We’ve all heard that following weak returns, venture capital cleantech investing has retrenched. So what’s next? A style of investing that is a whole lot more rational, return-driven, shorter timelines and capital lite. Read more »
One of the few investors to make money from backing cleantech startups, The Westly Group has finally closed on a $160 million cleantech fund. Read more »
Despite continued struggles for next-gen biofuel makers, VCs are still putting money into startups, particularly when it comes to follow-on rounds. EdeniQ announced that it has raised another round of more than $30 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and The Westly Group. Read more »
Biochemical company Amyris announced on Monday that it has secured $84 million in funding to help it shore up its business and continue to try to scale up its technology. The company went public back in Fall 2010. Read more »
One of the difficulties with investing in cleantech startups is that investors sometimes need to take very long term views of the companies they back, despite that companies can be risky. Next-gen biofuel company KiOR is a prime example of this long term, high risk phenomenon. The reality is that the liquidity of KiOR’s IPO could be locked up for a long time, potentially many years down the road, until — and if — the company scales up and meets expectations. This research note examines KiOR’s place in the market and what it means for other early-stage companies when it comes to investment. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Amyris, BIOeCON and Range Fuels and Solazyme. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Biofuel and biochemical companies continue to file to go public. But the reality is that the stocks of most of the publicly-traded biochemical and biofuel companies have suffered this year. Here’s the latest on the biofuel firms’ earnings from last week and stock prices. Read more »
When an investor or entrepreneur makes high-risk bets on early stage companies, failure is always part of the equation. For Kleiner Perkin’s Bill Joy he says more of the early-stage greentech startups he invests in with fail early, but can turn into something more meaningful. Read more »
It’s official. Khosla Ventures, the firm of influential venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, has raised its $1.05 billion fourth fund and will still continue to invest as much money as it previously has done on cleantech startups. Read more »
Biofuels were envisioned to help to make the world a better place, but here comes a National Research Council report on Tuesday that casts doubt on the environmental and economic benefits of biofuels and the U.S.’s ability to meet its own production mandates. Read more »
The realization that many greentech startups need more capital and time than expected to commercialize their technologies has sacked some venture capitalists’ enthusiasm for cleantech. Vinod Khosla has a message for them: chin up! There’s good money to be made and I’m doing just fine. Read more »
Kleiner Perkins has another biofuel and biochemical company up its sleeve. On Tuesday, a Kleiner-backed startup called Renmatix, which makes sugar from biomass that can be turned into biofuel and biochemicals, came out of stealth during an event in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Read more »
Next-gen biofuel and biochemical companies Genomatica and Mascoma have filed notices recently indicating that they plan to go public some time soon. But how are the other next-gen biofuel companies that have gone public in recent months now faring on the stock market? Mostly down. Read more »
After the great market sell-off yesterday, stocks are rebounding slightly on Tuesday, including many of the greentech stocks that took a beating yesterday. But most of them are only up slightly. Here’s the latest: Read more »
Tech stocks took a beating on Monday morning, the first day of trading after Standard & Poor downgraded the credit ratings of credit agencies. At the same time, greentech stocks — from solar to biofuels to smart grid — fell alongside the weak macro economic news. Read more »
Biofuel companies may not get as much venture capital investments, but they sure are attracting a good number of investors in the public markets. Renewable Energy Group is turning to the public market route and on Monday said it will go public to raise up to $100 million. Read more »
While the greentech IPOs that have happened in the past year have fared decently, they’re no comparison to many of the public debuts in the works by social media companies. Zynga’s reported potential $2 billion raise could deliver five times Tesla’s combined IPO and follow-on offering. Read more »
Biofuel firm KiOR, which debuted on the Nasdaq this morning priced at $15 per share, also closed the day at $15 per share — in other words, as flat as a Britney Spear’s high note. Read more »
Biofuel startup KiOR has priced its IPO at $15 per share, below its estimated price per share of between $19 to $21. Read more »
Biofuel startup KiOr’s could raise as much as $241.50 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq, at a maximum offering price per share of $21. KiOr estimates that it will price its shares between $19 to $21 per share, and could price shares this week. Read more »
Waste to fuel startup Enerkem already had trash king Waste Management on its side — now Enerkem has scored backing from oil refiner giant Valero. Enerkem announced it has raised $60 million from Valero, along with existing investors like Waste Management and Braemar Energy Ventures. Read more »
