Cleantech venture capitalists
sought out greener pastures in the second quarter, fueling a surge in investments
in advanced materials, transportation, and recycling and waste technologies,
the Cleantech Network said on Thursday.
While energy
generation technologies and startups continued to attract the lion's share of North
American and European VC funds in the second quarter, investors increasingly
turned to newer and less developed sectors, the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based
research group said.
VCs pumped $34.5
million into advanced materials in the second quarter, almost triple the amount
invested in the first quarter. Investment in transportation more
than doubled to $81.8 million in the same period, while the recycling and waste
segment rose six-fold to more than $100 million.
In total, venture investment in
North America and Europe
rose to just under $1 billion in the second quarter, a 10 percent increase over
the first quarter. Energy generation continued to lead all other sectors,
pulling in $535 million, up 8 per cent over the first quarter of the year.
Some 60 out of 77 second-quarter
deals included in the analysis were closed in North America, which absorbed $843 million in
cleantech venture investment during the same period.
While that figure reflected
a 15 percent increase over the previous quarter, it was on par with investment
in second quarter of 2006, according to the Cleantech Network.
European investment
fared less well. Second quarter investment in European cleantech totaled $154
million, a decline of more than 40 percent compared with the same period last
year, and down 11 percent compared with the first quarter. Quarter-to-quarter,
Canadian investment was also down to $12 million in Q2, about one-fourth that
of the first quarter investment.
On the public
markets, however, the cleantech sector saw 17 IPOs in the second quarter in
North America and Europe,
nearly double the number in the previous quarter, raising almost $1.7 billion,
the Cleantech Network said.