Clean Tech Investing Rebounds In First Quarter

April 16, 2010

Clean-tech investing rebounded in the first quarter with a big increase in the number of start-ups receiving money.

Venture capitalists poured $773 million into 69 deals during the three-month period, an 87 percent jump from the fourth quarter in terms of dollars and 44 percent rise in deals. More start-ups received funding than during any three months period in a year and a half.

Fisker Automotive's $115 million deal with the largest venture capital transaction in the first quarter. The company is preparing to begin selling its Karma electric car.

The upswing came despite a drop in overall venture investing. Venture capitalists in the United States invested $4.7 billion into 681 deals, down 9 percent in dollars and 18 percent in transactions from the fourth quarter. (Spending was up compared with the first quarter of 2009 when the collapse on Wall Street froze most firms and funds in their tracks.)

The increase suggests a big shift in investment priorities. After a pause last year, clean-tech again looks hot. The investment study is released each quarter by the National Venture Capital Association, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Thomson Reuters.

The MoneyTree survey, as it is called, found that clean-tech investing was driven by several large deals, including six of the top 10.

Included on the list was Fisker Automotive, the top transaction in the period, which took in $115 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and two unnamed firms. Fisker is ramping up its electric-car production.

Also mentioned was solar company Amonix, which gathered $64 million, and LED lighting manufacturer BridgeLux, which received $60 million. Amyris Biotechnologies, a biofuels maker, added $48 million to its bank account, also from Kleiner Perkins and Temasek Holdings, and solar products manufacturer Emphase Energy raised $40.

Also getting money was solar electronics company Petra Solar, which brought in $40 million.

Venture capitalists had put only $413 million in clean-tech investments in the fourth quarter after a forking over $926 million in the third quarter.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Debunking The Clean Tech Investment Myth

February 17, 2010

It seems to be in fashion to call clean tech the largest investment focus of venture capitalists – bigger than the traditional top dogs, software and biotechnology. Unfortunately it is not true.

This myth gets passed around by boosters, journalists and sometimes VCs. Just this week, it was repeated by the merger specialist and blogger Javier Herrero of Spain.

Last year wasn’t such a bad year for clean tech investing, asserts Herrero, with the category becoming the “single largest investment theme in 2Q09 and 3Q09.”

Not exactly on the mark. With financings down 50 percent in dollars for the year, it actually wasn’t such a great 12 months. But of course few businesses can claim it was.

The trouble is clean tech wasn’t even the largest investment category in the second quarter. It did top software and biotech in the third quarter. But for the year, clean-tech investments added up to between $1.9 billion and $2.6 billion while spending on software start-ups was at least $3.1 billion and biotech funding came in at about $3.5 billion.

All is not lost. Here is some better news for clean-tech investing and venture-back start-ups in general. According to an analysis by Fenwick & West, the industry turned a corner about mid-year.

During the first half of the year down rounds (where deals are done at lower valuations) made up 47 percent of transactions. By the second half, up rounds became the norm again, with 44 percent of deals granting companies a greater value.

The ratio for the clean-tech industry was slightly better than the average, despite that “some of the down rounds in the clean-tech industry were down by a large percentage.”  Fenwick & West did not detail what it meant by largest percentage.

Certainly 2009 was no stand-out year for clean tech. This year is likely to be much better.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Kleiner Perkins Still Pumped About Investing In The Internet, Claims Partner John Doerr

November 6, 2008
Nine Internet investments since July

Nine Internet investments since July

Since a July article in Fortune questioned the storied VC firm’s commitment to Web 2.0, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers made nine investments in Internet companies, Doerr said.

“No, we haven’t given up on the Web,” Doerr told the Web 2.0 Summit on Wednesday. “We are doubling down on this theme.”

That means devoting 11 partners to the space and 30 percent of this year’s investments to “digital” startups. Another 30 percent went to clean energy and a small chunk to life sciences.

Doerr said the firm’s recent Internet investments went into four Web companies and five companies making products and services for the iPhone.

“I think this platform is more important than the PC,” he said, referring to Apple’s popular smart phone. “They know who and where you are” and users are “always connected,” Doerr said during an on-stage interview.

In its coverage of the VC firm, Fortune pointed to Kleiner’s past role in the Internet revolution – putting money into Netscape, Amazon and Google.

But Doerr said he remains “pumped up” about companies today. Zynga is one, a company writing applications for social networking sites. Another is ng:moco, a startup developing games for the iPhone.

2 Comments | Alternative Energy, Clean Tech, life-science, news, startups, venture capital, web 2.0 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Billionaire Sam Wyly Says He Has Started Buying Stocks; Sees Fundamental Values

October 27, 2008
bear market going gang busters

Sam Wyly: bear market going gang busters

Samuel Wyly, the billionaire entrepreneur, businessman and contributor to conservative causes, said he has begun buying stocks.

“We’re experiencing a real bear market now,” Wyly said Monday evening during an interview at the Churchill Club. It is “coming on gang busters now.”

But there appear to be “fundamental values” in the market, he said. “We started buying some stuff right now.”

That stuff includes clean-energy windmill and solar stocks.

Wyly said it is the ninth bear market he has seen.

Leave a Comment » | Alternative Energy, Clean Tech, interview, news, stocks and investing | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

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