VantagePoint charges up on $435M for cleantech
The clouds may have rolled in for many other sectors in today’s economy, but the sun still shines on cleantech — and VantagePoint Venture Partners in particular. The San Bruno, Calif.-based firm just landed $435 million for its second fund, reports VentureWire.
The close comes as a solid rebuttal to industry insiders’ concerns that capital might dry up for cleantech in light of plummeting oil prices. VantagePoint’s portfolio includes many names that have remained largely above the economic fray, including solar-thermal developer BrightSource Energy, waste-to-power firm Ze-Gen, electric-vehicle charging station project Better Place, and of course marquee electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors.
As VentureWire observes, several other venture firms are going after healthy green technology dollars, including The Blackstone Group and Olympus Capital Holdings — both of which have cleantech funds of their own in the works.
VantagePoint’s contributors include AlpInvest Partners Clean Technology Investments 2007, GKM Newport/NY Venture Capital Fund, PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund, and the state of Oregon.
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About the Author, Camille Ricketts
Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
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