Babu Jain will advise students, entrepreneurs, and early-stage companies at the UW’s open-access climate tech lab
January 27, 2025
The Washington Clean Energy Testbeds, the University of Washington’s (UW) open-access facility for clean energy and climate technology innovation, has welcomed Babu Jain as its newest Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR). The Testbeds EIR advises entrepreneurs and early-stage climate tech startup companies on team formation, product development, strategic marketing, fundraising, manufacturing strategy, and business development. Weekly office hours are free and open to all aspiring and established climate tech entrepreneurs and business teams.
“Babu’s experience as both a founder and a corporate executive will be invaluable for entrepreneurs and startups scaling ideas into products and pursuing funding to grow their businesses,” said Testbeds Managing Director Dr. Michael Pomfret.
Babu Jain is the founder and CEO of Navia Energy Inc., a renewable AI technology company, and has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UW CoMotion since 2017. He has more than 30 years of experience leading global startups as well as technology teams at Fortune 500 companies, including leadership experience in the United States, India, Singapore, and Germany.
As a founder, Jain led NavSemi Energy from launch to exit through an acquisition by Alpha Technologies Inc. (now an EnerSys company). As Vice President of Design Centers, Jain scaled Infineon’s small R&D team in Asia to 600+ engineers and scaled sales operations for Infineon India. As an engineering executive, he deployed game-changing technologies in power and industrial controls, communication, and optical networking while at Infineon and other technology corporations. Jain has an MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a BSEE from BITS Pilani (India), and holds four patents in energy systems.
“I’m thrilled to support the vibrant community of innovators at this impressive facility,” Jain said. “I’m passionate about the renewable energy startup ecosystem, and as the sector and the investing environment continue to evolve, I aim to provide founders and business leaders with guidance on building dynamic teams, business plans, and fundraising.”
The Testbeds EIR works alongside the Testbeds Investor-in-Residence (IIR) Jeff Canin, who joined in 2017. Canin is a board member of VertueLab and a co-manager of the E8 Fund. He provides free consultations on funding proposals, financial strategy, fundraising, and strategic partnerships to cleantech entrepreneurs and startups via office hours at the Testbeds. As Testbeds IIR, Canin hosts events for the climate tech community centered on identifying funding sources and raising startup financing.
Jain is hosting a Meet & Greet event on February 10, 2025 at 3:30 pm at the Testbeds. Register here.
To set up office hours with Jain, contact the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds at wcet@uw.edu.
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University of Washington Clean Energy Institute (CEI)
CEI’s mission is to accelerate a scalable and equitable clean energy future that will improve the health and economy of our state, nation, and world. To accomplish this, it supports the advancement of next-generation solar energy and battery materials and devices, as well as their integration with systems and the grid. The Institute creates the ideas and educates the people needed to generate these innovations, while facilitating the pathways to bring them to market. www.cei.washington.edu
Washington Clean Energy Testbeds
CEI created the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds to accelerate the development, scale-up, and adoption of new clean energy and climate technologies. This open-access lab facility in Seattle, founded on the principle that users retain all intellectual property, offers customized training and use of instruments for fabricating prototypes, testing devices and modules, and integrating power systems. The facility also houses meeting and office space where users from academia and business work and collaborate. www.wcet.washington.edu