Cleantech has overtaken IT and biotechnology to become the sector attracting the most venture capital, according to the latest figures from the US market analysts the Cleantech Group http://cleantech.com/index-europe.cfm.
In the third quarter of the year VC investment in cleantech totalled $1.59 billion across the US, Europe, China and India. While this may be down 42 percent on the same quarter in 2008, cleantech is rebounding from the freeze that hit high tech investing between October and March, and is now reaping the benefits of the huge sums of money that governments worldwide have devoted to it in their economic stimulus plans.
“The billions in government funding being allocated globally in clean technology have begun emboldening private capital, which has in turn helped propel clean technology to the leading venture investment sector, now eclipsing biotech and IT,” said Dallas Kachan, Managing Director of the Cleantech Group.
The leading clean technology investment sector was solar, which rose from the previous quarter’s 13 percent to 28 percent of venture investment, attracting $451 million. Note though, this is still well below the peak of $1.2 billion invested in the third quarter of 2008. The second highest area of investment was transport, which include vehicles, biofuels and advanced batteries – which attracted $383 million. Green buildings – including energy efficient buildings, glass and lighting subsectors – had a strong quarter, with investment of $110 million.
The largest transaction in Europe was in Think Global, an electric car manufacturer based in Norway, which closed a a $46 million round. In total companies in Europe and Israel raised $457 million in 53 rounds, up 61 percent from the second quarter of 2009, yet down 42 percent from the third quarter of 2009. Energy generation at $246 million in 21 deals, attracted the most investment, followed by vehicles ($51 million, three deals). There were also large deals for Irish bio-energy company Imperative Energy, which raised $43 million, and UK-based fuel cell company Intelligent Energy, which raised $30 million.