The Week in Cleantech – Apr. 15 – 21
It was an exciting week in cleantech. Lighting control system maker Enlighted raised $20 million in new venture capital, more than doubling its paid-in-capital to date. New investor RockPort Capital Partners led the round, and was joined by existing investors KPCB, DFJ, and Intel Capital. DFJ JAIC, a Japan-focused member of the DFJ Global Network, was also a new investor in the round. The startup announced that its systems have now been deployed in 10 million square feet of commercial building space, which is double what it had reported just five months ago.
Continuing a big trend in the clean transportation sub-sector, yet another car-sharing startup has raised venture capital. This time it’s a company newly on our radar, called FlightCar, with a $5 million series A round from Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, First Round Capital, and others. It’s one of eleven such companies to have raised money since the start of 2012 (we’ll let you discover the others through our powerful cleantech taxonomy), though FlightCar has a unique angle – providing its service to a nicely captive market at airports. The company enables travelers to avoid or offset long-term parking fees as well as earn a buck by renting out their cars to other travelers.
In IPO news, specialty finance company Hannon Armstrong took its new REIT, Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, public on the NYSE, raising $200 million. It represents an exciting transition phase in the deployment of clean technologies for energy efficiency applications as well as renewable energy and water in the United States, as such financing vehicles could dramatically widen the pool of private sector capital available to sustainable infrastructure projects.
And in M&A, PowerSecure acquired LED lamp maker Solais Lighting for $15 million in a mix of cash and stock. Founded in 2008, Solais Lighting had raised just over $4 million in venture capital from investors including FreshTracks Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and Long River Ventures.
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