Funding Roundup: Last-Minute Deals for 2007

As the year comes to a close, so have a few more funding deals, making up a last-minute trickle of announcements during the past week.

Here are some of 2007's last deals:

Batteries:

• Project Better Place, a New York City-based startup planning to build a network of stations that can quickly recharge or exchange batteries in electric cars, has raised $30 million from Israel's Ofer Shipping Holdings (see Project Better Place Tops Off). The funding was part of the $200 million the startup, founded by former SAP software executive Shai Agassi, announced in October (see New Choices At the Pump: Battery Recharge or Replacement).

Biofuels:

• Ambene Biocarburantes, a Spanish biofuel group, raised €16 million from French buyout company Demeter, according to Clean Ventures.
• Ethos, a company developing sugarcane-based ethanol projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Khosla Ventures and GreatPoint Ventures, according to VentureWire (via Cleantech Investing).
• Norske Skog, a Norwegian paper manufacturer, said it will invest between 100 million and 200 million Norwegian kroners (about $17.9 million to $35.8 million) in a joint venture with the Norwegian Forest Owners Association to produce biofuels from wood (see press release). The money will go toward a pilot plant in Honefoss, Norway. The venture also plans to build a larger plant with the capacity to produce 65,000 to 100,000 tons of biodiesel annually, according to Forbes.
• Schmack Biogas has raised €130 million (about $189.6 million) from private equity investor HgCapital (see press release and Biopact post). The German biogas company plans to use the money to build 12 to 15 biogas plants expected to have a combined capacity of about 30 megawatts.

Solar:

• San Diego-based Pyron Solar said it has closed a Series-A round of funding from New Energies Invest (see Solar Industry and Renewable Energy Access). Pyron, which is developing a utility-scale concentrating solar-electric technology, didn't disclose the size of the round, but did say it's developing projects in Spain and China and plans to build a pilot project in the United States.

Wind:

• Emergya Wind Technologies, a Danish wind-turbine manufacturer, has raised €20 million (about $29.2 million), according to Clean Ventures. Investors include AtlasInvest, which led the round, and Ludgate Environmental Fund.

Other:

• Monsal, a company with anaerobic digestion technology for waste recycling, wastewater sludge treatment and the production of biogas for renewable energy, raised £3 million (about $5.9 million) from Matrix Private Equity Partners, according to Clean Ventures.