May 2011
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fledgling solar power companies looking to grow beyond their venture capital roots are increasingly catching the eye of deep-pocketed corporate investors. For many startups, rounds of venture or private equity funding are thought of as stepping stones on the way to an initial public offering -- the ultimate corporate symbol of having arrived. But a tepid investor appetite for publicly traded clean energy companies has dampened enthusiasm for splashy IPOs, leaving solar companies looking elsewhere for the large sums of money they need to build factories, construct power plants or invest in improvements to their technology. "Clean tech generally is going to require a lot of money to advance," said Ted Roosevelt, chairman of Barclays Capital's Clean Tech Initiative. "You compare that with telecoms or the Internet revolution, and those didn't require very much money."
Solar startups turn to big companies for capital | Reuters
Posted on: April 27, 2012 Trending on peHUB this week: Frank Quattrone, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Chicago Growth Partners, TA Associates,Veronis Suhler Stevenson, Irving Place,VantagePoint Capital Partners and Apollo Global.
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Accel Partners Adds Paul Wahl as CEO-in-Residence
Venture firm Accel Partners has named ex-SAP and Siebel executive Paul Wahl CEO-in-residence, Reuters reported. Wahl will identify, invest in and mentor start-ups working on ways to reduce the complexity of enterprise IT infrastructure, Reuters said. Previously, Wahl was chief operating officer of Siebel, which was later bought by Oracle. Wahl ran the American business of German software company SAP in the 1990s. ( Reuters ) – Technology venture capital firm Accel Partners, whose investments include Facebook and Macromedia, has hired ex-SAP and Siebel executive Paul Wahl to strengthen its enterprise IT business. As CEO-in-residence, Wahl will identify, invest in and mentor start-ups that help organisations to reduce the complexity of their IT infrastructure, Accel said on Monday.
Andreessen Horowitz Creates $200M Co-Investment Fund, Capital Under Management Now $1.2B
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz today announced that it has created a $200 million that will co-invest alongside its second fund. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm now has $1.2 billion under management.
Insight Venture Partners revealed Monday it has set up two funds with about $2 billion to manage, marking the latest in a rapid series of announcements from VCs of billion-dollar fundraising totals as the industry as a whole seemingly faces a dearth of willing investors. Insight Venture Partners Fund VII reeled in $1.5 million in commitments, and $70 million more from affiliates and friend commitments, the firm announced Monday , and Insight Venture Partners Coinvestment Fund II, which tags along on bigger deals, received $450 million in commitments. Staying in line with Insight’s existing strategy, Fund VII will seek out global software and Internet services deals. Venture capitalists have struck some major funding commitments with LPs lately, coinciding with a meteoric rise in secondary markets at which many VCs’ assets are listed.
What Down Fundraising Market? Insight Partners Bags $2B
It’s No Joke. IPOs Are Back, Baby: Tech News and Analysis «
Fourteen venture-backed companies went public in the first quarter of 2011, raising $1.4 billion in the process, according to the National Venture Capital Association. That’s the highest number to go public in a quarter since 2007. While only seven of these companies were in the Internet and technology fields (the rest were in medical and biotechnology), the more interesting data was on mergers and acquisition amounts, which were awesome for Internet-related businesses and pretty grim for hardware and semiconductors (see chart below).
A total of 89 European-focused venture capital funds are raising capital this year, well more than double the number of funds that closed on new money last year, according to a study. The news suggests an uptick of investment interest and perhaps confidence. It also foreshadows an improvement in fund formation. The 89 funds hope to raise $13.8 billion, according to the research firm Preqin. Last year, 34 European-focused venture funds closed on $5.8 billion, Preqin found.
European Venture Fundraising On Track For A Boost In 2011; 89 Funds In Market
While we’ve seen a pickup in initial public offerings of late, most notably in Q4 2010 prior to the holiday slowdown, many people watching the market continue to expect muted IPO market prospects relative to the 1990s. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. The last time there was anything approaching a positive consensus was early 2000, and we know how that ended.
See no IPOs, hear no IPOs, but they’re coming fast | VentureBeat
European venture investor DFJ Esprit said that it sold portfolio company TLC to Serco plc for 55.9 million pounds. The firm said the exit represents a 5x return on its investment. TLC is a supplier of customer relationship management technologies. Leading European venture capital firm DFJ Esprit has announced the sale of TLC, supplier of Customer Relationship Management, call centre and telemarketing solutions, its fourth exit so far in 2011. This success follows the sales of Lovefilm, and The Cloud this year, continuing a series of seven exits over the past twelve months totalling $1.2 billion in enterprise value.
DFJ Esprit Sees 5x Return on TLC Exit