The Week in Cleantech – June 17 – 23

There were several big deals done in cleantech last week. One particularly noteworthy deal came from Solexel, a Milpitas, California-based developer of silicon gas-to-wafer technology, which raised $14.8 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures, and Technology Partners. The deal is worth noting not for its size, but for the fact that next-generation solar PV technology companies have found new equity capital so hard to come by of late. This deal, along with Sacramento, California-based Bloo Solar‘s deal the previous week, suggest that investors may be returning to next-gen solar.

Enerkem, the waste-to-biofuels company that withdrew its planned IPO in April, 2012, raised $48 million in new private capital from Investissement Quebec, Braemar Energy Ventures, The Westly Group, and others.

And efficient window company View raised $60 million in new equity from Khosla Ventures, General Electric, and Corning, bringing that company’s total paid-in-capital above $185 million.

Renewable energy deployments got a shot in the arm from the private sector during the week as Massachusetts’ Cape Wind project and France’s Solairedirect each raised $200 million in project finance.

Finally, the week saw several announcements on new venture funds being raised for the cleantech space. BDC Venture Capital, Cultivian Ventures, and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec all announced interim or final closings.

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.