Investing in a cleaner world
It has not escaped the notice of many in the venture world that cleantech has become something of a phenomenon. Virtually unknown as a concept three or four years ago, it is now the mot du jour. It is more than just talk though - a lot of venture capital is heading in the direction of cleantech. The average European cleantech deal was worth €400k in 2001-2004, but that rose to nearly €3m in 2005-6.
Cleantech is widely understood to encompass technologies that promote the more efficient use of the earth's resources in industrial production and consumption. Its origins clearly lie in the heightened consumer, regulatory and industry interest in clean forms of energy generation—specifically the rise in awareness of global warming and of damage to the environment from the burning of fossil fuels. The focus of much current investment is trained on eco-efficient production techniques, renewable energy, green technology, and sustainable business.
These and other investment themes and opportunities will be debated at Essential Cleantech 2007, a major conference taking place later this month in London.
Among the leading lights of cleantech presenting at the conference will be Vinod Khosla, famous for co-founding Sun Microsystems at the age of 27. A former general partner at US venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, Mr Khosla was crowned best VC investor by Forbes as long ago as 2001. Mr Khosla, who now runs Khosla Ventures, is an enthusiastic supporter of ethanol as a solution to the US dependence on overseas gasoline and will talk about the opportunities for this energy source. He will also reveal other areas of value (and hype) within cleantech and expand on “Khosla’s Rules” for investing, which he unveiled last month in a lecture at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley.
Essential Cleantech also includes presentations by Doug Richard, chairman of Library House, who will provide insights into the European clean energy sector. Jeremy Leggett, the founder of Solarcentury, a solar innovation company, will highlight his vision of how increased energy efficiency and renewable energy sources can lead to an ecological soft, rather than hard, landing. Mr Leggett’s first book The Carbon War was described by the Sunday Times as "the best book yet on the politics of global warming". Ken Carter, energy manager at Tesco, will explain how he plans to reduce the retailer's carbon footprint by 50 per cent by 2020. Many other well-known names in the VC and cleantech world will also present their views at the conference.
Essential Cleantech presents a unique forum to discuss how potential solutions to the problems and threats posed by climate change and diminishing fossil fuel supply can provide significant business opportunities. We hope to meet you there.
Essential Cleantech 2007 takes place at the BFI IMAX Theatre, Waterloo, on April 17, from 8am to 8pm. An early bird discount is available until midnight on Thursday April 4.
The Week's Deals
Thirty-seven companies gained venture funding this week, sixteen were of undisclosed value. The deals raised a total of €125m, which is €6m on average.
CoreValve, the France-based medical technology company, has raised $33m (€24.7m) in a third round of funding from
Apax Partners,
Maverick Capital,
Odlander,
HealthCap Venture Capital and
Sofinnova Partners. CoreValve has developed a system which permits the replacement of valves in a beating heart via peripheral blood vessels. This eliminates the need for open-chest surgery and any form of cardiac support during the valve replacement procedure.
Affibody, the Sweden-based developer of oncology products for molecular imaging and targeted therapy, has raised €21.5m from private investors,
Investor Growth Capital,
Kaupthing Investment Bank,
Odlander,
HealthCap Venture Capital,
Schroder Ventures Life Sciences and
Third Swedish National Pension Fund. The funding will be used for clinical development of a product intended for the diagnosis of an aggressive form of breast cancer.
Nitec Pharma, the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company, has raised €19.8m from
Atlas Venture,
Global Life Science Ventures and,
NGN Capital. Nitec’s lead compound is for symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis such as morning stiffness.
Tobii Technology, the Sweden-based developer of eye-tracking technology, has raised $14m (€10.5m) from
Investor Growth Capital. Tobii’s technology, which allows a computer to know exactly where a person is looking, has applications ranging from allowing severely disabled people to communicate and interact, to measuring the effectiveness of advertisements on web pages. The funding will be used to accelerate the company's growth, enhance product development and expand global sales and marketing efforts.
