Well, guess we know where some of that big wave in cleantech "growth stage" capital is going... VentureWire is reporting today that Miasole is "wrapping up" a new $200-220mm round of financing, at a pre-money valuation of about $1.2B. VWire reports that the company was looking initially at a $150mm round, but investor interest pushed the size up a bit. Doesn't sound like the deal is closed yet, so details are still yet to be divulged, but it's a notable piece of news in an otherwise slow week. [Full disclosure notice: I am a small personal shareholder in Miasole] For other deals and cleantech investing news, see GTM's latest Funding Roundup. Cleantech cluster news: Here in...

Had the pleasure of attending Ernst & Young's Cleantech Ignition Session earlier this week in NYC. An invite-only group of about 30-40 transportation industry participants, including representatives from government and inside the beltway, from transportation OEMs and suppliers, and from the investment community. The topic: "Leveraging cleantech to build a sustainable advantage in transportation." E&Y will be writing up a report on the session for later release, and until then, what was said in the room stays in the room. But there were a number of very good thoughts in the wide-ranging, open discussion, and some compelling ideas. I'll highlight one in particular, just because...

As the sector heats up, far more people than I can possibly help are approaching me with this consistent question. And while it's a bit frustrating not to be able to help out as much as I would like, it's certainly encouraging for the sector to see so much smart business talent seeking to get involved. Almost 3 years ago now I wrote up a post on breaking into the sector, and most of it still applies well. One major difference is that there are a lot more opportunities to get involved, given the sheer number of additional business efforts underway now. So take heart, job seekers! But also take to heart that the single most important thing to remember is that it's probably best...

Looking forward to seeing everyone at our REBN-East networking event at Boston University on Tuesday night. As a topic for discussion, I'll throw this thought out there: Had the pleasure of visiting NREL last week as part of a productive trip organized by the New England Clean Energy Council. There, I and around a dozen other VCs from the Boston area were presented to by several of the Lab's researchers in areas like solar PV, biofuels, energy storage, etc. It was a good opportunity to once again peak "under the hood" at a DOE energy lab, to get a quick overview of some of the world-class research being done there. It was necessarily a brief overview, but one thing that came...

A few things of potential interest...

• A good tool for all you cleantech VCs and Founders out there: Joel Moxley, an EIR at Northbridge, came up with a pretty useful prior-art search engine, PriorSmart. Check it out.

• Must-read: A terrific article on Georges Doriot, "venture capital's grandfather".

• Here's a good interview with Susan Preston, GP at CalCEF's new Clean Energy Angel Fund.

Deals from the past week:

• Evolutionary Genomics, which is developing biofuel feedstocks with improved yields, has raised a round of financing (amount undisclosed) from Altira Group.

• Small-wind innovator Mariah Power has taken in an additional $500k in financing, from Greenhouse Capital...

• Methanol fuel-cell developer Oorja announced today that they are emerging out of stealth mode, with some other operational announcements as well.  Cleantech.com mentioned that the company has raised a total of $21mm so far in venture financing from Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, McKenna Management and Spring Ventures.  We first mentioned the company back in 2006.

• Jonathan Shieber at VentureWire reported this week that cellulosic ethanol producer Range Fuels has raised $100mm.  Khosla Ventures put in $25mm, and another investor led the round with another $25mm, with the rest of the funders not noted.  This round size suggests that the post-money valuation these investors put...

Thanks much to Eric W. for filling in while I was off the grid for over a week -- I hereby BOTH denounce AND reject his "snark"...  but hope everyone enjoyed it. Also regrettably missed the Cleantech Venture Forum out in San Francisco last week, which sounds like it was a pretty good one.   Some media coverage on major developments at the event:

•  WalMart and the Cleantech Group's new sourcing announcement
• Cleantech Group expansion into India with Vinod "Greentech" Khosla at the helm
• Discussions on investing in India and China cleantech
• Google, Masdar and Simbol Mining Corp winning awards
• Some photos from the event
• The winning VC firms for the DOE's new EIR program

Deals...