According to the Q3 2004 Cleantech Venture Monitor, released today by the Cleantech Venture Network, cleantech investments totalled over $311 million in the third quarter of 2004, or 7.2% of all North American venture funds. This was up from 4.2% in the previous quarter.
For the second consecutive quarter the West Coast’s share of cleantech deals declined, as the Northeast region led. Other regions, such as Eastern Canada, captured a higher share of cleantech capital than ever before. The total volume of deals decreased to 50 from 62 the previous quarter with follow-on round deals dominating the quarter, constituting 86% of all funding.
Said Nicholas Parker, co-founder and chairman of the Cleantech Venture Network, “One point of concern during this quarter is that only 15 companies received seed or first round funding. The cleantech venture community will soon need to address this lack of start-up deals if the pipeline of emerging companies is to remain healthy as we move into 2005 and beyond.”
Cleantech investor pioneers RockPort Capital and EnerTech Capital were the most active investors in Q3 with four deals each, as 107 investors completed one or more cleantech deals in the period. Among the Q3 cleantech investors were leading mainstream VCs such as Intel Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Vanguard, Mayfield and Partech who played significant roles in large deals such as those benefiting Konarka Technologies (photovoltaics) and PolyFuel (direct methanol fuel cells).
Additional details:
121 unique investors participated in a cleantech investment in Q3 and the average deal size was $6.4 million.
Over half of the 49 total investments went into energy-related companies, for a total of $167.5 million, accounting for 53.8% of the cleantech total.
For the second consecutive quarter, the Materials Recovery & Recycling sector doubled its previous investment level, surging to the second overall spot in total capital, $43.2 million.
After zero investment in Q1, the Air Quality sector came in at $25.3 million, representing 8.1% of the cleantech total.