Clean Sweep 22

A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment.

Deals
The UK's Low Carbon Accelerator has led a C$21.5m second round in Canadian ethanol tech firm Vaperma. Volvo Technology Transfer also joined the round in its first parallel investment alongside its cleantech partner Emerald Technology Ventures, a first-round backer of Vaperma. Existing investors BDC Capital, and FIDD also increased their funding.
Vaperma is developing a gas separation membrance technology for removing water from ethanol, replacing the current energy-intensive steam distillation process. The firm's Siftek technology is primarily aimed at Brazilian sugarcane alcohol and North American grain ethanol producers, and promises to take around seven cents off the costs of a gallon of ethanol.

A clutch of overseas early-stage deals show the role of tech transfer from universities:
Eco-plastics company Novomer raised $6.6m from Physic Ventures and Flagship Ventures. The New York firm is developing biodegradeable polymers based on cheap feedstocks including carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The tech was developed by co-founder Geoffrey Coates at Cornell University.
US biocatalyst firm Akermin raised $5m in the second phase of its first round (this is somehow distinct from a small second round, I'm sure). All previous investors, including Prolog Ventures, OnPoint Technologies, Chrysalix Energy and the St Louis Arch Angel Network, increased their stakes. Akermin is developing a stabilised enzyme catalyst technology developed at St Louis University which can potentially replace heavy metals in biofuel cells.
In the solar arena, thin film developer SixTron Advanced Materials raised a C$10m first round led by Canadian VC Ventures West. Seed investors iNovia Capital, Innovatech sud du Québec, and FIDD also joined in. The Quebec university spin-out is commercialising what it calls a highly innovative and cost-effective method of depositing silicon carbide films on a range of substrates.
Israeli spin-out Distributed Solar Power raised $1.2m from TN Ventures and Aurum Ventures MKI. The funding goes towards the first industrial-scale model of DISP's CHP solar concentrator system.
And printed electronics group Plextronics has raised an extra $4m from Applied Ventures, the VC arm of Applied Materials. The top-up follows a $20.6m second round announced two months ago. Pennsylvania-based Plextronics is developing printed electronic technology based on tech developed at Carnegie Mellon university, with applications including printed solar cells.

Elsewhere, a $3m bridge round for this week's winner of the all-California silly name contest, Fat Spaniel. The firm provides software and hardware that helps renewable energy suppliers monitor efficiency and count their carbon-saving credits. The company raised $7m from DFJ Element and Chrysalix Energy in its first round a year ago, and is aiming for a full-scale $20m second round.


Fund news
UK mid-market buyout house Gresham Private Equity has set up a dedicated energy and environmental team. The two-pronged team will cover investments in the oil and gas industry and the greaner fields of energy management and minimisation, waste management and recycling. Partner Christian Bruning and research/origination manager Peter Lahoud lead the cleantech side.

As detailed below, veteran tech VC KPCB and specialist investor Generation Investment Management have teamed up in a new London-based greentech alliance. Al Gore's involvement in Generation has ensured plenty of media coverage, and should draw the attention of other potential investors to the funds.

European renewables specialist Enercap Capital Partners has announced the first closing of its EnerCap Power Fund I at Euro75m. The Prague-based fund invests in power projects across Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe

Israel Cleantech Ventures has launched a new seed-stage initiative in association with US VC Greylock Partners's Israel Fund. Cleanstart will back concept-stage ventures or university spin-outs across the cleantech sector.

Generation and KPCB team up

News of a major cleantech investment partnership setting up in London, with a rather big name on the masthead. Generation Investment Management, a specialist in sustainability-focused investment in listed equities, and veteran tech VC Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have announced a dedicated greentech alliance.

The collaboration will, to quote the PR, find, fund and accelerate green business, technology and policy solutions with the greatest potential to help solve the current climate crisis. The partnership will provide funding and global business-building expertise to a range of businesses, both public and private, and to entrepreneurs [...] The two teams will collaborate on opportunities spanning sectors such as renewable energy technologies, building efficiency, cleaner fossil energy, sustainable agriculture and carbon markets.

In practice, that seems to mean combining Generation's contacts and sector expertise with KPCB's financial heft and experience of building private businesses. And Generation should give good contact - it's the firm co-founded and chaired by former US VP, award-winning alarm-raiser and new Nobel Laureate Al Gore (I'm still not convinced he really deserved to share the prize on an equal basis with the IPCC, but fair play to him anyway).

