Venture Capital

What’s New at the Big 3? A Look at the Innovation of Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva, and Syngenta-ChemChina

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
We have been speaking to innovation teams from the Big 3 players in plant science, Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva (DowDupont's agricultural business), and Syngenta-ChemChina, to gain insight into their approaches to engaging innovation, how this is changing with the mergers, and where else in the ecosystem they scan for agtech inspiration. Bayer-Monsanto Bayer Growth Ventures will incorporate approaches from both organizations' previous efforts to expand into new areas. Bayer previously focused on collaborations and partnerships, exemplified best by Joyn Bioworks, a joint venture between Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks. Monsanto has a traditional... Read More »

Blockchain in Energy & Industry Raises $1 Billion – and Heads into Challenging Times

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of keynoting the second edition of EventHorizon (EH), the largest conference on blockchain in the energy space. The bar for this event was set impossibly high after the last edition paved the way for a year of extraordinary developments in the space. The EH team delivered an even more impressive production, turning an old Berlin power station into a futuristic spaceship, and spoiling us with shows of lights, violins and acrobatics – not... Read More »

Mobikes, Mo’ Problems – How are cities dealing with the bikesharing gold rush?

Josh Gilbert
Posted on by Josh Gilbert
There’s now more than 8 million bicycles in Beijing, that’s a fact! Over the last 12 months, bikesharing companies have raised over $6 billion dollars in equity financing, with an array of startups rapidly deploying this capital by rolling out services globally. Much of this capital has gone to a select few Chinese companies – Ofo and Mobike – which have quickly moved beyond China into markets in Europe, Singapore and the US. [caption id="attachment_17496" align="aligncenter" width="751"] Bike sharing investment... Read More »

Feeding Fish to Fish: How Insect Farming Fixes Fishmeal

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
At the beginning of 2017, I wrote a piece of research quoting Winston Churchill’s 1932 article Fifty Years Hence, in which he predicted that we would all be eating chicken grown in laboratories. While that is slowly becoming a reality (through companies such as Memphis Meats), there is another area of protein consumption that would likely have seemed even more absurd in 1932 – aquaculture. Currently, to produce 1kg of farmed fish ready for human consumption, it takes 1.5-2kg of... Read More »

Cleantech Meets Space: A month’s worth of deals changing how we see the planet

Josh Gilbert
Posted on by Josh Gilbert
Here at CTG, it is our goal to keep our network of investors and corporates up to date with the latest trends, and share our perspective on the industries we cover that are simply doing “more with less.” As an example of one such industry, we are looking at spacetech, satellite networking, and geographic information systems (GIS) as specific areas where venture capital has become increasingly utilized, with significant cleantech relevance. Through the billionaire-backed efforts of SpaceX, Blue Origin and... Read More »

What’s ailing water?

Troy Ault
Posted on by Troy Ault
Contributions from: Nikhila Krishnan, Summer Analyst  While other clean technology sectors including energy, transportation, and agriculture experience stable or growing investment, it appears investors are not as bullish on disrupting or improving water markets with new technology as they once were (note that, for purposes of this analysis we’ve included smart irrigation technologies in our water category). Five years ago, water innovation accounted for 9-10% of the annual deal volume in clean technology venture capital, and 5-6% of invested dollars, as tracked... Read More »

An Analyst’s Guide to Bursting Bubbles – China’s Bike-Sharing Market, and the Facts Behind the Figures

Josh Gilbert
Posted on by Josh Gilbert
Using our i3 platform, we aim to cut through the noise and provide analysis on the trends that you’ve seen, and many that you haven’t. Our database is the cornerstone upon which we build much of our insight, using i3’s proprietary intelligence on over 24,000 companies to providing clear visibility on the underlying drivers and global trends that drive sustainable innovation. We want to give an example of what this i3 data is telling us regarding one of the higher... Read More »

Highlights of our Investment Summit: Trends & Opportunities in Energy’s Emerging Future

Ken-Ichi Hino
Posted on by Ken-Ichi Hino
On October 20th, Cleantech Group and Enovation Partners, in collaboration with our sponsor Stifel, convened an invitation-only executive summit in New York City focused on the emerging investment opportunity sets and trends in energy for 2017 and beyond. The discussion-focused event helped facilitate a day of shared viewpoints from the attendees, which included investors, corporates, utilities, innovators, and other stakeholders in energy. The morning sessions elicited perspectives on the investment opportunities and challenges, and how those differ across capital classes... Read More »

Where industrial biotech fundraising is still seeing success

Leo Zhang
Posted on by Leo Zhang
From our previous blog post, we highlighted the evolution of smart grid venturing – how smart gird innovation today is all about the internet-of-things (IoT). In this blog post, we will highlight how venture investments in industrial biotech have shifted over the past 10 years. Venture capital investment in industrial biotech, especially to many in Silicon Valley, is considered a thing of the past. Companies such as KiOR, Cobalt Technologies, and Range Fuels have all but failed to disrupt the... Read More »

Augmented Reality: All Eyes on Industrial Applications

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Three months into the release of Pokémon Go, there is a good chance you have bumped into one of its estimated 100 million players. The game’s hype may be short-lived, but there is no denying that it has taken the world by storm. What is less commented on is that this represents the first major consumer breakthrough for augmented reality (AR). Indeed, one of the game’s innovations is to layer fictional characters on top of the reality captured by your... Read More »