Viewing posts tagged "China"

Rob Day | July 22, 2009 at 10:21 PM 2 Comments

That big sucking sound you hear…

... is the sound of China deciding to become a big player in solar project installations, overnight.

It's clear that China is going to be a dominant force in cleantech in the coming decades, starting immediately.  But what that will mean for cleantech VCs remains very much unclear.  What is clear is that cleantech VCs need to start getting smart about that factor, asap.  And thus, so should their LPs.

But should cleantech VCs start investing in China?  It's not apparent that US-based investors do very well investing in China, at least without having a local presence on the ground.  Since most cleantech-specialist VCs don't have that, are they vulnerable to being left out?  There are specialist funds (albeit very few) focused on cleantech in China, are they better-positioned?  Or are the markets themselves so specialized (US firms having trouble selling into China, Chinese firms having trouble selling into the US) that they really are totally separate questions?

It will be fascinating to watch how this dynamic continues to develop.  Solar and coal-related techs will be where it gets felt first.  Every coal-related startup CEO I know is paying a huge amount of attention to China.  Many solar CEOs already are, too.  Wind and LEDs and industrial efficiency techs will also need to pay close attention.

China has the potential to radically change the way we think about cleantech venture capital and private equity.  But I'm not yet smart enough to figure out exactly how...

 

Rob Day | November 6, 2008 at 3:50 PM

Well, that was quick…

It seemed a couple of weeks ago like there might be a bit of a pause in cleantech VC deals, probably due to the economic crisis.

Well, if there was a pause, perhaps it was in the issuance of press releases announcing deals.  Because over the past week or so the deal announcement volume has been off the charts.  Makes sense that companies wouldn’t necessarily want to issue press releases when the financial journalists were otherwise occupied, but there’s no evidence (yet) that the economic situation has negatively affected cleantech dealflow…

...With one important exception, and that’s the evidence that several of the announced deals appear to be bridge loans (ie: convertible notes) from existing investors.  This will often [but note: far from always] mean that the company has either run out of cash sooner than expected, or is having a harder time raising funds than had been expected, so the existing investors (and sometimes some new investors) have passed the hat to quickly put more cash into the company, structured as a loan that will convert into equity when the next full round of equity financing is raised.

So there’s some early anecdotal evidence that things are a bit slower out there.  But meanwhile, here’s a really long list of announced (or scooped) deals from the past week-plus:

• Ice Energy has raised a first $33mm tranche of a Series B financing, led by Energy Capital Partners.  Additional project financing could add up to $150mm.  Existing investor Second Avenue Partners also participated in the round.

• VentureWire reported that Philadelphia Renewable Energy, an algal biofuels developer, has raised an undisclosed amount of financing led by EnerTech.

• Tesla took in a $40mm convertible debt package, as GTM had mentioned was likely to happen.  In a VWire article, Elon Musk confirmed that the company’s cash had gotten down to $9mm, but also said that the new financing (provided by most of the existing investor base) is designed to get the company to profitability.

• PE Week Wire reported that Xtalic, a nanomaterials company with corrosion-resistant alloys, has raised an approximately $10mm Series B, from Matrix Partners and North Bridge.  The company had previously raised $5.1mm.

• CellFor announced a $10mm convertible note financing, from existing investors and some new investors.

• CaliSolar has raised a $51.9mm Series B financing, plus another $50mm in convertible notes.  Hudson Clean Energy Partners joined existing investors ATV and Globespan in the round.  For what it’s worth, Hudson is noted for preferring controlling positions (ie: >50% share ownership) in their companies, which is an interestingly different approach in the sector.

• PE Week Wire reported that Miles Electric Vehicles has raised $13mm of a targeted $40mm Series B from the Angeleno Group, which had previously led a $15mm Series A round.

• PE Week Wire also reported that Recapping, Inc. has raised a $500k Series A from Khosla Ventures.  It appears to be headed by Khosla Ventures partner Alex Kinnier, who’s tasked with cleantech on their team.  Not much else has been yet revealed.

• NxtGen Emissions Control has raised a $15.4mm Series B led by Altira.  Other new investors included ITOCHU and “the corporate venture capital arm of a major Japanese automobile company,” as well as existing investors including Yaletown Venture Partners, GrowthWorks Capital, BC Advantage Funds and Polygon Financial Investments.

• Avantium announced an EUR 18mm financing round, led by Aescap Venture and including Capricorn Cleantech Fund, ING Corporate Investments and Navitas Capital.  Some of the proceeds were used to buy out existing investors.

• Kleiner, Sherpalo Ventures and Applied Materials have invested $8mm in Indian solar company Kotak Urja Pvt Ltd.

• Acumen Fund has invested $1.26mm into India-based SBA Hydro & Renewable Energy.

• New Delhi-based D.Light Design has raised a $5.5mm Series A.  The company offers solar powered LED lights.  The round was led by Nexus India Capital, along with Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Garage Technology Ventures, Mahindra & Mahindra, Acumen Fund (at $1mm of the round) and Gray Matters Capital.

• CalCEF Angel Fund released some details on rounds they participated in, for HID Labs, Allopartis Biotechnologies, and an unnamed 3rd company.

• Advanced materials company EnerG2 has raised an $8.5mm Series A co-led by OVP and Firelake Capital.

• Noble Venture Finance has committed $7mm to Replisaurus, a developer of clean metallization technologies for chip packaging.

• Kashless, a barter website (“reduce, reuse, recycle”, right?) has raised a $5mm Series A led by RRE Ventures.  The company was founded by Imperium Renewables founder Martin Tobias.

• First Solar put in $25mm of a $30mm Series D round of financing for SolarCity.  Existing investors DFJ and Double Bottom Line Investors filled out the rest of the round.

• Intel Capital invested in two Chinese cleantech companies:  $20mm into Trony Solar Holdings, and an undisclosed amount of capital into energy storage company NP Holdings.

• Cleantech investors in the news:  Jurgen Wahl has joined Gamma Capital Partners as a venture partner…  Victor Westerland has joined RockPort from InterWest, as a general partner…  Yaletown Venture Partners held a $65mm first close on their $100mm target fund.

Other news and notes:  A good article on the current status of Israel cleantech...  An interesting article on project finance for clean powergen...  A map of the San Diego cleantech cluster...  An article on investing in water...  And finally, an update from the 8th Annual World Toilet Summit and Expo.