The industry leader in emerging technology research Subscribe
After about 11 years of scaling up and selling specialty products, algae oil company Solazyme has finally arrived. It just started a large factory in Brazil, and algae fuels at scale are around the corner.
The planet has a massive capacity to produce algae oil, which could one day be turned into fuel. And some areas are more fertile than others.
Of greatest concern is that as financing for cleantech gets tight, the brightest startups will struggle to find early stage capital and those companies nearing the path to commercialization will find it hard to find scaling capital.
Using chip and hard disc drive manufacturing processes, startup Gridtential is rethinking the simple lead acid battery to be able to store more energy and be lower cost. The company just got a seed round from The Roda Group to move closer to commercialization.
For seemingly the first time in history, an algae fuel blend will be sold to regular consumers in select cities in Northern California through a month-long pilot program for gas station owner Propel Fuels and algae fuel maker Solazyme.
Despite that venture funding for cleantech is cooling off, some companies are still able to get money for growth. For example, biochemical company Elevance Renewable Sciences has raised a $104 million Series E round from oil giant Total’s investing arm, and Malaysian conglomerate Genting Berhad.
After nine-years, an IPO and $125 million in venture funding, Solazyme is finally ready to break into biofuels in a more commercial way: this week Solazyme announced the ground-breaking of a biofuel plant in Brazil through a joint venture with Bunge.
At least one venture firm is still standing strong behind energy technology. Ten-year-old Braemar Energy Ventures announced on Wednesday that it has closed its latest third fund, of $300 million, to invest in energy technologies.
Sometime shortly after 7 a.m. PST on Monday, execs at algae oil company Solazyme and members of the media will board a plane at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport and take off on the first commercial U.S. domestic flight to use Solazyme’s algae-based jet fuel.
Biofuels made from algae that will be able to scale, and compete with oil, will have to be synthesized and will not come from nature, says genomics scientist and entrepreneur Craig Venter. That notion could put a damper on Venter’s current deal with oil giant Exxon.
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.
To promote biofuel production, the U.S. government is becoming both the investor and customer. The White House announced Tuesday a $510 million investment to speed up biofuel production for the military and beyond.
Algae oil company Solazyme, which went public in May of this year, reported both revenue and losses up for the second quarter of the year. At the same time, the company said it expects to produce 500,000 metric tons of algae oil by 2015.
When it comes to greentech investing, it’s basically all or nothing, and either you have a commitment to the field or you don’t, says VantagePoint Capital founder Alan Salzman.
Cleantech venture investments dropped by a third in the second quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year, according to the Cleantech Group. However, energy efficiency technologies such as LED lighting and energy management software are still getting some love from private investors.
Four-year-old OPX Biotechnologies, which uses genomics to make biofuel production more efficient and economic, is in the process of raising a $45 million round, and has closed on $37 million of that funding, according to a filing.
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.
On its first day of trading, algae oil and fuel company Solazyme, saw its shares trade up around 15 percent from its IPO price of $18 per share. At one point Solazyme’s shares hit $22 per share, but leveled back down to close at $20.71.
This morning, as algae oil maker Solazyme made its debut on the Nasdaq, the company’s co-founders and investors are popping the champagne corks on pricing shares at the high end at $18 per share. Who made good in Solazyme’s debut? Hint: The Roda Group, co-founders and Braemar.
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.
Algae oil maker Solazyme has set the estimated terms of its planned IPO and boosted its maximum offering to $184 million, almost double the $100 million IPO it filed for in March. Solazyme plans to sell 9.98 million shares at a range of $15 to $17.
Algae oil maker Solazyme filed for an IPO late Friday, joining the pack of next-gen biofuel IPOs that have occurred in recent months. Here’s Solazyme’s S-1 by the numbers:
Algae could land on the Nasdaq some time this year. Late Friday algae company Solazyme filed for an IPO of up to $100 million. The move follows the company’s announcement that it had struck a deal with Dow Chemical to make a algae-based fluid for transformers.
There’s a whole lotta stuff to make out of algae beyond the oft-discussed algae fuel. The latest is an algae-based insulation fluid to bathe transformers, courtesy of a partnership between Dow Chemical and algae startup Solazyme.
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.
It’ll be a long road for algae biofuel producers to make any significant dent in the world’s overall fuel supply. How long? Consider this: By 2020, the algae biofuel industry is likely to produce only 61 million gallons per year globally, Pike Research said Wednesday.
Two and a half years ago we put together this cheat sheet on 15 algae fuel startups you need to know. But boy have things changed since then. Here’s our updated 2010 version of our original 15 algae fuel startups bringing pond scum to fuel tanks.
Joule Unlimited, a startup that promises to genetically engineer an organism that eats CO2 and produces a drop-in diesel fuel, has landed a patent on its “recombinant biosynthesis” technology.
Algae fuel startup Solazyme already had a long list of backers — from Chevron’s VC arm to Morgan Stanley — but this week, the company says it’s added two more high profile names: investor Richard Branson and food and personal product giant Unilever.
Greentech has become a big subject in corporate conference rooms over the past year. Large companies have been among the top investors so far this year, and the latest example came from Samsung Electronics.
Investors are still pumping money into algae fuel, despite the lack of commercial availability of the green gas. This morning seven-year-old Solazyme announced that it has raised $52 million in a Series D financing from investors including Chevron Technology Ventures.
Despite the crumbling of the first generation of biofuel projects (corn-based ethanol), the U.S. government is in full support of the next…
Algae fuel has become the latest beloved cleantech product of politicians. Last month Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), co-sponsor of the Waxman-Markey climate…
Automakers Eye Fuel Cells for 2015: Auto companies Daimler (s DAI), Ford (s F), General Motors (s GM), Honda (s HMC), Hyundai,…
Plane flights are the bane of the eco-elite. You can buy a plug-in car and build a green home, but when it…
In the world of big oil balance sheets, Exxon’s (s XOM) decision to invest $600 million into an algae fuel deal with…
Algae-based biofuels hold enormous promise as an alternative transportation fuel, but investors had better have patience. Fuel made from algal feedstocks is…
Despite the slow demise of algae fuel company GreenFuel, investors are still pumping money into algae-based fuels. The latest recipient is Solazyme,…
A kerosene-based aviation fuel called Jet Propellant 8 made up more than 90 percent of the fuel used by the Department of…
In homes with a DVR, 40 percent of primetime viewing is time-shifted (50 percent for those 18 – 49).
A technology developed at Ohio University to grow algae in efficient bioreactors has been licensed by Atlanta-based startup Green Bios Technology, the…
Algae biofuel maker Solazyme said today that its microbial-derived jet fuel has passed inspection with flying colors. The South San Francisco-based startup…
Last week, Solazyme CEO Jonathan Wolfson said confidently that his synthetic biology startup would be able to produce millions of gallons of…
Looks like the rumor we heard about a while ago is true: Google will buy an in-game advertising startup Adscape for $23…
Listen here (17.6 MB, 51 minutes) or Subscribe to the show with this link (RSS) Marc Orchant and James Kendrick talk about…
Scott Sigler wrote a novel and sold it to AOL/Time Warner who published it in 2001 as an ebook that sold quite…
