Daqo Solar IPO, Fat Spaniel Acquired, Greentech VC Deals and M&A

Solar racking, electronics, testing and monitoring, smart grid, home area networks and more in a rundown on greentech finance.

Eric Wesoff October 08, 2010

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

Greentech M&A

In what looks like a less-than-stellar exit, Fat Spaniel, a maker of software for managing renewable power, was acquired by Power-One (Nasdaq:PWER), a builder of power inverters. Fat Spaniel has gone through a number of business plan shifts since its founding -- as the monitoring function it championed became a feature in devices like the Power-One inverter or other firm's microinverters. Investors in Fat Spaniel include Applied Ventures, Chrysalix Energy, DFJ Element, Element Venture Partners, Ignition Partners and Pacific Corporate Group. Ucilia Wang got a quote out of one of the investors yesterday: David Lincoln, managing partner at Element Partners, said that there were additional suitors and ”Even though no one was writing home to their mothers about the outcome, everyone was pleased that we were able to get the deal with Power-One.”

Allow me to translate from venture capitalese: "We are happy to have gotten anything for this portfolio company."

SunEdison just announced the sale of Europe's largest PV plant to First Reserve -- a 70-megawatt facility in a deal valued at $383 million.

Siemens bought smart grid and building management firm SureGrid. Michael Kanellos reports on the details here.

Greentech IPOs

Daqo New Energy finally got its maiden offering on the NYSE on October 7. The stock opened at $9.98 per share, up 5% from the offer price of $9.50 per share. It's currently trading at $10.26 as of this morning.

Greentech Venture Capital Investment

Zep Solar, based in San Rafael, California, closed a $7.4 million Round A for its solar panel racking equipment. The round was led by Aquillian Invesments.

PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) closed funding to develop a solar panel reliability and performance laboratory. Some of the firm's staff has a history at SunPower -- and so does some of the funding.

Aspen Aerogels, a Northborough, Mass.- based builder of insulation products for buildings, raised $21.5 million in VC funding led by BASF Venture Capital with RockPort Capital, Tenaya Capital, Reservoir Capital Group, Arcapita Ventures and Argonaut Private Equity. Michael Kanellos dives deeper into the company here.

AlertMe, a U.K.-based provider of online residential energy management systems, raised a $24 million B Round from Good Energies, Index Ventures, SET Venture Partners and VantagePoint Venture Partners. The firm also announced a large commercial agreement with British Gas. Katie Tweed goes into the details here.

Sun Catalytix, out of MIT and based in Cambridge, Mass, raised $9.5 million in a B Round from Tata Ltd, India's largest auto company along with original investor, Polaris Venture Partners. Greentech Media interviewed Bob Metcalfe of Polaris about their investment earlier this year. The startup was founded around MIT professor Daniel Nocera’s research using water, electricity, and a low-cost catalyst to crack water into oxygen and hydrogen and potentially power fuel cells and create energy-storage mechanisms.

Seattle's Optimum Energy raised $1.2 million in debt financing, out of a round worth up to $4 million. Optimum has developed a software-as-a-service system that monitors and controls chilling systems, which provide the water for air conditioners in large buildings. Optimum Energy CEO Nathan Rothman estimates there are as many as 150,000 buildings in the U.S. that could benefit from such a system, saving up to 75 gigawatts in the process. Greentech Media covered Optimum and other companies in the field here.

Infinia, out of Kennewick, WA, raised more funding from Black Pearl Capital Partners, et al. Infinia's product converts heat into electricity by coupling a Stirling engine with a dish-style solar concentrator.

SolarEdge, an Israel-based manufacturer of distributed solar power harvesting and monitoring products, raised $25 million in its C Round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with Opus Capital, Genesis Partners, Walden International, ORR Partners, Vertex Venture Capital and JP Asia Capital Partners. It has been a huge week for solar BoS announcements.

Auro Mira Energy, an Indian developer of biomass-based clean energy projects, raised $21 million in its B round from ePlanet Ventures, Aureos South Asia Fund and International Finance Corp.

Community Energy, a renewable energy developer and marketer, raised $4 million in its Round A led by SJF Ventures.

Other Financing News

JPMorgan is financing $60 million in SunEdison solar deployments.