Green-technology firms garnered the largest share of venture capital in the third quarter, with global investments rising to $1.59 billion, according to a survey.
Cleantech Group and Deloitte & Touche shared that the extension of tax credits for renewable-based power generation along with government stimulus and regulatory requirements to meet renewable portfolio standards are helping to drive continued investment on the part of VCs and utilities into the cleantech sector. Utilities are increasingly bringing their access to capital to the sector through direct investment and power purchase agreements, driving new projects and increased capacity.
The leading clean technology investment sector was solar, which rose from the previous quarter’s 13% to 28% of venture investment, but still only received $451 million, down from a high of $1.2 billion invested in 3Q08. One of the investments involved California-based CPV company SolFocus, which closed its Series C fundraising on $77.6 million from investors including Apex Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, NGEN, Yellowstone Capital, Demeter Partners, and affiliates of Advanced Equities.
The industry continues to witness support from the respective governments, too. For instance, in the UK, clean energy technologies of the future will have access to an extra £20 million in government-backed venture capital support. The government took this decision considering that new advances in technologies such as wave, tidal, fuel cells, solar and energy efficiency are dependent on a mixture of R&D grant support and venture capital, but the flow of private money for early stage development has fallen back since the downturn started in 2008.
