3 Steps Cleantech Startup Investors Can Take For Greener Returns
From 2006-11 U.S. venture capital firms invested $25bn into cleantech startups, yet lost more than half their investment. Learn alternative ways cleantech startups can generate greater returns and climate impact.
Enerkem's $280m Round Is Canada's Biggest Cleantech Vc Deal Ever
Enerkem, a company that turns trash into clean fuels and green chemicals, this week accounted for the biggest cleantech deal in the history of Canada's venture market. The Montreal company on Tuesday said it ra [...]
Bic, Vcs To Co-invest In Bioeconomy, Cleantech Startups
Startup accelerator Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) has agreed to partner with five venture capital firms to capitalize emerging companies in Canada's bioeconomy and clean technology sectors. ArcTern [...]
Shell Technology Ventures Dives Into Chinese Market
Oil and gas majors haven't been the most consistent investors in renewable energy, but as the all-electric future barrels forward, several prominent energy companies have indicated they won't be left behind. The latest play for diversification comes from Royal Dutch Shell, which announced it would open a China branch of its venture fund, Shell Technology Ventures.
Making Venture Capital Work In Cleantech
Venture capital firms generally focus more on greenbacks than green energy. After a brief spurt of interest about six years ago, many major firms have been avoiding further investments in clean energy and green technology. Here's why.
VC Looks To Make Another Try At Cleantech In Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley has always been a place for startups operating in the software, semiconductors and other computing tech sectors to raise money. Starting around 2006, Silicon Valley investments in “cleantech,” a catch-all term for technologies related to renewable energy and other environmentally beneficial areas, started gathering steam. It’s been estimated that startups in the clean energy sector alone had gathered a total of $25 billion from VCs, but of that total, it’s been estimated that over half was lost.
The Cleantech Conspiracy
This, if you squint and adjust your tinfoil hat in just the right way, is the real story of the US election: the Russian candidate defeated the Saudi Arabian candidate. Why them? Because they're more desperate than anyone else. Both are failed, fragile petrostates propped up only by oil money; so both see cleantech, and climate-change concern -- ie Elon Musk -- as the real enemy...
Can Family Offices Make Any Money Out Of CleanTech?
The recent announcement that some of the wealthiest investors in the world are backing a big cleantech fund is likely to spark renewed interest in the sector, despite many venture capital firms suffering big losses for years in cleantech. Given these contrarian factors, what should family offices, traditionally among the biggest investors in cleantech, do now?
Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Others Are Launching A $1B Green Energy Fund
Alongside the Microsoft-cofounder-turned-philanthropist and the Amazon CEO, there is an array of top investors and industry leaders backing it — including Virgin's Richard Branson, Bridgewater Associate's Ray Dalio, John Doerr from Kleiner Perkins, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures, Alibaba exec chairman Jack Ma, Facebook cofounder-turned-investor Dustin Moskovitz, and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son.
Can Venture Capital Ever Propel Cleantech?
A July report by MIT Energy Initiative, <a href="http://energy.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MITEI-WP-2016-06.pdf" target="_blank">"Venture Capital and Cleantech: The Wrong Model for Clean Energy Innovation (PDF),"</a> has compared the performance of venture capital (VC) in the software, medical and cleantech sectors. The results showed VC is not the right model for investments in the cleantech sector. Public funding is crucial at the beginning of projects.