Here is an article I found at cleantech.
“San Francisco, Calif.-based CMEA Capital is on the hunt for the best and brightest cleantech investments. But if the investors can’t find what they are looking for, founder and Managing Director Tom Baruch told the Cleantech Group they’ll create their own company.
The venture capital firm usually invests anywhere from $10 million to $15 million per company, over the life of its involvement with the company, he said. And these days, renewable fuels and chemicals from cellulosic precursors as well as algae are catching the attention of CMEA investors. Baruch said they are working on a stealth project in collaboration with a university in San Diego to genetically modify algae to produce chemicals.
“We’re working to see if we can build our own company,” he said. “We’re shopping for the right technologies and supporting some small research projects.”
CMEA has also invested about $15 million to date in Codexis, which makes producing biofuels, pharmaceuticals and industrial products faster through its next-generation biocatalytic chemical manufacturing processes. CMEA was involved in spinning Codexis out of Redwood City, Calif.-based biotech company Maxygen (Nasdaq:MAXY).
Codexis, which filed its S-1 in 2008 (see Codexis files for $100M IPO) and then pulled it due to market conditions (see Codexis withdraws IPO), has attracted significant private equity investment with IPO plans on the horizon again come 2010.
In March, global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell NYSE:(RDS.A) and Codexis expanded an agreement to develop better biocatalysts, with Shell increasing its equity stake in Codexis. The companies first announced the partnership in 2006 to investigate other biofuels, researching new enzymes to convert biomass directly into components similar to gasoline and diesel, with Shell taking a stake in the company in 2007 (see Shell partners with Codexis for next generation biofuel research and Shell, Codexis in biofuels agreement).
Baruch said he expects Codexis to turn a profit by the end of this year.
“We want to be involved in companies that are truly transformative—that change the way people do things and think about things, that have cost and performance characteristics that are a leap apart from what’s currently available,” he said. “And frankly, if it’s not transformative I don’t want to do it.”
To read the full article, click here.
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