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Five Greentech Venture Capital Stars from 2008

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 10:12 pm

Greentech has emerged as one of the hottest sectors for venture capital funding within the past few years.  Today we introduce some of the major players driving this trend.  Below, as reported by New Energy Finance, the top five greentech investors of 2008 are ranked by their number of transactions, with total deal value listed as well.  The deal values are not entirely accurate, however, as numerous deal values were undisclosed.

[1] Good Energies (21 deals/$65.3m)
As in 2007, Good Energies claimed the top spot, this time participating in twenty-one deals sprayed across a variety of sectors, development stages, and countries. The seemingly low $65.3m figure is misleading due to the presence of fifteen deals with undisclosed values.

[2] Draper Fisher Jurvetson (20 deals/$102.9m)
In addition to leading segments solar and biofuel, Draper heavily focused on early stage companies in the energy efficiency and energy storage segments. Efficiency companies Luminus Devices and Tesla Motors, alongside solar thermal startup BrightSource Energy, headlined DFJ’s list of deals.

[3] Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (16 deals/$187.2m)
Famous for successful tech investments in Google and Amazon, KPCB has recently bet big on greentech. Its $187.2m topped the list for transactions value in 2008, mostly focused in efficiency and biofuel.

[4] RockPort Capital Partners (14 deals/$166.3m)
Solely a greentech-focused VC, RockPort poured money into all areas of the efficiency segment, ranging from green building (Aspen Aerogels) to supply-side efficiency (Powerspan) to digital energy (Northern Power Systems). Investing in both early-stage and late-stage companies, RockPort also made investments in solar and fuel cell technology.

[5] Khosla Ventures (14 deals/$111.5m)
Already notorious for making big bets in greentech, former Sun co-founder Vinod Khosla’s firm kept busy once again in 2008. In particular, biofuel was a major area of investment, including large raises for Range Fuels, Amyris Biotechnologies, and Mascoma.

For more on greentech venture capital activity, you may read Peachtree’s greentech report.


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2009 U.S. Green Tech Transactions YTD

Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 2:54 pm

In the first seven months of 2009, transaction volume in the U.S. renewable and clean tech sectors of energy declined 40.9% versus the same period in 2008.  It is important to note that sustainable energy transaction volume fell off of a cliff in the fourth quarter of 2008, which means that the first three quarters of 2009 are not necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison.  The uncanny retreat of investors and venture capitalists to safer proven investments (if investing at all) was a clear sign of significant fear in the marketplace.   More importantly, the first nine months show a trend toward less capital intensive energy efficiency investments on the part of U.S. VCs.

Green Tech Transaction Volume 2009

In the first seven months of 2009, 101 transactions were completed for a reported $2.29 billion in deal value versus 171 transactions and $4.90 billion for the same period in 2008.  Deal value declined 53.3% in the 1st seven months of 2009 vs 2008 as a direct result of access to acquisition capital in the form of credit and stock.  Debtors were clearly skittish in the last nine months and when valuations fell off of a cliff in the latter part of 2008, companies could not issue stock to raise money for acquisitions at favorable valuations.  It goes without saying that buying a company with paper was too expensive a proposition for most public companies based on their much higher stock prices just a few months prior.

Green Tech 2009 Transactions


Posted in Cleantech, M&A, Venture Capital | Leave a Comment »

Digital Media M&A Podcast Interview with John Doyle

Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

Here is a link to a digital media M&A podcast interview with the one and only Susan Bratton of Personal Life media.  The interview covers the M&A market in 2008, favore M&A transactions last year, the M&A environment in 2009, what to expect good this year and when the economy will turn.  If you’ve got ten minutes, it’s both informative and a fun podcast. 

http://blogs.personallifemedia.com/dishymix/

It’s Podcast DMO93.


Posted in Digital Media, M&A, Venture Capital | Leave a Comment »

Raising Venture Capital – "Do It Yourself" Links

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 8:33 pm

Just like anything, venture capital can be raised by doing it yourself or hiring an investment banker to assist you.  Hiring an investment banker is expensive, so you may want to explore raising the money on your own.  Should you decide to raise the money on your own, here are a few Web sites that you should know about to help you reach venture capitalists.

1) www.Boogar.com (Angels and VCs);

2) www.TechCrunch.com (Tech blog – go to CrunchBase section); and

3) www.TradeVibes.com (Start Up community – look for companies similar to yours and who financed them.  Then reach out to competitors of that venture capital firm or VC’s with similar investment profiles).

Prior to reaching out to investors, you should have a one to two-page executive summary as well as a short detailed business plan or management presentation.  When describing your business it is important to focus on the end user and why they need your product.

Answering these three questions honestly will give you solid footing when you enter a conversation with a VC:  1) What is your product helping the end user accomplish?; 2) How many of your end users exist (market size)?; and 3) What is the health or buying power of those end users (market trends)?  If your end users are mortgage brokers, auto dealers or newspaper printing presses, then you will have an uphill battle.  If your end users are digital imaging companies for medical records or lithium battery manufacturers for hybrid cars, you should see a more positive response.

It goes without saying that a profitable company with growing revenue will find it much easier to raise money than a company that is raising start up capital.  Most investors prefer to invest in companies that are expanding into new markets or need capital to fulfill new orders.  Start up capital is easier to raise (from institutions) when someone is a former executive from a large company in the field of the start up.

And one more thing, investors like smart and passionate, but not creepy.  It is kind of like dating, take the “we’re just friends” hint and move on.  But make sure they get the press release after the raise is finished!

Excellent Business Week Article:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_22/b4133044585602.htm


Posted in Investment Banking, Venture Capital | Leave a Comment »

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