Mark Boslet

Solar titan First Solar sent dark clouds over the cleantech markets last week when quarterly earnings fell by almost a third. Yesterday, skies cleared when JA Solar’s latest financial report beat Wall Street’s estimates with a nearly 90% rise in quarterly net income, even though Energy Conversion Devices conceded its third quarter sales tumbled 70%. […]

Cleantech pundits like to point out that the rest of the world is cleaning America’s clock in green technology. But this isn’t entirely true if you look at venture investing. Especially if you look at the recently completed first quarter, when U.S. venture capitalists accounted for 79% of the global capital dispersed to cleantech startups. It was the highest percentage since 2002, according to the Cleantech Group. In our previous cleantech slideshows, we’ve covered the quarter’s solid rebound. First-quarter cleantech investment dollars were up 13% from a year ago and 52% from the fourth quarter to $2.57 billion, according to the Cleantech Group. While deal volume lagged, it was still up 18% from a year ago. The quarter’s 159 deals proved to be the lowest total since mid-2009 and fell 19% from the fourth quarter’s 189.

Solar continued to be the driving force behind cleantech investing in the first quarter as venture capitalists shifted dollars to more mature, later stage companies. The quarter saw investors worldwide pour $2.57 billion into 159 companies, a 13% increase in dollars from last year, according to the Cleantech Group. The majority of the money – 93% - went to follow-on rounds. Surprisingly, this more cautious environment was fertile ground for solar deals. Solar startups attracted $641 million, or 24% of total dollars, as several big deals led the way. The next closest industry sector was transportation, with less than half the committed dollars.

LinkedIn offered more details of its pending IPO on Monday, along with the news it plans to float its shares to the public on May 19. Undoubtedly, the offering will be a great success. LinkedIn is the first major social networking company to enter the public realm, and pent up enthusiasm for social media companies […]

Venture investors are stoked to the max on social networking and consumer Internet companies peddling daily deals or moneymaking online services. But as hot as frothy Web deals have become, life sciences transactions remain cold. GPs know it is hard to make money on complicated early-stage drug discovery, and public market IPO investors are less […]

Super angel Ron Conway is back in the market seeking a new fund, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Conway’s SV Angel, with a Palo Alto address and a Delaware incorporation, is seeking $40 million of new capital. So far, he has raised $11, 675,000 and has $28,325,000 to reel in […]

The global downturn eventually put the skids on the ability of cleantech firms to raise cash. General partners found it hard to pitch LPs for new money when they could show little in the way of returns from past funds. Or so goes the prevailing wisdom. Stop here! Maybe this storyline isn’t as accurate as […]

Is the venture model broken? You’ve heard the question posed repeatedly in the past few years. So, what is the answer? Maybe it is. Probably it isn’t. We often forget during the strains and distractions of a deep down cycle that economies go up and down. Eventually things turn higher again. But that is not […]