VC sets up shop at Harvard to help promising entrepreneurs stay put
A tough mission for The Experiment Fund: Help the next Facebook or Microsoft put down roots in Boston/Cambridge instead of out West.
Advanced Equities to pay $1M to settle charges, reportedly over Bloom Energy
Investment group Advanced Equities has agreed to pay $1 million to settle charges that it misled investors while raising funds for an alternative energy company in Silicon Valley back in 2009 and 2010. That company in question is reportedly fuel cell maker Bloom Energy.
NEA on energy tech: We’re in it for the long haul
While some venture capitalists are moving away from funding cleantech startups, NEA — one of the oldest and most established VC firms out there — plans to stay in energy tech investing for the long haul and will continue to invest in new energy innovators.
A celebrity Fisker investor: Leonardo DiCaprio
Electric car company Fisker Automotive has a lot of investors — its broker Advanced Equities helped it raise funds from dozens of high-net worth individuals, in addition to its funding from venture capitalists. Turns out one of those investors is actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
eBay to build huge Bloom Energy fuel cell farm at data center
eBay just one-upped Apple’s data center fuel cell farm. On Thursday the commerce giant announced that it is building additional capacity at its data center in Utah and it plans to power that new capacity with 30 fuel cells from Bloom Energy.
Report: CEO of Advanced Equities likely to resign soon
Advanced Equities, an investment and brokerage firm that has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for cleantech firms in recent years, could see its CEO and co-founder resign as early as this week, according to a report in DowJones VentureWire.
Bloom Energy is raising another $150M
Fuel cell maker Bloom Energy is raising another $150 million at a pre-money valuation of $2.7 billion, according to DowJones VentureWire. If closed, Bloom Energy will have raised $800 million over its 11-year lifetime.
Report: Konarka’s failure wasn’t a solar market problem
Solar startup Konarka’s bankruptcy, announced last week, wasn’t just the latest case of the solar industry being hit by the dropping cost of silicon, and cheap modules and panels from China. The company’s technology just “could not compete on cost, efficiency, or lifetime,” says Lux Research.
NEA’s Sonsini: Cloud infrastructure still king for VC cash
Apple’s iCloud and other consumer-focused cloud efforts represent a golden opportunity for startups to raise venture capital, but it might not be from jumping on the bandwagon. According to NEA’s Peter Sonsini, the key to getting VC investment is selling the infrastructure that underlies popular clouds.
Can social media IPOs make up for greentech struggles?
Will huge returns on social media investments — like Groupon, LinkedIn or Pandora — help make up for underperforming greentech investments in a venture firm’s portfolio? If so, perhaps this gives firms time — and wiggle room — to keep up their cleantech investing.