Tag Archives: vc
Patagonia Jumps into Venture Capital
Patagonia, one of the most enduring stand-out leaders on corporate sustainability, is launching a venture capital fund to invest in future leaders. Starting with $20 million, Patagonia will invest in companies that share its environmental values with a focus on five areas: clothing, food, water, energy, and waste. Dubbed ”$20 Million & Change,” the fund will make investments [...]
75% of New Energy Investments Are Renewable
In a striking keynote, Michael Liebreich President of BNEF spoke about the continued compound growth in renewables and the disconnect between GDP and electricity consumption. In the last 5 years, Electricity consumption in Australia and California have disconnected from GDP growth and that trend is now spreading through the developed world. Rising efficiency in motor [...]
VC’s Focus on Energy Efficiency Companies
Venture capital firms that focus on cleantech are looking for the next big area to invest in, and they seem to have settled on smart grid, energy storage and other efficiency technologies. “We are going through a repositioning of cleantech,” Wal van Lierop, founder of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, told Bloomberg. “The big sectors – [...]
Sungevity Scores $125M
Sungevity, the solar financing and solar software startup, just announced $125 million in new venture capital and project financing. It’s another sign that investors still see value in the downstream solar market. SolarCity (SCTY), recently public, is trading at $13.72 per share. The optimism embedded in SolarCity’s stock performance likely helps companies like Sungevity or [...]
Google Powers Up Renewable Energy Portfolio
Google kicked off 2013 with an announcement about a new, $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in west Texas. The wind farm can generate enough electricity to power 60,000 average U.S. homes. The Spinning Spur Wind Project is located in Oldham County, which is about 35 miles from Amarillo. The 161 megawatt facility [...]
Global Cleantech Venture Capital Investment Drops 33%
Yesterday I spent an hour taking in a terrific webinar from the Cleantech Group, conducted by what I’m sure must have been one of its most senior consultants, Sheeraz Haji, who ably walked us through some of the 2012 numbers associated with global cleantech venture investment. As it happens, these figures were down about 33% [...]
Stion Grabs $25M to Boost Production
Just in time for the holidays, Stion Corp. has announced its latest, $25 million round of financing to allow the start-up photovoltaic maker to move forward with its plans to start commercial manufacturing of its next generation photovoltaics. The company is working to bring it’s unique, tandem copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) module thin-film photovoltaic [...]
BrightSource Grabs Another $80M for CSP
BrightSource Energy, a concentrating solar thermal technology firm, just announced that it raised more than $80 million in equity financing, bringing its total equity financing to more than $615 million. The funding was led by existing investors Alstom and VantagePoint Capital Partners along with DFJ, CalSTRS, DBL Investors, Goldman Sachs, Chevron Technology Ventures and BP [...]
Bloom Energy’s Valuation
Bloom Energy, the Silicon Valley fuel cell maker with an estimated $800 million in VC and backers like John Doerr, T.J. Rogers and Colin Powell, is on a short list of green technology startups voted most likely to IPO someday soon, though the company has remained consistently mum on the topic. But what’s the value [...]