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26 août 2008

Près de 1 milliard de dollars levés par des start up cleantech aux Etats-Unis au 1° semestre 2008 !

Par Valérie Blanchot-Courtois le 26 août 2008 | (0) Commentaires

Nous reproduisons ci-dessous un article intitulé Cleantech investment hits record paru le 04/08/08 dans thedeal.com sous la plume de David Shabelman.

Selon cet article qui cite un rapport récemment publié par Ernst & Young LLP à New-York, les investissements aux Etats-Unis dans les domaines du solaire, des agrocarburants, des énergies renouvelables et de l'efficacité energétique ont connu une augmentation de 41% entre le 1° et le 2° trimestre 2008, passant de 680 M$ à 960 M$, alors que les investissements en capital risque tous secteurs confondus ont baissé de 8% sur cette même période.

Selon cette même étude, les 3 start up (sur 41 en tout) ayant levé le plus de fonds au 2° semestre 2008 sont dans le solaire :

1. SunEdison of Beltsville, Md., 131 M$ levés ;
2. eSolar Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., 130 M$ levés ;
3. BrightSource Energy Inc. of Oakland, Calif., 115 M$ levés.

Google Inc. a contribué aux tours de table de eSolar et BrightSource.

50% des investissements concernent des start up dans le secteur de la production d'électricité et d'énergie. 20% des investissements correspondent à des start up qui proposent des outils d'efficacité énergétique.

Cleantech investment hits record
by David Shabelman, Aug-4-2008

"Although the amount of venture capital pouring into technology startups has dipped this year, clean technology companies continue to act as funding magnets. According to a report from Ernst & Young LLP, investment in solar, biofuel and other renewable energy companies rose 41% in the second quarter to $961.7 million, up from $683.5 million in the first quarter. Not only is it the highest total cleantech investment on record, it comes in a quarter in which overall venture capital investment was down by nearly 8%. Year-over-year cleantech investment is up 83% over 2007 funding in the sector.

"We've seen an increasing number of investments driven largely because the opportunities have become more robust, and there are recent entrants still learning the marketplace and aggressively competing on deals," said Joseph Muscat, Americas director of cleantech and venture capital with Ernst & Young.

According to the New York consulting and accounting firm, which drew on data from Dow Jones VentureOne, energy and electric generation companies attracted the most venture investment in the quarter with $494.9 million, more than 50% of the total amount invested in cleantech.

The top three deals were for companies involved in solar technology: SunEdison of Beltsville, Md., which raised $131 million; eSolar Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., $130 million; and BrightSource Energy Inc. of Oakland, Calif., $115 million. All three of those investments involved corporate investors, Ernst & Young noted, with Google Inc. an investor in both eSolar and BrightSource.

Muscat said the participation of strategic investors in cleantech, along with renewable energy's continuing hold on venture capitalists, highlights an increasing recognition by companies that the sector is key. "It's representative of corporate understanding that they have to have a part in the industry," he said.

Companies focusing on tools that boost energy efficiency accounted for 20% of total venture investment in cleantech in the second quarter. Such startups continue to be a top cleantech investment segment despite a 4% funding decline, to $188.3 million, in the quarter. The sector continues to draw strong interest from investors because companies are less capital-intensive than renewable energy companies, and thus, ready for an exit more quickly.

Ernst & Young also found that cleantech funding is being distributed across all stages of VC investment, which is noteworthy given that the majority of deals in 2007 were seed and first-round transactions.

Also, while overall cleantech investment surged, the number of deals increased sequentially by only one, to 41 deals, in the second quarter. Later stage deals accounted for 39% of the transactions in the period.

Melody Jones, director with Stanford Group Co.'s investment banking group in San Francisco, said it's no surprise to see large sums of money flowing into cleantech, as many of the companies developing alternative fuels require large injections of capital. Combine that with a group of money managers who fear missing out on the next big thing and you have a market ripe for investment.

"Venture investors see the potential of this market, and since it's still kind of an unknown no one wants to miss a potential big market. Since it's so early and no one can say there's no market here, I think people are willing to take risk and know they have to put dollars to work in the space."

Gary Vollen, managing director at Stanford Group and head of its clean technology group, adds that investors also see less risk in the sector because the energy market already exists. In addition, with some cleantech companies making it to the public market, it is becoming easier to determine valuations and market potential.

"These are huge, well-established markets, and it's easy to see where new technology has a role in each sector," he said. "Whether a particular company has the right solution for the market is what the VCs need to figure out. The question of whether there is a market has been put to rest."

Ernst & Young also noted that there were 115 M&A transactions in the alternative-energy sector worldwide. Of the 44 deals where price tags where reported, the transactions totaled $7.2 billion, according to energy research firm John S. Herold Inc.

Overall, 46% of the M&A deals were done by private equity firms and 54% were corporate purchases."