Gore joins KPCB as a partner (donating his salary to the Alliance for Climate Protection, which he also chairs), while KPCB partner John Doerr joins Generation's advisory board.

The global alliance will apparently be based in London, with KPCB 'co-locating' their European operations in Generation's West End offices. The VC currently has offices in Silicon Valley, Beijing and Shanghai, while Generation also has a base in Washington DC.

Fortune has more of the inside juice.

Clean Sweep 21

A round-up of recent news in clean technology and cleantech investment.
Consider this one as either late for last week or early for this - I'm having a busy couple of weeks.

Deals
Welsh battery business Atraverda has won the backing of two new European investors in a £10.4m second round. Denmark's BankInvest New Energy Solutions and Portugal's Espirito Santo Ventures led the round, with existing investors Scottish Equity Partners, Chord Capital and Finance Wales, plus US-based EnerTech Capital and OnPoint Technologies, also chipping in.
Atraverda, based in the former coal-mining town of Abertillery, is developing bi-polar batteries for use in hybrid electric vehicles, standby power and other applications. The lead-acid batteries are based on the firm's proprietary Ebonex technology, which uses a titanium sub-oxide ceramic to reduce lead content and extend battery life. The bi-polar design also increases energy density and reduces raw material demands. The new funding goes towards product and commercial development.

Dutch biomass research group Bioecon has hooked up with Silicon Valley hotshots Khosla Ventures to launch a bio-oil joint venture called KiOR. The new business will develop and commercialise Bioecon's Biomass Catalytic Cracking (BCC) process, which promises to convert lignocellulosic biomass from grass, wood and agricultural waste into a bio-oil suitable for use in transport fuels. Khosla provides an unspecified first round of funding and strategic support.

Meanwhile back in Silicon Valley, there's one big-ass fundraising for a new electric car venture known only as Project Better Place. The firm, headed by former SAP exec Shai Agassi, coyly says it has 'entered into a term sheet for its first round of funding in the amount of $200 million'. Oil and trade combine Israel Corp has put up half that amount, with Morgan Stanley, VantagePoint Venture Partners, and individual private investors making up the total.
The business model involves leasing existing battery tech to owners and maintaining a network of charging and battery exchange stations - a model which the firm compares to that of mobile phone companies. The subscription-based funding model should substantially reduce the cost and hassle of buying an electric car, and lay the infrastructure for much wider adoption. The firm predicts tipping-point saturation within ten years of rollout.

Still in California, demand response group Optimal Technologies announced a $25m second round from Goldman Sachs - $13m now, with further milestone payments over the next year.
The company says its power-management software can increase an electricity utility's supply by at least 10 per cent. It will launch both supply and demand side systems in 2008.

And San Francisco's solar concentrator business GreenVolts has raised a $10m first round led by Greenlight Energy Resources.
GreenVolt is currently working on a 2MW facility which promises to be the world's largest concentrating PV plant when it opens in late 2008. The firm says its sun-tracking concentrator systems are more efficient that that of rival SolFocus, which raised $52m two months ago.

Pioneering industry research and media company Cleantech Group has hooked up with Credit Suisse and Consensus Business Group in what they're calling a 'strategic business relationship to accelerate global investment in clean technologies'. That means new investment products and advisory services tailored for the fast-expanding sector. Credit Suisse and Consensus are together investing $10m in the Cleantech Group, according to reports.


Fund news
Kent-based VCT manager Foresight Group has held a £15m first close on its new Foresight Sustainable UK Investment Fund. The fund, which is aiming for a £20m close by the end of the year, focuses on environmental infrastructure businesses including renewable energy, waste-to-energy and recycling. Its first investment was in biomass CHP firm O-Gen UK back in June.


Further reading
An interesting list of winners of the 2007 California Clean Tech Open. The business plan competition aims to identify and support the most promising start-ups in one of the world's most active cleantech clusters. Expect some, if not all, to enjoy further VC funding before too long.

The ever-campaigning Guardian names and shames leading UK companies which it reckons aren't taking steps to cut their carbon emissions. If you're selling the goods or services that could help the recalcitrant corporates clean up their act, it may be a good time to give them a call.
Interestingly (if unsurprisingly), the sole private equity group on the FTSE 100, 3i, was among the handful of companies reporting their emission figures in confidence. Over on the Cleantech Blog, Neil Dikeman ponders the issues facing cleantech-hungry VCs trying to reduce their carbon footprints.