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Posts Tagged ‘clean tech’

Spotify Closing New Financing At €200 Million Valuation; Music Labels Already Shareholders

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , on August 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a piece on Spotify from TechCrunch.

“Has European music startup Spotify finally figured out the online music business? Some big investors seem to think so. Rumors surfaced today that the company is raising a new round of financing of $50 million or so, at valuation of $250 million. We’ve confirmed those rumors from a source close to the company, and have uncovered lots more information about the secretive startup.

First, we’ve confirmed that Asian investor Li Ka-Shing, who invested in Facebook in 2007, will invest in this round, as will a yet to be finalized venture firm. Also, data on previous financings was not completely accurate. Last October there were rumors that the company had raised €15.3 million from Northzone Ventures and Creandum at a €71.6 million pre-money valuation.

In fact, that round was closer to €20 million, and included investments from the big music labels – Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Music, Warner Music Group. All of the labels, says our source, paid the same price for the stock that the venture capitalists did, other than one label that got in very early. That deal valued the company at €100 million, and secured (as much as possible) the long term support of the big music labels.

The new financing will bring in new “strategic” investors, which include rights holders in other geographic locations, according to our source. And while new investors are balking at the $250 million valuation, strong demand from venture capitalists is supposedly driving this deal to a close.”

Read the full article here.

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Khosla’s Clean Tech VC Fund Beats the Odds, Raises $1bn

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a possitive article from Green Energy Reporter.

“A widely used catch phrase – or some variation of it – appearing in the media since the official start of the crisis this fall,  goes something like this: “the global economic crisis, has left the [add required sector, in our case clean tech] reeling, unable to tap crucial funding…. ” This generic phrase and its variations have been used over and over to describe a harsh reality, specifically  how the credit crunch has left industries across the board at a standstill, unable tap financing to support their growth.

Then there is Khosla Ventures, the Sand Hill Road clean tech-focused venture fund, which will be announcing sometime this week the closing of two funds totalling $1 billion, all dedicated to supporting early clean tech investments. This is impressive, considering that most don’t expect this sort of capital raising to happen until well into 2010.

But it seems that Khosla Ventures, founded by Silicon Valley veteran Vinod Khosla, can afford shortcuts.  For one,  Khosla is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a former partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, two leading Silicon Valley pioneers. Also, back in 2004, when clean tech was an afterthought and social media  à la MySpace was all the rage,  he launched Khosla Ventures, one of the sector’s first clean-tech focused VC fund.

Forbes.com reports Khosla is on the verge of announcing two new funds: a $250 million vehicle for seed-stage investments and a $750 million fund for larger deals dubbed “KVIII.” One fund has closed already, and the other could close soon, Forbes reports, citing people with knowledge of the funds. Khosla himself is expected to invest $150 million of his own money in the new funds. Other reported investors include CalPERS, the pension giant with $179.2 billion in assets.”

Read the full article here.

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Major Shift in Cleantech Investment

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here come an article written by Mark Scott at BusinessWeek.

“Last week, I was in Geneva attending a cleantech summit that brought together Europe’s top venture capitalists and entrepreneurs looking for investment. One theme kept emerging: VCs are moving their money away from energy generation projects, such as wind-farm and solar-parks. The reason? Funding those types of businesses is just too expensive for investors already struggling from the global downturn.

That message was reinforced on June 23 when consultants New Energy Finance released preliminary results about cleantech investment. Not surprising, they also found VCs were steering clear of energy generation projects. In the first half of 2009, venture capital and private equity firms forked out $3 billion globally for clean energy companies — a 56% drop compared to the same period last year.”

To read the full story, click here.

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