communities. But there are certain types of funders like LACI that do get it, and invest in it.”

LACI provides capital through its venture fund and through the nation’s first clean tech debt fund. The debt fund eliminates barriers to capital by not requiring credit scores or personal collateral, but rather by focusing on the viability of the business plan at hand.

“If you don’t own a home, if you don’t come from generational wealth, but you have a great startup idea and you hustle and become an entrepreneur, you need access to capital,” said Peterson.

In 2022, only 1.9% of all venture capital funding in America went to companies with female founders, and Black founders received only 1% of total capital funding, according to a recent analysis by TechCrunch.

At LACI, almost 30% of those founding companies are female and nearly 25% are Black or brown, Peterson said.

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In its first 12 years of operation, LACI has brought dozens of clean energy-focused products to market, and has more in the pipeline.

One major success story is aircraft manufacturer Ampaire, which developed a hybrid-electric, zero-emission airplane. Another is startup FreeWire Technologies, which developed an ultra-fast, battery-integrated electric vehicle charger used by Fortune 100 companies, transportation fleets and gas stations across North America and Europe.

LACI has also partnered with community groups to create programs benefiting low-income residents. It recently joined forces with the Eastside Riders Bike Club to provide an e-bike lending program to residents of Watts, Willowbrook and Compton. In November 2022, it helped launch a similar e-bike lending pilot program for residents of the Rancho San Pedro public housing development, called Good2Go Bikes.

During her tour Harris met with John Jones, the president of the East Side Riders Bike Club, as well as entrepreneurs from several startups funded by LACI.

“The work that is happening here is a model for folks around the country who are investing in entrepreneurs, small businesses to do this work investing in the clean energy economy,” Harris said. “Let us continue to lead with the ambition to promote and invest in aspirations and to do all of this in the best interest of the health, safety and wellbeing of this beautiful planet.”