Better Place, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider of electric vehicle services, announced today that it has raised $350 million in a Series B funding round led by HSBC. The deal values Better Place at $1.25 billion. Read More »
Ecobee, a Toronto-based developer of smart grid technology, has raised $6.73 million in a Series B financing round. Read More »
Macquarie Capital Funds, the asset management unit of Australia’s Macquarie Group, has hired Bill Green, the co-founders of renewable energy-focused investment fund VantagePoint Venture Partners, as a senior managing director to expand the firm’s North American renewable energy investments. Read More »
A lot of attention was given yesterday to the appointment of venture capital pro Jonathan Silver, as the executive director of the Department of Energy’s loan program office.
As Dan Primack reports on PeHUB, a number of former VC investors have jumped ship over the past year and are now executing President Barack Obama’s green power policy. They include:
Nick Sinai: Sinai was appointed energy and environmental director at the Federal Communications Commission this summer. He joined the FCC from Tenaya Capital, the former venture unit of Lehman Brothers, which focuses on technology and cleantech investments. Sinai also worked as a senior associate with Polaris Venture Partners. Primack reports that Sinai also oversaw corporate development for GreenFuel Technologies, a Polaris portfolio company. Read More »
The latest piece of news coming out of the Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco comes from Westly Group founder, Steve Westly, who is about to close a second fund, exceeding $100 million.
Also speaking at the conference earlier this week was Google’s green czar Bill Weihl, who told attendees that Google engineers were developing cheaper mirror technology of solar thermal power farms.
On the Westly Group’s latest fund, Steve Westly tells Reuters (via PeHUB): “I will have a formal announcement next week. Our goal was to raise $100 million despite a historically challenging financial market. We will exceed that goal.”
Fund investors, besides Westly Group principals, include pension funds, strategic investors and high net worth families. Where will Westly put that money to work? Solar power and smart grid technologies, as well as electric vehicles.
An improving economic climate and, above all, a strong funding commitment from the government are convincing investors to open their purse again. On Wednesday, Spain’s Iberdrola raised $2 billion via a U.S. bond offering. Earlier, Khosla Ventures closed two new funds with more than $1 billion in capital commitment.
Regarding exit strategies, Westly says he’s bullish about the IPO market in 2010, as he expects a dozen initial public offering of clean tech companies.
