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Cleantech Investments Bounced Back in Q1

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is some possitive news on Cleantech.

“The Cleantech Group this morning announced first quarter statistics, and the buzzword expression of the press conference was “bounce back.”

As in: “Following the decline in cleantech investments from 2008 to 2009, the industry has bounced back in the first quarter of 2010,” said Sheeraz Haji, president of Cleantech Group.

You can check out a press release here.

Among the key talking points from the press conference are:

-Q1 saw a record total of 180 deals, which raised $1.9 billion.

-Cleantech venture investment was up 29% from the previous quarter and up 83% from the same period in 2009.

-Government funding and VC dollars do not go hand-in-hand. Of the top 10 deals, only one had received government support. Haji said that although government-related financing is critical, this trend shows that private capital is not at all dependent on government stimulus.

-IPO window is open, Haji said, with seven companies on the IPO launching pad, including Tesla and Solyndra.”

Read the full story here.

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Which Greentech Firms Will IPO in 2010?

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is an article from earth2tech.

“Will 2010 be the year for greentech IPOs? When lithium ion battery maker A123Systems successfully debuted on the Nasdaq back in September, there was much speculation that the move would ready the market for a following of greentech IPOs. The notion seemed over-enthusiastic then, but three months later solar power startup Solyndra has registered for an IPO, which will likely happen in 2010, and we’ve heard rumors that Tesla is plugging away at its S-1 (Reuters also reported an upcoming Tesla IPO).

Then there’s Silver Spring Networks, which just raised $100 million and looks like it’s getting to that stage where it’s too big to be acquired but will need more financing to compete in the smart grid infrastructure market. Silver Spring isn’t commenting on any IPO rumors, but it is clearly one of the best candidates in the greentech world. If these three — Solyndra, Silver Spring and Tesla — do go public in 2010, it’ll make investor Steve Westly look like a pretty solid market forecaster — he predicted in May that these three would go public by early 2010 and he’s already good for one out of the three.

Out of any of the venture capital investment sectors, greentech has the most bullish outlook in 2010 from a VC standpoint. According the National Venture Capital Association, more than half of a group of venture capitalists surveyed predicted that clean technology would see higher investment levels in 2010. According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, venture capital investing in cleantech already rebounded sharply in the third quarter of 2009 to $898 million in 57 deals, up from $475 million in 49 deals in the second quarter of 2009.

The IPO market in general is also looking better to VCs. VCs surveyed by the NVCA are predicting “a mild improvement” in the number of venture-backed IPOs overall in 2010, with 74 percent of respondents saying they think there will be more than 20 IPOs in 2010. However, according to this Reuters article, greentech companies’ offerings represented only a small portion of the overall U.S. IPO market in 2009, ranking fifth by dollars raised in 2009 in the IPO market, and accountng for 8.5 percent of issuance by companies going public in 2009.”

Read the full article here.

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A123’s smash-hit IPO could herald more green debuts

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I think that we last week saw a start of a new boom, A123 soured on the IPO, and many candidates are waiting in line. Here is piece on the issue from Reuters.

“SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 24 (Reuters) – A 50 percent leap in the shares of lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems Inc (AONE.O) on their first day of trading looks likely to jumpstart the market for clean-tech share offerings.

The Watertown, Mass.-based A123 Systems is now worth over $1.9 billion, a striking valuation for a company that has yet to make a profit and still needs large-scale commercialization.

Industry executives and experts said A123’s success shows investors have an appetite for green technology companies that lose money, but have tremendous potential.

So the stock’s first day jump, which is the second-best performance for a debut stock in 2009, should encourage more venture capital-backed clean technology companies to go public, they added.

“This is an interesting time for the market because there are several (clean-tech) companies that have been growing very nicely,” said Faysal Sohail, managing director of venture fund CMEA Capital, which is an investor in A123.

Sohail declined to comment specifically on A123, but said the whole environment is creating opportunities for clean-tech companies and expects 2010 to be a busy year for green IPOs.

“They are real companies with substantial revenue and growing at a very fast clip,” he said.

