Investors poured $1.59 billion into 134 clean-technology ventures in North America, Europe, China and India in the third quarter, The Cleantech Group and audit and consulting firm Deloitte reported today.
That number is up 10 percent from the previous quarter, but down 42 percent from a year earlier.
Dallas Kachan, managing director of The Cleantech Group, a market research firm based in San Francisco, said billions of dollars in government funding “have begun emboldening private capital, which has in turn helped propel clean technology to the leading venture investment sector, now eclipsing biotech and IT.”
“The two largest venture deals “… this quarter were all recipients of U.S. government funding,” Kachan said in a statement. “Hundreds of millions of dollars in new venture funds this quarter are also evidence of investor confidence and momentum, including $1.1 billion in two new funds by Khosla Ventures alone.”
The two biggest clean-tech investments in the quarter were $198 million for Solyndra, a Fremont maker of solar panels, by a group led by Argonaut Private Equity; and $82.5 million for Tesla, the San Carlos electric-car maker, by a group led by Fjord Capital Management.
Solyndra last month said it would use a $535 million federal loan to build a new solar-panel factory in Fremont. Tesla also has received a $465 million loan from the federal government.
Intel Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers were the two most active venture investors in the clean-tech sector, according to the report.
Contact Frank Russell at 408-920-5876. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mercspike.
