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Ernst & Young: Companies in 23 percent of third quarter cleantech funding deals

Ernst & Young said venture funding in cleantech companies fell 55 percent in the third quarter compared to a year ago, but big corporations continue to invest.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Ernst & Young said Monday that venture funding in cleantech companies fell 55 percent in the third quarter compared to a year ago. However, corporate investments remained strong.

The findings
echo what was reported in the MoneyTree Report last month.

According to Ernst & Young, third quarter VC funding in cleantech fell 55 percent from a year ago to $576 million. There were 53 financing rounds.

Among the key themes:

  • Late stage venture financing dominated in the third quarter.
  • Energy efficiency attracted capital as 17 deals raised $161.7 million. Smooth-Stone, which develops low-power data center chips, raised $48 million.
  • Smaller, early-stage deals were popular in energy and electricity generation.

On the corporate front, the interest in cleantech remained strong. GE plans to invest $432 million over four years to design and make energy efficient refrigerators. Meanwhile, 23 percent of the cleantech deals included corporations such as BASF Venture Capital, Intel and General Motors.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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