Venture in 2013 and the Biggest Venture of the Last Quarter

Dallas Kachan is an influential voice and investor in the cleantech world.  He was formerly a Managing Director and Executive Editor of the Cleantech Group, a provider of information on the cleantech sector, and now has his own company, called Kachan & Co..  His group has released both its predictions for the sector in 2013, as well as something Kachan calls a “State of the Union” for the cleantech sector.  Both outline what lies ahead for the sector in light of what it has faced over the last several quarters.

Both are worth reading, but check out the State of the Union for a shorter snapshot of the industry.

Here are some of the group’s thoughts and forecasts:

1.  Venture funding for cleantech was down in 2012, and likely won’t leap back up in 2013.

Though it is likely to hover around the same amount.  Q2 is usually slow for the sector in terms of venture deals, and they expect Q3 venture investment to total about $2Billion.  Kachan calls that “not great, as compared to previous years on record, but it’s okay.”

He lists a number of deals done over the last quarter:

• $200m to China Auto Rental, efficiency/collaborative consumption, Beijing
• $136m to Alarm.com, efficiency/smart grid, Virginia
• $104 to Elevance Renewable Sciences, biochemistry, Illinois
• $104 to Fiskar Automotive, transportation, Irvine CA
• $93M to Element Materials Technology, advanced materials, the Netherlands

Three out of the five deals he lists are American, which might bode well for the sector in the United States.  Then again, with the very developed technology ventured community in the US, it isn’t really much of a surprise either.

Each of these deals merits some individual attentions, so I will devote a post to discussing some recent news about each one.