I've spent the week in Israel -- my first time ever visiting the country -- as the guest of Israel Cleantech Ventures (I'm a bit biased toward these guys, I admit), visiting a bunch of cleantech startups and getting a first-hand view of the market.  And it's been fascinating.

Israel is among the most innovative countries, especially on a per capita basis.  Israel was recently ranked 4th in terms of scientific activity, and ICV claims to be tracking 800 cleantech venture investment opportunities here.  And all this activity is taking place in a country with only 7 million people -- just a bit more than the total population of Arizona.  As was recently written about elsewhere at...

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...

• Pleased to note Israel Cleantech Ventures' announcement that they have reached a final close on their first fund at $75mm, above the original target of $60mm.  Robeco Private Equity and Piper Jaffray joined other institutional and family fund LPs in backing the group.  Good guys over at ICV, so it's great to see.

• Firefly Energy, which has advanced designs for lead-acid batteries, has raised a $16mm Series C led by Khosla Ventures and Infield Capital, with participation by existing investors Stark Capital, Caterpillar, and others.  The company had last raised a $10mm Series B back in 2006.

• Range Fuels' latest round keeps expanding -- apparently it's now up to $158mm....

• GTM this past week told us about several cleantech VC deals including:
  • AqWise (wastewater treatment)... [2/4 correction:  Heard from Gene Dolgin at Israel Cleantech Ventures that the original source I'd used here was incorrect in some of their numbers, and instead that the accurate story was that "Israel Cleantech purchased 11% of the company in a secondary transaction in a deal that valued the company at $10M"]
  • Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide took an approximate 25% stake in Asola (solar PV) for an undisclosed sum.
  • Green Plug (advanced power strips) took in an undisclosed amount of first-round funding from Peninsula Equity Partners.
  • Israeli solar thermal power...

We deferred mentioning the deals and other news from last week to focus on discussions about the looming recession and the numbers from last year, but a lot happened during the week. One of the reasons for moving this column over to GreenTech Media was to take advantage of their reporting about deals, etc., so as always please bookmark the GTM home page and check there regularly for more timely updates! Deals from the past week:

• Building-integrated wind turbine developer Marquiss Wind Power raised a $1.3mm Series A, led by Velocity Venture Capital, with participation by Strategis Early Ventures.

• Khosla Ventures increased their stake in Transonic Combustion, at a "substantially...

We've talked a fair bit about all the buzz about a possible bubble in cleantech venture capital. So it's interesting to note this NVCA survey (link to PPT of results also found here), in which 80% of VCs surveyed expect that cleantech will attract higher levels of funding in 2008. In the same survey, when asked "Which single industry will be overvalued in 2008?", 61% of those surveyed picked cleantech (vs. 18% choosing Internet, 12% choosing media, and 9% choosing another sector). Leave aside questions about the survey methodology (why would only one sector be over-valued?) and the naturally contrarian reactions to the cleantech-focused hype cycle (when compared with the level of...

Meir Ukeles of Israel Cleantech Ventures has been busy lately, but he still found time to write the following update on how hot things have been over there lately (thanks, Meir!):

On October 30, Israel will host a cleantech conference cosponsored by the Cleantech Venture Network, Ernst & Young, Morrison & Foerster, and my firm Israel Cleantech Ventures, as part of the larger WATEC water technologies week event. Ahead of this event, here are a few thoughts on why Israel is emerging as an important hub of cleantech innovation.

Fueled by acute constraints in natural resources, Israel has spawned a number of successful water technology and alternative energy companies, including...