The UK-based Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF) has closed its first venture capital fund with Euro 50 million (US$70M). The fund has considerable additional indications of interest and anticipates a second close in Q1 2007.
Investors in this first close include Swiss Re, the European Investment Fund, and a number of leading pension funds and financial institutions. ETF believes it is the first Cleantech fund in Europe to be backed exclusively by financial institutions.
The Fund will invest in outstanding growth companies in such areas as energy storage and conservation, emissions reduction, renewable energy, water, “smart building” technologies, applied materials and recycling. It will invest on a pan-European basis.
Cleantech is a rapidly growing category in the venture capital industry. In Europe, venture firms have invested close to Euro 1 billion annually in cleantech companies in recent years.
In the United States, Cleantech has become the third largest investment category after biotechnology and software, growing from less than 2% in 1999 to 13% in 2006.
ETF plans to raise Euro 150 million (US$200M) to invest on a pan-European basis with emphasis on the UK, the Nordic Countries, Germany, Benelux and Switzerland.
ETF defines the cleantech sector as technologies and services that bring substantial improvements in productivity and profitability, creating more economic value with the use of less energy, less materials, and with less waste; and which in the process are environmentally beneficial.
Investee companies will typically be found in the growth areas of:
” Energy efficiency and power conservation
” Renewable energy generation
” Water – treatment & conservation
” Agriculture and silviculture
” Environmental services, waste reduction & recycling
” Mass and sustainable transportation systems
” Material sciences and their industrial applications
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