Photo Credit: Meagan Lucy Photographers
CA FWD is dedicated to supporting a regions-up economic development agenda that works for every corner of the state. With California Jobs First set to end in 2026–and with state and federal budget support for economic development in real jeopardy–a key part of this work involves helping regional partners identify a diverse array of funding mechanisms for regional planning and implementation.
With this challenge in mind, CA FWD, in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), recently convened two Investor Exchanges intended to connect regional partners and project leads with investors and capital partners, and to showcase emerging industries in the state grounded in regional priorities. These two virtual events followed on the in-person Investor Exchange held at the 2024 California Economic Summit in Sacramento.
At the virtual sessions, California Jobs First regional leaders connected with investors and capital providers, showcased high-potential industries identified in the State Economic Blueprint, and received practical insights on how to pitch projects in the competitive world of private finance.
Here are the pitch decks from the regional projects that attended our virtual Investor Exchange series.
Given that investors focus at very different levels of risk and project maturity, CA FWD designed the sessions so that one focused mostly on the State Economic Blueprint’s ‘Accelerate’ sectors, and the other on the Blueprint’s ‘Bet’ sectors.
‘Accelerate’ sectors are ready for expansion, with moderate to high projected growth. These are in areas where additional investments could “bend the curve” to accelerate growth, including::
- Aerospace & Defense: Aircraft, and Space, Defense & Satellites
- Clean Economy: Batteries, Onshore Wind, Solar, and ZEVs
- Life Sciences: Medtech, and Pharma / Biotech
- Working Lands & Water: Agtech & Farming Equipment
- High-Tech: Hardware, Semiconductors & Microelectronics, Software & Services
‘Bet’ sectors are less commercially ready, but have the potential to attract substantial investment or bring high strategic value to an innovation ecosystem. These include:
- Clean Economy: Carbon Management, Critical Minerals, Hydrogen, and Offshore Wind
- Working Lands & Water: Bioeconomy, and Blue Economy / Tech
- High-Tech: Artificial Intelligence, Quantum, and Robotics
The two sessions started with a California market overview from the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank) and a State Economic Blueprint presentation from GOBiz. Then Kate Gordon, CA FWD CEO, moderated an investor panel discussion with Q&A from regional leaders. Both sessions featured investors talking about the projects they are most likely to invest in, and at what size and scale; they then weighed in on the question of where they see the most investment opportunity in the ‘Bet’ and ‘Accelerate’ sectors. Following the discussion, participants went into breakout rooms for deeper discussion with investors, with one room focused on natural resource-based projects and the other focused on technology-based projects.
Nearly 115 state and regional leaders participated in these sessions, making them a key pillar in CA FWD’s ongoing work to build an economy that is regions-up and climate-smart, where tangible benefits flow to all Californians.
Investor Exchange attendees agree, saying:
“[the Exchanges were valuable to] hear directly from a variety of investors about what they are looking for in a project”
“[one idea or insight from the Exchanges I’ll take back to my work or organization] is near term coordination across regions/sectors/projects will ultimately be the key to ensuring the next 20 years of enterprise/project development successfully takes place”
CA FWD appreciates all the state partners, investors, project leads, and regional leaders who attended these exchanges, and remains committed to connecting good project ideas to the capital that will turn them to reality.
Be sure to check out the pitch decks from the regional projects that attended our virtual Investor Exchange series and subscribe to our newsletter for more news and updates on this and related work!
