Venture capital funding sometimes settles into a lull in the summer months. Not so this year.
July was a healthy month for greentech investment with more than $560 million in more than 40 rounds across the varied set of sectors in greentech. Here's the list:
VC Investment in Solar
SolarCity (San Mateo, California) is targeting a $42 million round and has raised about $14.8 million so far.
CaliSolar (Sunnyvale, California), which develops solar cells using metallurgical-grade silicon, has raised $26 million of a $46 million round.
Birla Surya (Mumbai, India), a manufacturer of multi-crystalline silicon solar PV cells and multi-crystalline silicon wafers, raised $15 million from Asia Pacific Capital.
Plextronics (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), a developer of active layer technology for printed electronic devices with applications in polymer solar cells, lighting, and plastic circuitry, received $15 million from chemical firm Solvay.
Sunlogics (Rochester Hills, Michigan) a solar energy systems provider specializing in solar parking installations, won a $7.5 million investment from General Motors Ventures.
Complete Solar Solution (San Carlos, California), an enabler of residential solar power system installation and financing, raised a round A from Floodgate.
Sol Voltaics (Lund, Sweden) received $2.9 million from Industrifonden for high-efficiency solar cells using guided self-assembly of nanowires in the gas phase.
Oxford Photovoltaics (Oxford, U.K.) won $1M from MTI Partners for dye-sensitized solar cells for BIPV.
Smart Energy Capital (White Plains, New York), a finance and investment firm focused on the North American solar PV market, raised $1.875 million.
VC Investment in Smart Grid
Gridco (Cambridge, MA) raised $12.5 million in funding from North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners for solid-state transformers and power management technology for utilities.
RLtec (London, England) won $6.5 million in funding from the Ombu Group for dynamic balancing of appliance loads.
VC Investment in Batteries and Fuel Cells
Aquion Energy (Pittsburgh, PA) closed on $20 million of a $29.9 million round for sodium-ion batteries in stationary applications from Kleiner Perkins and Foundation Capital.
Xtreme Power (Kyle, Texas) completed a $19 million round for its batteries, electronics and control systems for grid-scale energy storage. Previous investors include SAIL Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, The Dow Chemical Company, Fluor Corp., BP Alternative Energy, Dominion Resources, POSCO ICT, SkyLake & Co. and Spring Ventures.
ClearEdge Power (Hillsboro, Oregon) raised $13.5 million for its PEM fuel cells for stationary applications. Previous investors include Kohlberg Ventures and Applied Ventures.
MyFC (Stockholm, Sweden) received $6.7 million in funding from KTH Chalmers Capital and the Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund to launch a mobile phone charger.
VC Investment in Lighting
Bridgelux (Livermore, California), a maker of GaN on silicon light emitting diodes (LEDs), raised a $60 million round E from Craton Equity Partners with VantagePoint Capital Partners, DCM, El Dorado Ventures, Novus Energy Partners, Invus Group, VTS, Harris & Harris Group, and Passport Capital.
Nuventix (Austin, Texas), a maker of LED cooling technology for more efficient lighting, raised $10 million from GE Energy Financial Services, The Bergquist Company, Braemar Energy Ventures, CenterPoint Ventures, InterWest Partners, and Rho Ventures.
VC Investment in Green Agriculture and Food
PurFresh (Fremont, California) raised $2 million of a $2.5 million round for technology to clean and purify fresh produce. The firm has raised more than $50 miIlion in VC since its 2008 founding from Jafco Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital.
Podponics (Atlanta, Georgia), an urban agriculture startup using recycled shipping containers, raised $725,000 from undisclosed investors.
VC Investment in Biofuels and Green Chemicals
Elevance Renewable Sciences (Bolingbrook, Illinois), a producer of waxes, functional oils, anti-microbials, lubricants, additives and other chemicals using olefin metathesis technology, raised $50 million from Total, TPG, et al.
OPX Biotechnologies (Boulder, Colorado), a developer of bio-based chemicals and fuels, raised $36.5 million in a planned $45 million round C from DBL Investors, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Altira Group and X/Seed Capital.