CMEA Capital also backs companies such as Silicon Valley solar manufacturer Solyndra and biofuel company Codexis, which many see as likely candidates for the IPO market.

Other green companies deemed ripe for an IPO include smart grid network company Silver Spring Networks, electric carmaker Tesla Motors and solar thermal company BrightSource Energy.”

Read the full article here.

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Thinking Big, Thinking Green

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , on September 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a good article from Portfolio.

After a couple of down quarters, venture capitalists are still optimistic about green companies. And one of the biggest, Vinod Khosla, has raised $1.1 billion to prove just how optimistic he is.

Vinod Khosla has bet big on green energy before, investing millions of his own dollars in companies experimenting with everything from biofuels to electrical efficiency.

Now he’s raised $1.1 billion from others for Khosla Ventures Seed Fund LP and Khosla Ventures Expansion Fund to make bets in the same space, a sign that the green economy is more than a passing fad. Khosla’s investment, the biggest amount raised for venture capital in two years, may also mark the return of large-scale financing in a sector that was battered by the economic meltdown.

Khosla, a Sun Microsystems co-founder who went on to a career as a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins before launching his own VC firm, certainly isn’t alone in the green space. Other venture capitalists see potential in clean technology that covers everything from inventing a smarter grid to turning algae into fuel and sunlight into electricity.

“I believe that we’re at the dawn of a transformation of a number of industries in the world that have not gone through a radical transformation,” says Alan Salzman, managing director at Vantage Point Ventures, another venture capital fund. “We have a number of daunting problems…combined with the ability from technology to provide the solutions. To be in on the ground floor…is going to generate staggering returns as the Ciscos and Googles of the world emerge.”

Salzman sees a day, not too far off, when cars are powered by electric motors, batteries store the electricity generated by the sun, and homes and offices are illuminated by energy-efficient LED bulbs, and the companies—like Better Place, Bright Source, and Tesla—that make all of that happen will be the new giants. It will happen, he says, because the science is there to make the changes, the recognition of global warming as a danger is growing, and new technologies ultimately will be cheaper.”

Read the full article here.

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CleanTech IPO candidates – Tesla, Silver Spring Networks, and possibly Solyndra will go public by the first quarter of next year!

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is some optimistic news on the economic crisis blues – Steve Westly goes out on a limb and predicts some IPO´s on the CleanTech sector horizon.

The story is by way of Reuters.

“Initial public offerings as of late have been about as common as celebratory banquets for Wall Street bankers. Last week, however, after some nine months of an IPO drought, two venture-backed startups, software maker SolarWinds and online restaurant reservation system OpenTable, broke the mold and went public. Neither was a cleantech firm, but the news was a positive sign for cleantech investor Steve Westly, managing partner of Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture firm The Westly Group. Westly tells us he sees a changing appetite for companies going public, and he predicts that venture-backed cleantech IPOs will happen by early 2010.

“I’ll go out on a limb -– Tesla, Silver Spring Networks, and possibly Solyndra will go public by the first quarter of next year,” he said in an interview. “I say this because all three of these companies in 2008 did between $10 million and $15 million in revenue, and in 2009 they will do over $150 million. When a company has 10x growth, that is a company you can take public.” The Westly Group has invested about $50 million into cleantech startups, including some $5 million in electric car maker Tesla. It has not backed smart grid startup Silver Spring Networks nor thin-film solar manufacturer Solyndra.”

The article concludes:

“Stephen Simko, solar analyst for Morningstar, still thinks it will be difficult for a solar company to IPO in this market. Solar panel supply far outstrips demand today, and financing for projects is difficult to access. “If lending thaws and the U.S. solar market starts to rise that will lead to the conditions necessary for companies to improve profit and that might lead to IPOs,” he said. “But only the best of breed will be considered.” Solyndra declined to comment for this article.

Of course, it might not be any of these three startups that make headlines as the first cleantech IPO after the drought. First Wind, a wind energy developer, and lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems both filed for IPOs in late 2008. While the filings don’t necessarily mean they will go public, it at least means executives at the firms have their eyes on that prize.”

Read the full article here.

Others covering this story includes: Earth2Teach and Business Insider.

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