Napa firm tops in social venture

BERKELEY — Regale, an environmentally friendly Napa company with plans to expand into San Leandro, has
won the National Social Venture Competition.

By Alec Rosenberg
Business Writer

Regale, which turns recycled paper into biodegradable packaging, won the $25,000 grand prize Saturday in
Berkeley for Best Blended Value Business. The competition honors new businesses with a social benefit and
plan to be profitable.

"We’re ecstatic," Regale Chief Executive Greg Gale said. "You do get a validation that you’re on the right
course."

Regale was founded more than four years ago, but the 15-employee company just began manufacturing
several weeks ago, Gale said. Regale is ramping up and plans to open a 70,000-square-foot factory next year
in San Leandro, he said.

The social venture competition was sponsored by The Goldman Sachs Foundation, Columbia Business School
and University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. The 3-year-old event attracted a record 77
entrants.

Teams must have at least one business school student. Regale’s team included Haas student Gerrit Van
Roekel, who wrote the company’s social return on investment analysis. Regale shared a $5,000 prize for best
SROI analysis with Windows of Opportunity, a lead-safe window replacement business.

Wilson TurboPower, a microturbine producer, won the $25,000 grand prize for the High-Growth Category.
Bronx Charter School for the Arts, a nonprofit public charter elementary school focusing on arts education in
urban New York, won the $25,000 grand prize for the Medium-Growth Category.

Last year’s social venture competition winner was Sea Power & Associates, which is developing technology to
turn ocean waves into electricity. The Berkeley startup is changing its name to SeaVolt Technologies and
focusing on manufacturing wave-energy systems for power companies.

Alec Rosenberg can be reached at (510) 208-6445 or [email protected].

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