LED production has grown tremendously, accompanied by a significant fall in prices that will further propel the sale of this energy-efficient digital-lighting technology. But challenges remain on the road to widespread adoption. Figuring out ways to use power efficiently for lighting will be crucial for a future when the world’s population will likely be much larger. Read more »
Investment group Advanced Equities has agreed to pay $1 million to settle charges that it misled investors while raising funds for an alternative energy company in Silicon Valley back in 2009 and 2010. That company in question is reportedly fuel cell maker Bloom Energy. Read more »
While some venture capitalists are moving away from funding cleantech startups, NEA — one of the oldest and most established VC firms out there — plans to stay in energy tech investing for the long haul and will continue to invest in new energy innovators. Read more »
Electric car company Fisker Automotive has a lot of investors — its broker Advanced Equities helped it raise funds from dozens of high-net worth individuals, in addition to its funding from venture capitalists. Turns out one of those investors is actor Leonardo DiCaprio. Read more »
eBay just one-upped Apple’s data center fuel cell farm. On Thursday the commerce giant announced that it is building additional capacity at its data center in Utah and it plans to power that new capacity with 30 fuel cells from Bloom Energy. Read more »
Advanced Equities, an investment and brokerage firm that has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for cleantech firms in recent years, could see its CEO and co-founder resign as early as this week, according to a report in DowJones VentureWire. Read more »
Fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is raising another $150 million at a pre-money valuation of $2.7 billion, according to DowJones VentureWire. If closed, Bloom Energy will have raised $800 million over its 11-year lifetime. Read more »
Solar startup Konarka’s bankruptcy, announced last week, wasn’t just the latest case of the solar industry being hit by the dropping cost of silicon, and cheap modules and panels from China. The company’s technology just “could not compete on cost, efficiency, or lifetime,” says Lux Research. Read more »
Apple’s iCloud and other consumer-focused cloud efforts represent a golden opportunity for startups to raise venture capital, but it might not be from jumping on the bandwagon. According to NEA’s Peter Sonsini, the key to getting VC investment is selling the infrastructure that underlies popular clouds. Read more »
Will huge returns on social media investments — like Groupon, LinkedIn or Pandora — help make up for underperforming greentech investments in a venture firm’s portfolio? If so, perhaps this gives firms time — and wiggle room — to keep up their cleantech investing. Read more »
While we’re all waiting for efficient LED lighting to one day become mainstream, venture capitalists are continuing to back LED innovation. LED chip maker startup Illumitex has raised another $13.52 million in equity, according to a government filing on Monday. Read more »
Highlighting the increased interest in green construction this year, green-building materials company Serious Materials announced on Tuesday that it has raised $60 million in its third round of funding. The round represents one of the largest U.S. venture-capital deals –- and the largest energy-efficiency deal –- […] Read more »
MashLogic has received $2.5 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Ventures, according to the Menlo Park, Calif-based startup’s CTO and co-founder, Ranjit Padmanabhan. MashLogic makes a browser plug-in that provides contextual information about content on web pages, encouraging visitors to those pages to […] Read more »
I have been following the digital textbook world for some time. As an avid e-book fan, I can see the tremendous benefits that digital versions of textbooks can provide students. These benefits include ease-of-use, advanced capabilities like search, and possibly financial benefits, too. The word this […] Read more »
The cost and efficiency of solar are tightly linked — more efficient systems tend to have higher production costs than less efficient ones. But Suniva, a startup based in Norcross, Ga., has developed a technology that is focusing on knocking down the cost while also ratcheting […] Read more »
