The Week in Cleantech – June 10 – 16

Last week saw several significant deals in clean technology. First, it was revealed that Google had ultimately won the bidding war to acquire Waze, a Palo Alto, California-based developer of a smart phone app enabling crowd-sourced traffic information and congestion avoidance. Both Apple and Facebook had been rumored to be taking a serious look at the company, but Google’s $1.3 Billion offer won out. Having raised less than $100 million in venture capital from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Horizon Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and others, the acquisition undoubtedly provides a handsome exit to the company’s investors.

E.ON was identified as the second investor in Bloom Energy‘s recent big growth round, alongside Credit Suisse. E.ON ultimately put up €91.5 million ($121 million) for its stake, but the investment is as significant for the fact that it provides Bloom with a likely channel into the European market and is a clear endorsement by a big player in the traditional hub-and-spoke utility market of the potentially disruptive model of distributed energy generation.

There was marked activity in the Solar sector during the week, as well. At a time when Solar companies have fallen slightly out of favor with venture investors compared with the sector’s highs circa 2008, four Solar companies, Circular Energy, Bloo Solar, Mercatus, and Pure Energies Group, raised financing during the week. And another of the week’s acquisitions – Air Liquide‘s purchase of Advanced Materials company Voltaix – is significant for that company’s presence in the thin-film deposition tech market.

To dynamically track company and investor activity in cleantech, consider subscribing to our i3 Platform, which drives all the data in this blog post. And finally, we hope you’ll register for this year’s Global Cleantech 100 Gala & Summit | October 9-10, 2013 | Washington, DC.