Clean tech has passed biotech and IT as the top venture capital (VC) investment category in the world. This is after investments in leading clean tech markets increased by 10% in the third quarter of this year.

Cleantech Group released findings on Wednesday showing that the cleantech sector “accumulated $1.59 billion across 134 companies” and this was 10% more than the $1.2 billion it had accumulated in the second quarter.

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While cleantech investment appears to be on the rebound, it’s clear the recession isn’t over yet. Mark Jensen, managing partner for the venture capital services group at Deloitte & Touche, said Wednesday that about half of the largest venture-capital firms expect to reduce their overall investments in the next few years in response to the recession.

But venture-capital firms expect cleantech to fare better than most other categories. According to the Deloitte survey, a whopping 95 percent said they plan to either increase or maintain their level of cleantech investment, with 63 percent anticipating more investment and 32 percent expecting to invest the same amount as they do now.

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Solar venture investments hit a three-year low in the second quarter, the Cleantech Group said Wednesday. According to Brian Fan, senior director of research for the group, solar startups in North America, Europe, China and India raised a total of only $113.8 million for the quarter, which is down 7 percent from $365.7 million in the first quarter and down 86 percent from $834.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

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As stimulus funding leads some industry insiders to think of Washington as “the new Wall Street” for green energy, some investment experts say they’re concerned about the government’s new role. “I worry about the government as a dealmaker in this space,” said Tom Bratkovitch, director of LP Capital Advisors, a consulting firm for private-equity investors, at a Thomson Reuters conference in Palo Alto, Calif., this week. “I just don’t know if the government is the best one to make decisions in this space.”

After all, the federal government has supported some technologies that have not panned out, while missing some that have ultimately been successful. The government also has a reputation for moving slowly – though the Department of Energy certainly is trying hard to get stimulus money out as quickly as possible – and the applications for the grants and loan guarantees can be extremely time-consuming.

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In other words, it’s still down from last year, but deals are still happening and money is still available, he said. “The amount of investment is not continuing to plummet; it’s stable,” Kachan said. “Some might say we’ve reached bottom.”

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A recent post discussed what the entrepreneur seeking funding should bring to an investor meeting. Answer: a deck that will take no more than 20-30 minutes to get through and cover the following points:

The ten slides that you need, in my experience, are:

1. Vision: What are you trying to do, and why are you doing it?

2. Market: What is the market you are addressing and the estimated value of this market over the next 5 to 10 years?

3. Team: Who are the key three to five executives (Vision, Operations, Tech, Sales, Marketing), and what are their specific qualifications in the target market?

4. Offering: What is your exact offering? If possible, present a three to five minute pre-recorded video demonstration.

5. Roadmap: Where are you in your offering release cycle and with respect to gaining traction?

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/10/29/the-perfect-eco-pitch-to-investors/feed/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/10/14/tipd-your-one-stop-destination-for-business-and-finance-news/ http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/10/14/tipd-your-one-stop-destination-for-business-and-finance-news/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:26:03 +0000 Reenita Malhotra http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/10/14/tipd-your-one-stop-destination-for-business-and-finance-news/ If you do not want to waste precious moments searching the internet for the top stories in business and finance, or if you have found an ideal economics news story that you would highly recommend to other readers, then Tip’d might quickly become your business social destination everyday.

Much like Digg, Tip’d is a site that has the advantage of showing up at the right time. The stock market has recently been on a roller coaster ride and the world’s economy has been on the brink of depression for over a month. As you know most speculative behavior is driven by human emotion which tends to spread news like wildfire. In this scenario, Tip’d has found the perfect fit by offering an ideal platform for readers to share their favorite business stories.

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]]> http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/10/14/tipd-your-one-stop-destination-for-business-and-finance-news/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/10/14/tipd-a-social-news-site-for-business-and-financial-news/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/10/14/tipd-a-social-news-site-for-business-and-financial-news/#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:32:40 +0000 Reenita Malhotra http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/10/14/tipd-a-social-news-site-for-business-and-financial-news/ Given the release of updated financial news from around the world every hour, readers are increasingly scouring the web to find the most current stories out there. Tip’d is here to answer your needs by delivering the best business stories recommended by other readers. Tip’d (tipd.com) is a community for financial news, ideas, and tips. Given the important political decisions ahead and the evolving state of the economy, this social news site is perhaps more of a necessity rather than a convenient online news asset.

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