Algae oil and fuel maker Solazyme priced shares for its IPO late last night at $18 per share — above its previously estimated price range — enabling the company to raise around $198 million when it debuts on the Nasdaq on Friday. Read more »
Khosla Ventures, the firm of influential venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, is raising a new $1.05 billion fund — Khosla Ventures IV — according to an SEC filing. The filing comes just a little over a year since the firm closed on $1.3 billion. Read more »
Greentech investor Steve Westly has been out there raising a new $175 million cleantech fund, and recently closed on the first $50 million. Particularly interesting is that Westly plans to have a special focus on green building technology for the new fund. Read more »
Biofuel and biochemical startup Verdezyne lands investment from British oil giant BP and Dutch biochemicals company DSM — yet another biotech startup teaming up with big boys to bring green fuels and chemicals to bigger scale. Read more »
Despite a series of successful biofuel IPOs recently, and a number of biofuel IPOs in the pipeline, the production of next-gen biofuels, in any kind of volumes that would make a dent in the transportation sector, seems to be creeping, very slowly forward. Read more »
Amyris has opened its first industrial scale facility to turn sugarcane syrup into Biofene, a form of the industrial chemical farnesene, which is a fragrant hydrocarbon that’s used to make cosmetics and lubricants. It’s a big step, though not quite yet to commercial-scale biofuel production. Read more »
KiOR, the Khosla-backed startup that says it can make low-carbon bio-crude at rock-bottom prices, plans to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. But what does it plan to do with the money? Read more »
Biocrude startup KiOR filed for a $100 million IPO on Monday, laying out just how it hopes its process for turning wood chips into a crude oil substitute could compete against the oil industry on price per gallon. Read more »
Greentech investor Vinod Khosla saw two of his biofuel companies IPO in recent months — Amyris and Gevo — and at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference on Thursday, he told the audience that a third biofuel IPO would be filed in about 4 weeks. Read more »
Over three years ago I put together this table on 10 of Khosla Venture’s biofuel bets. Given a couple of these companies have gone public, been sold off, or stalled, I decided to look back at these firms with this updated cheat sheet. Read more »
Greentech marked its best year ever in 2010, and part of that is thanks to the wealth of activity across sectors during the fourth quarter. Global investment in clean energy surged, and while wind power remained the biggest greentech area, solar power saw the fastest growth. The energy efficiency sector appears to have more room for smaller players to make their mark amidst a rapidly maturing market. Meanwhile, China’s stance as a growing greentech giant continued to complicate its relationship with the United States. Companies mentioned in this report include General Electric, Intel, ZigBee, iControl, People Power and EnerNOC. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Biofuel startup Gevo has lowered its upcoming IPO to $13 to $15 per share. That’s about $100 million, or $89 million after fees, less than the $150 million it targeted in August, but close to what analysts have predicted. Read more »
Grab your biofuel startups fast, Lux Research says — the field of contenders with game-changing technologies for turning non-food feedstocks into useful hydrocarbons is getting sparser by the minute. The report sees Big Oil and consumer products conglomerates quickly winnowing the field of the best technologies. Read more »
The world’s greentech industry is likely meeting the end of 2010 with a mix of relief and trepidation. Clouds are on the horizon for global investment in renewable energy, and VCs fret about realizing returns on their existing investments. Meanwhile, China boasts the world’s largest population ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Next-gen biofuel firm Amyris reported its first earnings results as a public company late Thursday, and the results were as expected: given the company isn’t yet in commercial production its revenues are flat and it’s still losing money. Read more »
First Wind Holdings has canceled its IPO, joining the ranks of greentech hopefuls that have found the recent economic climate — or perhaps, their own financials — too unfavorable to risk the public markets. Read more »
Amyris, which started trading on the NASDAQ today, has racked up millions of dollars from investors since its founding in 2003, including Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, and French oil giant Total. For some of those backers who took a chance early on, it’s a decent exit. Read more »
How’s next-gen biofuel maker Amyris faring on its first day of trading? Not bad. Not rocking, but pretty steady. The company started trading at $16.50, traded as high as $17.40 by mid-morning, but dropped back down around $16.50 by the late afternoon. Read more »
Amyris has priced shares for its IPO at $16, below its previously anticipated range or $18 to $20. At least 5.3 million of Amyris’ shares will start trading later today under the symbol AMRS. The IPO has raised $84.8 million. Read more »
Next-gen biofuel producer Amyris plans to officially price its shares for its IPO before the end of the day and hopes to start trading tomorrow on the NASDAQ. Read more »
