Alexander Haislip

Last fall, Mark Donohue sold his controlling interest in Expansion Capital Partners and resigned as managing partner and chairman to teach at his alma mater, Babson College. He now teaches cleantech entrepreneurship, and is developing a cleantech curriculum that includes every facet of the business, including public policy. I recently talked with Donohue about what the federal government might do to stimulate the green economy. 1: Will President Obama’s proposed stimulus package help cleantech VCs and their portfolio companies? The nature of the stimulus that’s being proposed will support the established players best because they’re able to add jobs. The best risk-reward profile

2X Consumer Products Growth Partners has raised $20 million for a growth capital fund focused on consumer products, peHUB has learned. “We’re thrilled, and in this market, doubly thrilled,” says firm founder and managing partner Andrew Whitman. The firm’s first fund will write checks for $1 million to $5 million in first commitments in branded consumer product companies that may later take an additional $5 million follow-on investment. “We expect that we’re going to be investing significantly more via co-invest from LPs,” Whitman says.

“You’re going to see a lot of companies going down,” says author Peter Schwartz. Check out his presentation at a recent panel at the Cleantech Forum. He says most energy VCs don’t know what they’re doing since they don’t have any experience in the energy industry. It’s a concern that limited partners have expressed to […]

Solar Power Partners, a company that manages solar energy facilities, has raised $32 million in new funding, peHUB has learned. A company spokesperson confirmed the round, and said the investment was split between working capital and project financing. Last September, the company announced it had raised $100 million in private equity and debt financing. It also expected to close another $60 million in project financing before the end of the year. Investors include United Commercial Bank, Globespan Capital Partners, Energy Investors Funds, The Enlightened World Foundation, Carrelton Asset Management, Dry Creek Ventures and Silicon Valley Technology Group.

Fisher Coachworks has raised $3.2 million from 10 undisclosed investors of a $4.25 million Series A to develop its hybrid-electric buses, according to a regulatory filing. The Troy, Mich.-based company will put $200,000 of its new-found cash toward salaries and fees and another $500,000 toward the purchase of machinery, according to the filing.Fisher’s first product […]

Whenever a big corporation misses earnings or is faced by slackening demand for its products, its in-house venture capitalists shudder. So when Intel Corp. said it planned to cut between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs earlier this week, we called over to Intel Capital to see how it would be affected. "Intel Capital has no plans to do any downsizing of its own or to alter their investment strategy," says spokesperson Heather Clisby. In fact, she says that the chipmaker's investment arm recently expanded its operations into South Africa, appointing six-year Intel Capital investor Sam Mensah to run the office.

Venture capitalists have cooled on virtual worlds, according to new data out today from conference company Virtual Worlds Management. The report says that VCs invested $594 million into 63 virtual worlds companies during 2008 (for a list, go here), down from the $1.4 billion invested during 2007. The data is a little slippery though, as exactly what constitutes a virtual world is subject to some debate. During 2007, for example, Providence Equity Partners put $300 million behind ZeniMax, which counts virtual worlds as just one of its business lines.

Solar company Solyndra has raised $219.2 million in a Series E financing from 23 investors, according to a regulatory filing, making it the second largest U.S. cleantech financing in 2008. The Fremont, Calif.-based company makes copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar power installations. Its latest financing round is smaller than the $300 million raised by […]

Veteran venture capitalists Larry Mohr and Sal Gutierrez have held a second close for the debut fund of Retro Venture Partners and have now raised a total of $27.8 million, according to a regulatory filing. Retro was originally named Retiro Venture Partners and held a first close on $18.2 million last May. It is unclear how much money Mohr and Gutierrez are trying to raise. Gutierrez was not available for comment, and

Project financier Rohan Singh, a Senior Vice President of HSH Nordbank’s Energy Group, has agreed to speak on the VCJ breakfast series panel in January. HSH Nordbank may not be a known entity to many VCs, since it keeps a low profile, but the firm put $3 billion into cleantech project finance in 2007. Singh has over 10 years of energy banking experience, during which he has been involved in originating, structuring and syndicating several transactions in the power industry, especially clean energy.