Ecosummit connects startups and investors to foster the transformation to the Smart Green Economy. Since going green in 2010, we have met many Cleantech VCs and would like to present our favourites. Many of these smart green investors prefer backing late stage startups that have substantial revenues (€2M plus), great management teams, proven execution of their business plan and successfully reduced the technology risk. At the same time, there are Cleantech VCs who love early stage entrepreneurs that are just about to take their technology innovation from lab to fab. The result are different investment strategies and USPs that startups should know before pitching. This selection of 24 Cleantech VCs includes many investors and startups you can meet at our Ecosummit events.

High-Tech Gründerfonds

High-Tech Gründerfonds (Germany – Early Stage) is Germany’s leeding seed investor which made 262 deals and recently closed its second fund of €288.5M. Roughly 10% of its portfolio is Cleantech which makes it arguably the biggest German Cleantech VC in terms of number of deals. 90% of its fund comes from the German government (BMWi and KfW), 10% is invested by 12 German corporates. Many experts claim that successful early stage investing in Cleantech can only be done with public funding. I think this is wrong as venture capital has got many success factors, above all the know-how and execution of the startups’ management team, the investors’ investment team and the support of the limited partners of the funds as they should help to grow revenues. The Cleantech portfolio of HTGF includes the ECO12 Award nominees Entelios, Smart Hydro Power and WeSustain. HTGF’s Co-CEO Alexander von Frankenberg is ECO12 Speaker.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (USA – Early and Late Stage) is without doubt one of the top 3 VCs in the world. They have a huge Cleantech portfolio but also love Internet, Mobile, Social Media, Life Science and Biotech. KPCB’s key partners are John Doerr, Al Gore and Ray Lane. KPCB’s Cleantech portfolio includes Opower, Recycle Bank, Proterra, Fisker Automotive, Silver Spring Networks, GreatPoint Energy and the German wood gasification startup Agnion. KPCB’s Partner Michael Linse (Photo) and Agnion’s CEO Stephan Mey are ECO12 Speakers. Michael’s ECO11 talk about Cleantech Cost Curves is still one of our favourites.

Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures (USA – Early and Late Stage) is definitely smart and green. Originally from India, Co-Founder of Sun Microsystems, Partner at KPCB and, since 2004, Managing Partner of Khosla Ventures, Vinod Khosla was probably the most successful Cleantech VC in 2011 with 3 successful IPOs. Vinod is a big role model for the Smart Green Economy as he is not afraid of taking big risks, ready to fail in order to succeed, focused on the relevance of the Chindia price (unsubsidised price competitiveness in China and India) and defines himself as a venture assistant helping entrepreneurs build relevant companies. Vinod’s amazing big bets include Calera, KiOR (IPO) and TerraPower.

VantagePoint Capital Partners

VantagePoint Capital Partners (USA and UK – Late Stage) has got a massive Cleantech portfolio with some of the hottest startups on the planet. Check out Better Place, BrightSource Energy, Solazyme, AlertMe, Genomatica and Tesla (IPO). Kal Patel is VantagePoint’s first UK-based partner and a good point of contact for European startups.

Nth Power

Nth Power (USA – Early and Late Stage) is a pioneering Cleantech VC based in San Francisco and headed by Nancy Floyd, one of the top women in green. Nth Power’s portfolio includes Comverge (IPO), Hara, Accelergy, Terrapass and BPL GLobal.

Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital

Chrysalix (Canada – Early and Late Stage) is a famous Cleantech VC in Canada that works closely with the Dutch VC SET Venture Partners. The portfolio features Agilyx, Brammo and Nanosteel. The CEO Wal von Lierop is exactly the visionary smart green investor that many startups would love to have in their board.

Emerald Technology Ventures

Gina Domanig (Photo), Managing Partner of Emerald Technology Ventures (Switzerland and Canada – Early and Late Stage), gave a great speech at ECO11. She looks back at 10 years of VC investing in Cleantech startups in Europe and her fund is 100% Cleantech. Emerald’s portfolio includes Takadu, Pelamis Wave Power and Enocean whose CEO Laurent Giai-Minet is ECO12 Speaker.

zouk Capital

zouk Capital (UK – Late Stage) made big news in 2011 when they closed their new €230M fund. German startup FFK Environment was founded in 1992, is active in waste management and recycling and is one of the 3 deals zouk Capital announced in November 2011. FFK is a typical deal for late stage Cleantech VCs such as zouk who make big efforts to discover unknown deal jewels first, e.g. the ones hidden deeply in the German Mittelstand. zouk’s portfolio includes OZZ Electric, va-Q-tec and Soltecture.

Environmental Technologies Fund

Environmental Technologies Fund (UK – Late Stage) is a London-based Cleantech VC with a promising portfolio that includes Compact Power Motors, 4energy and Kebony. When I visited ETF’s partners in London they pointed out that they usually spend several years getting to know the startup and the performance of the management team before making an investment.

WHEB Partners

WHEB Partners (UK – Late Stage) is another late stage VC based in the UK with a focus on Cleantech. WHEB’s portfolio includes the ECO12 award nominee PassivSystems that provides Smart Home energy management solutions as well as ECO12 Award nominee Watson Brown HSM that provides complete rubber recycling plants.

Wellington Partners

Wellington Partners (Germany and UK – Early and late Stage) invests in Internet, Life Sciences and Cleantech and their Cleantech partner Bart Markus is ECO12 Speaker. In fact, Bart told me that they have only done pre-revenue Cleantech deals so far, proof that they really like taking risks. Wellington’s portfolio features Agnion, Enocean and Heliatek whose CEO Thibaud Le Séguillon is ECO12 Speaker. Pretty much in stealth but highly promising is the Swedish startup Glo that produces next generation nanowire LED.

