The Week in Cleantech – May 27 – June 2
Last week we learned that EV battery swapping startup Better Place has elected to dissolve and liquidate its assets, unable to secure further private financing and amid the slow market adoption of standardized EV batteries that would have enabled its technology. The fall of another high-profile, highly venture-backed cleantech company certainly put a damper on things, but the week also held plenty of good news:
Cisco showed that it’s still very much interested in the energy management space with its $107 million acquisition of JouleX. JouleX had developed software that monitors, analyzes and gives recommendations on energy usage in computer networks, including PCs, data centers and distributed offices. Cisco’s acquisition provides a handsome exit to the company’s investors, which include Flybridge Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Sigma Partners, Target Partners, and TechOperators.
The week’s biggest venture deal went to Flexenclosure, a Swedish company taking a wholistic view of cleaning up telecommunications infrastructure. The company, which raised $24 million from International Finance Corporation, Industrifonden, and Andra AP-fonden, seeks to deploy renewable generation along with energy storage and efficient cooling in a packaged telecom base station and data center offering.
Several interesting company relationships were also formed during the week. A 5-pack that we’ll highlight here features Noesis Energy at its center. The software startup, founded in 2011, seeks to bring building energy efficiency project developers and financiers together on its online portal, and announced formal partnerships with four financiers – Metrus Energy, Vireo Energy, BluePath Finance, and TIP Capital.
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