Elsewhere,
Streetcar, the UK-based self-service car rental company, raised £6.4m (€9.5m) from
Smedvig Capital;
ProFibrix, the Netherlands-based biotechnology company focused on products to stop bleeding and initiate tissue repair, raised $11m (€8.3m) from
Index Ventures and private investors; and
Aventiv, the Belgium-based enterprise software company, raised €7.2m from business angels,
Flemish Institute for Science and Technology,
GIMV and
Participatiefonds.
See below for a complete list of deal headlines.
Did we miss anything? If you think we have missed a deal or know of a deal that is about to close then send us your
deal news.
The Week's Exits
Frankfurt Stock Exchange-listed
Q-Cells has decided to exercise its option to acquire 51 per cent of the shares in Switzerland-based
VHF-Technologies (Flexcell). Flexcell manufactures flexible, thin and lightweight photovoltaic modules, using its proprietary very-high-frequency plasma technology to deposit thin layers of amorphous silicon onto plastic substrates. Q-Cells says the acquisition will make it the leader in the consumer applications market, although the main objective is to use the technology to help develop industrial-scale production.
Kailight Photonics, the Israel and US-based developer of optical transmission products, has been acquired by
The Optima Corporation, the Nasdaq-listed supplier of optical subsystems for the telecommunication and cable TV industries. Optima is paying $35m in cash, rising to $40m if Kailight is able to meet certain milestones by 2009.
Thommen Medical, the Switzerland-based dentistry implant company, has announced that two groups of private investors have acquired the majority of the company from venture capital investors. Thommen was founded in 2001 and has received funding from
HBM BioVentures,
Invision Private Equity,
VI Partners,
BioMedInvest and
NeoMed.
People Moves
JAJAH, the Israel and US-based internet telephone company, has appointed Trevor Healy as chief executive. Mr Healy was most recently a vice president at PayPal, a division of
eBay. He takes over from co-founders Roman Scharf and Daniel Mattes who had been acting as joint chief executives since the company was set up last year. In a simultaneous press release the company also announced that it has reached two million customers in that time.
PortWise, the Sweden-based mobile identity and access management company, has appointed its current chairman Mikael Jacobsson as chief executive. He replaces Phil Bousfield who has left the company.
Xtract, the Finland-based customer analytics company, has appointed Paul Hedman as chief executive. Mr Hedman has more than 20 years’ experience in the IT and telecommunications industry, having held senior roles in companies such as IBM, IBX and Telia. He joins Xtract from Seven Inc, the US-based software company. Xtract has also appointed co-founder Kimmo Kiviluoto to the new role of chief technology officer.
Most Accessed Companies
Trampoline Systems, the UK-based enterprise software company, has attracted a lot of attention this week. Trampoline’s products are designed to leverage the combined intelligence within a company’s network to manage and distribute information more efficiently. The company’s main product plugs into the corporate network and analyses existing systems such as email servers, contact databases and document archives to build up a map of information flows, social networks, expertise and individuals’ interests throughout the company. Recent news at the company includes receiving Oracle's 2006 UK partner innovation award in February, and the announcement of a £3m (€4.4m) funding round from
Tudor Investment Corporation in March.
Inge, the Germany-based developer of ultrafiltration technology, has also received a lot of attention recently. Inge has developed products that remove bacteria, viruses and microorganisms from drinking, industrial and waste water. The company is Germany’s largest ultrafiltration company and recently raised €6m to increase mass production and expand its research and development and international sales and marketing capabilities. Investors in the company include
Dutch Entrepreneurs Fund,
SAM Group Holding,
Siemens Venture Capital,
StoneFund,
Sustainable Performance Group and
Taprogge.
Other companies generating interest recently include
Zopa,
Transmode, and
MySQL.
There are now 10,338 companies in the database and 7,779 investors, comprising 3,917 institutional, 3,195 corporate, 514 individual and 153 other. Of the database's 34,954 contacts, there are 19,881 executive, 8,035 CEOs, 2,684 chair, 1,519 non-executive and 2,835 other.