ABB Technology Ventures

ABB Technology Ventures (Switzerland – Late Stage) is a corporate VC which brings the global technology and distribution of ABB to the table. ATV’s rather small portfolio includes the EV charging startup Ecotality. The EV fast charging startup Epyon was fully acquired in July 2011. ATV’s CTO Kurt Kaltenegger and ABB’s SVP Hans Streng, former CEO of Epyon, are ECO12 Speakers.

Yellow & Blue

Yellow & Blue (Netherlands – Early and Late Stage) is a Corporate Cleantech VC backed by the utility Nuon which belongs to the Vattenfall Group. Its investment strategy and portfolio is focused on smart grid solutions. As a result, Yellow & Blue backs Entelios, Cuculus and Locamation.

Innogy Venture Capital

Innogy Venture Capital (Germany – Early and Late Stage) is RWE’s Corporate Cleantech VC managed by Crispin Leick and his team. Although the fund and portfolio are rather small given the size and market power of RWE, they have made some fine investments including Heliatek, Quietrevolution, Stirling DK and Topell Energy. We believe that all utilities should have professional Corporate VCs and expect many players following RWE’s role model.

Capricorn Venture Partners

Capricon (Belgium – Early and Late Stage) has quite a strong Cleantech portfolio that features promising startups such as Avantium, Green Biologics and Concentrator Optics that pitched at our Green Venture Summit 2010.

Sofinnova Partners

Denis Lucquin (Photo), Managing Partner of Sofinnova Partners (France – Early Stage), gave a great ECO11 presentation about his investment strategy for Green Chemistry. Sofinnova’s Cleantech portfolio includes ReVolt Technology, Avantium, Bioamber and McPhy Energy.

eCapital

eCapital (Germany – Early and Late Stage) has 8 promising Cleantech portfolio companies. Our favourites in their portfolio are Novaled, the OLED leader that would love to IPO in 2012 provided that market conditions are favorable, Heliatek, the Organic PV leader, and Saperatec, recycling old PV systems, an important niche market with huge potential. Recently, eCapital also invested in Geo-en and Smart Hydro Power.

Chrysalix SET

Chrysalix SET (Netherlands – Early and Late Stage) has got a portfolio focused on Cleantech which includes Alertme, EnOcean, O-Flexx and Sefaira. Chrysalix SET cooperates with Chrysalix and recently sold its stake in Epyon to ABB.

Munich Venture Partners

Munich Venture Partners (Germany – Early and Late Stage) is a super hot German Cleantech VC with an exciting portfolio and co-investment ties to KPCB. MVP’s portfolio includes Compact Power Motors, Agnion, Bekon and the massive Harvest Power. MVP’s new Cleantech partner is Martin Kroener who co-founded Agnion.

Demeter Partners

Demeter Partners (France – Late Stage) is a French Cleantech VC with an office in Berlin. Demeter has a large Cleantech portfolio which includes Soltecture, Schnell Motoren and Methaneo.

Emertec

Emertec (France – Early and Late Stage) is a French Cleantech VC whose portfolio includes McPhy Energy, Eneftech and Fermentalg.

Energy Technology Ventures

Energy Technology Ventures (USA, Europe, Israel – Early and Late Stage) is a joint venture of GE, NRG and ConocoPhillips. Its Cleantech portfolio features 1366 Technologies, CoolPlanet Energy Systems, Hara and Emefcy.

VNT Management

VNT Management (Finland and Germany – Early and Late Stage) is a Cleantech VC focused 100% on the Smart Green Economy. VNT has an office in Munich and they consider Germany to be the key market for dealflow as well as sales opportunities. Their portfolio includes Epicrystals, a startup developing energy efficient RGB lasers for miniprojectors, and There, a Nokia spin-off that is a smart energy management solution provider with a strong position in Scandinavia. If you can do a Sauna pitch, they will definitely be interested in hearing from you.

Icos Capital

Icos Capital (Netherlands – Early and Late Stage) is a Cleantech VC focused 100% on the Smart Green Economy. Their portfolio includes 8 startups of which I find Dutch Rainmaker especially interesting. They convert air to water combining wind, water and cooling technology. That’s what people in the deserts really need.

We will continue this list during the next weeks and welcome your input.

Tags: 1366 Technologies, ABB Technology Ventures, Accelergy, Agilyx, Agnion, AlertMe, Avantium, Bekon, Better Place, Bioamber, BPL Global, Brammo, BrightSource, Calera, Capricorn Venture Partners, Chrysalix, Chrysalix SET, Cleantech Startup, Cleantech VC, Cleantech Venture Capital, Compact Power Motors, Comverge, Concentrator Optics, ConocoPhillips, CoolPlanet, Cuculus, Demeter Partners, eCapital, Emefcy, Emertec, Eneftech, Energy Technology Ventures, EnOcean, Entelios, Epicrystals, Fermentalg, FFK Environment, Fisker Automotive, GE, Geo-En, Germany, GreatPoint Energy, Green Biologics, Hara, Harvest Power, Heliatek, High-Tech Gründerfonds, HTGF, Icos Capital, Innogy Venture Capital, Khosla Ventures, KiOR, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, KPCB, Locamation, McPhy Energy, Methaneo, Munich Venture Partners, Nanosteel, Novaled, NRG, Nth Power, O-Flexx, Opower, Proterra, Quietrevolution, Recyclebank, Revolt Technology, RWE, Saperatec, Schnell Motoren, Sefaira, Silver Spring Networks, Smart Green Investor, Smart Hydro Power, Sofinnova Partners, Soltecture, Stirling DK, Terrapass, TerraPower, Tesla, There, Topell Energy, VantagePoint Capital Partners, VNT Management, Wesustain, WHEB Partners, Yellow & Blue, Zouk Capital