Mark Boslet
Venture investing fell in the fourth quarter to its slowest pace of the year, but capital commitments were enough to lift 2011 well above lethargic 2010. Fourth-quarter deal making was particularly strong in cleantech and among biotechnology startups, but software, Internet, medical devices and IT services investing fell. Early-stage investing hit a high for the […]
South Africa’s Quantum Capital launched a $200 million U.S. venture fund today and opened an office at the heart of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara. I had a chance to trade e-mail with Quantum founder Julian Pencilliah and wasn’t sure what to make of the exchange. I asked him about his perception of Silicon Valley […]
Correlation Ventures said it closed an initial $165 million venture capital fund that will leverage its predictive analytics to offer entrepreneurs and lead investors co-investment decisions within two weeks. The fund was oversubscribed and ended up 10% above its target of $150 million. Limited partners include leading endowments, foundations, pensions, family offices, high-net-worth individuals and […]
The venture debt market appears to be more than holding its own. That was my take away from a conversation with Manuel Henriquez, co-founder and chief executive of Hercules Technology Growth Capital. Hercules is a publicly traded firm that plays in the market (Nasdaq: HTGC). Henriquez (pictured) says demand from startups is strong as the […]
The year just passed was not a standout one for venture-backed IPOs. It could have been worse, though. Fifty-two venture-funded companies made the plunge to public from private. This was down from 75 in 2010. But the dollar value of the offerings rose to $9.88 billion, up 41%, according to data from the National Venture […]
Global cleantech venture investing fell during the fourth quarter, but ended the year 13% higher than 2010. The final three months of the year saw $2.06 billion go into 150 deals, down 6.2% in dollars from the third quarter and 27% in transactions, according to the Cleantech Group. Mergers and acquisition activity was weak, with […]
Some researchers think the hydrogen fuel cell market is going places. Not necessarily in cars, but in consumer electronics, where small portable electricity generating power packs can recharge smart phones, tablets and perhaps someday replace lithium ion laptop batteries. Pike Research calculated last year that the annual sales of portable fuel cells could reach 7 […]
Here is confirmation of what most of you in the venture world already know. The market for venture-backed IPOs rebounded in the fourth quarter, but not enough to match the vigorous final three months of 2010. That helped lead all of 2011 down 31% in volume and 41% in dollar value from a year ago, […]
Stion this week announced one of the year’s largest private company solar investments, a $130 million financing of its thin-film module manufacturing technology. What the deal says is that some investors still believe they can change the game in solar. The currently prevailing perception is that solar, and thin film in particular, are the graveyards […]
We at peHUB have written about emerging biofuels companies on a number of occasions in the past year, chronicling the rush of these still formative companies to the IPO window. Here is a useful “cheat sheet” courtesy of Lux Research on who the ultimate winners and losers could be. The biofuels and biochemical industries are […]