SAN JOSE, Calif.X - Oorja Protonics Inc. - a world leader in development and commercialization of Liquid Alcohol based fuel cells for Material Handling applications, has been chosen as a winner of the highly coveted TiE50 Award.

Oorja Protonics Inc. was honored at the TiEcon 2011, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. TiEcon is the world's largest conference for entrepreneurs featuring two action-packed days of rich dialogue, networking, and deal making with thousands of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, industry executives, and thought leaders.

This year, the TiE50 program screened 1619 high quality companies worldwide, through a multi-tier screening and judging process. Oorja Protonics Inc. was clearly ranked amongst the best of the breed by a team of 60 highly accomplished and experienced judges. These experts included globally recognized venture capitalists, CEO's, academia, and serial entrepreneurs" said Mr. Vish Mishra, Chairman of TiEcon 2011 and President of TiE Silicon Valley. "Being recognized as a TiE50 winner is a true testament to their entrepreneurial spirit and world class caliber" Mr. Mishra added. "TiE50 companies this year again represented an extraordinary set of ideas, innovation, and business opportunities. Since its inception two years ago, 94% of TiE50 companies have been funded, attracting over $20 Billion in investments! 42 companies have already exited," said Ram K. Reddy, Chair TiE50 2011. "We plan to feature our finalists and winners through various channels and outreach programs during the year," added Mr. Reddy. "TiEcon's platform and TiE's global entrepreneurial network enabled us to draw the most entrepreneurial startups with breakthrough technologies, savvy market strategies, and incredible teams with palpable passion. We built upon the phenomenal success of the program in the past two years," said Mateen Syed, Co Chair TiE50 2010.

Oorja Protonics has revolutionized the fuel cell industry by addressing the biggest challenge faced by the fuel cell industry namely the "Hydrogen Challenge". Faced by the various hurdles introduced by Hydrogen as the fuel such as cost of Hydrogen fuel, cost of Hydrogen Infrastructure, availability and safety of Hydrogen, main-stream customers have always shied away from adopting fuel cells in a commercial manner. OORJA HAS SOLVED THIS DAUNTING CHALLENGE BY DEVELOPING A NOVEL AND UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY THAT ENABLES LIQUID ALCOHOL TO BE USED AS A FUEL IN FUEL CELLS. This paradigm-shift in fuel cell development and commercialization has made Oorja a world leader in the design, development and commercialization of Ultra-high Power and high Efficiency Direct Liquid (Alcohol) Fuel Cells (DLFC) systems. Oorja's Alcohol-based fuel cells have been developed for extending the range of battery-powered vehicles such as light-duty Electric Vehicles (EVs), Plug-in Hybrids, and for industrial vehicles. Oorja's business model has adopted the classic "Crossing-the-Chasm" model where low-hanging markets are adopted initially where market-penetration price-points are not as stringent. The initial target market for Oorja's products have been industrial equipments used for material handling operations (forklifts, pallet jacks, etc.,) in warehouses, Distribution Centers and Manufacturing factories---Oorja`s current Directly Addressable Market is $6 Billion in North America growing to $30 Billion in the next 3 years as the product cost keeps reducing and Oorja starts targeting the EV market. Oorja has generated repeat sales of its products from multiple leading customers. Its scalable technology architecture and capital efficient business model makes Oorja Protonics not just one of the most compelling opportunities in Cleantech, but one of the most compelling opportunities...period.


For more product and company information, call 1-510-687-9501, email contact@oorjaprotonics.com, or visit www.oorjaprotonics.com.