Key AWE investors are now following a microcapital* diversification strategy. Previous AWE investments, like Google, generally picked just one horse to bet everything on, but the new investors are perusing "basket" strategies, supporting a variety of small but high quality players in hope of growing a garden of champions. Since 2007, KiteLab Group has sought to spread its working R&D funds around, but until recently had hardly any funds to offer. In 2010, Daidalos Capital announced as an AWE holding company looking for small undervalued players. WOW Italy pioneered AWE "crowd funding" in 2006, and lately shifted from a major focus on KiteGen to diversified hedge plays with smaller developers. Util LLC has emerged as a key partner of WOW (helping develop WOWUSA and WOWChina starts as regional funds) and is a current direct provider of AWE microcapital, now cutting small checks to small teams worldwide. 

The growing AWE microcapital network has surprising coherence. Most of the folks know each other, and are coordinating and sharing R&D work as part of an ever larger global team. Some of the microcapital is going to social development (like JoeF's knowledge-sharing and JohnO's AWEIA work). Some is targeted at aerospace academia for specific third-party validation work. Some of the payments are too small to really matter, but symbolic of high merit. It is understood that we are still in an early engineering-science diligence phase, but tremendous new phase seems to be dawning; the final march toward major technical victory in AWE, and successful commercialization, by the largest and best team ever.

 

The list of funded AWE players grows daily. Some of you reading this are next in line for this microcapital and are being contacted or only need ask. The basic requirements for funding are an open cooperative orientation and high technical skill levels in strategic areas. A low burn-rate (low fixed costs) is essential, as you must survive on microcapital "crumbs" until planned major-funding rounds begin. Teams with small low-complexity designs at a high TRL are favored, as well as the best long-view players who think big. Unique skills to share widely are golden. If you think you qualify, please make an informal pitch to Ed Sapir (Cc:ed) of Util. More early investors to this circle are welcome as well. The opportunities are sky-high.   ~ September 1, 2012.     ~~Dave Santos        For more, see: AWES6884