Enerkem (Montreal, Quebec), a developer of technology to turn waste into ethanol and other chemicals, raised $30 million from The Westly Group, Fondaction CSN, Quince Associates, Valero Energy, Waste Management, Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, and Cycle Capital.
InEnTec (Bend, Oregon) raised $20 million for its “plasma-enhanced melter” technology that takes refuse and coverts it into syngas. Investors were not disclosed.
VC Investment in Power Generation
FlexEnergy (Irvine, California) received a $5 million investment from Sail Venture Partners and RNS Capital for its low-emission natural gas and biogas turbines.
Cool Energy received funding from Idealab for its low-temperature Stirling engine that creates electrical power from low-temperature heat sources for applications in waste heat recovery and combined heat and power (CHP).
Tecogen (Waltham, Mass.) a developer and manufacturer of natural gas-driven combined heat and power sources, raised $500,000 from Southern California Gas.
VC Investment in Recycling
ECullet (Palo Alto, California) a glass recycling firm, won $38 million in funding from DB Masdar Clean Tech Fund and Angeleno Group. The firm produces color-sorted, contaminant-free, furnace-ready cullet for the glass container manufacturing industry.
Gazelle (Boston, Mass.), an online electronics trading and recycling market, raised a $22 million round D from Craton Equity Partners, Physic Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners and Venrock Associates.
VC Investment in Energy Efficiency
SeaMicro (Sunnyvale, California) raised a $20 million round D from Crosslink Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Khosla Ventures, et al. for more efficient servers.
SynapSense (Folsom, California), a provider of energy efficiency-focused data center infrastructure management (DCIM), won a $16 million round C round led by Crosslink Capital with Aeris Capital, Emerald Technology Ventures, GE Energy Financial Services, Nth Power, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Sequoia Capital.
EpiGan (Leuvan, Belgium) raised $5.7 million from Capricorn Cleantech Fund, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, and LRM to start volume production of GaN-on-Si epitaxial material for efficient power electronics.
Flux Drive (Sumner, WA) raised $1.5 million from Northwest Energy Angels and the Alliance of Angels to optimize electric motors. The startup claims it can cut the energy consumption of pump and blower motors by up to 75 percent.
VC Investment in Green Buildings
Clean Urban Energy (Chicago, Illinois) won a $7 million round A co-led by Battery Ventures and Rho Ventures. CUE’s software as a service (SaaS) business is an automated energy optimization system that uses the thermal mass of commercial office buildings to make buildings more energy efficient.
VC Investment in Transportation
Hydro Phi (Doraville, Georgia), developing a hydrogen technology for enhanced combustion in ICE-powered vehicles, raised $2.9 million.
Aptera Motors (Carlsbad, California), a developer of a three-wheel electric vehicle, raised $2.3 million in equity. The firm has raised a total of $44 million from Google, Idealab, et al.
Aperia Technologies (Stanford, California), a developer of an automatic tire inflation device for trucks to improve fleet and fuel efficiency, raised an undisclosed first round of funding from Augment Ventures.
VC Investment in Wind Power
Apex Wind Energy (Virginia), a developer and financier of wind energy projects, raised $6.4 million in a $10 million round.
Burcote Wind (U.K.) raised $3.9 million from Hotbed for U.K.-based onshore wind energy project development.
Miscellaneous VC Investments in Greentech
INRIX (Kirkland, Washington), a developer of a predictive traffic service, raised a $37 million round D round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and August Capital.
Wildcat Discovery Technologies (San Diego, California) a developer of materials for batteries, hydrogen storage, gas separation, carbon capture, and electronic inks, raised $7.5 million from CMEA and 5AM Ventures.
Applied Superconductor (U.K.) a developer of devices for utility networks using high-temperature superconductors, initially for fault current management, raised $5.9 million from Octopus Ventures, OCAS Ventures and IP Group.
Natural Resource Group (Minneapolis, MN), providing environmental permitting services to the renewables industry, raised $660,000 of a planned $1.5 million round.