The Week in Cleantech – May 20 – 26

Last week saw a few large venture capital rounds, and some very interesting M&A activity. Andreesseen Horowitz continued its cleanweb tear with a whopping $60 million investment in ride-sharing and unofficial taxi service operator Zimride/Lyft. The round, announced on Lyft’s one-year anniversary, will help the company expand its app-driven taxi service into new territories. Andreessen Horowitz’ recent cleanweb investments include FlightCar, FarmLogs, and AirBnB.

Telecoms and datacenter efficiency company 4Energy received a £7 million ($10.6 million) investment led by new investor British Gas. Existing investors Carbon Trust, Environmental Technologies Fund, and Catapult Venture Managers also participated.

Zinc-air battery start-up Eos Energy Storage completed its $15 million Series B round from NRG Energy and other investors. The company is testing grid applications of its energy storage tech with utility ConEdison, and says it’s already in the process of raising its Series C round.

In M&A, we heard whispers of a firesale of beleaguered hybrid-electric car maker Fisker Automotive to China’s Wanxiang Group and boutique car maker VL Automotive, which might look to drop a traditional internal combustion engine into the sleek Fisker car body.

And high-altitude wind start-up Makani Power was acquired by Google, which had backed the company with $15 million in venture capital since 2006. Makani will be folded into Google’s Google X lab, the arm of the search giant responsible for its driverless car plans and Google Glass.

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