Ethanol, wind, and thin film solar investments have begun to taper, but overall investment to clean-tech ventures hit $1.25 billion during the first quarter, a 42 percent gain over the same period from 2007. That’s one takeaway from the latest report from The Cleantech Group. A few more revealing details from first-quarter tallies:
Top five clean tech investors:
- Khosla Ventures: 9 deals, $205 million
- New Enterprise Associates: 4 deals, $84.4 milliom
- Kleiner Perkins: 4 deals, $80 million
- Element Partners: 4 deals, $68.9 million
- Israel Cleantech Group: 4 deals, $16.6 million
Top five North American investments:
- Range Fuels (Colorado — cellulosic ethanol): $100 million
- Luminus (Mass. — solid state lighting): $72 million
- Infinia (Wash. — stirling engines): $50 million
- Suniva (Georgia — cystalline silicon solar cells): $50 million
- Boston Power (Mass. — Lithium ion batteries): $45 million
Top five North American sectors:
- Biofuels: $195 million
- Solar: $119 million
- LED Lighting: $100 million
- Materials: $96 million
- Li-ion batteries: $58 million
A few other interesting data points:
- Cleantech M&A tallied 47 deals for the quarter, up from 39 in 1Q07, but showed activity than the previous three quarters.
- European and Israeli clean tech companies received $377 million in 29 transactions — up 63.8 percent year over year.
- The Cleantech Index (CTIUS), with 46 companies and combined market cap of $340 billion, outperformed the Nasdaq Composite Index, but just slightly: down 13.6 percent for the quarter, vs. - 14.1 percent for the Nasdaq.
