Greener Capital raises $16M for unusual cleantech investments
Greener Capital Partners, a new venture firm founded by Charles Finnie, formerly of Crosslink Capital, has brought in $16 million for an inaugural fund dedicated to backing unusual cleantech investments, reports Dow Jones Venture Wire. The fund hopes to raise more before closing the fund.
The Berkeley, Calif. fund has already made one investment in Sungevity, a company that uses satellite imagery to make it easier for homeowners and small business owners to have rooftop solar panels installed on their buildings. Any of these prospective customers can enter their address on the Sungevity site, which then uses satellite data to measure and analyze the rooftop in question to automatically determine size and placement. This is a new twist on the rooftop solar panel installation game, dominated by companies like SolarCity and SunRun.
It will be interesting to see what Greener Capital decides to finance. With such a small amount of money, it will be difficult for it to seriously invest in capital intensive projects that define most promising cleantech companies, as Dow Jones points out. Perhaps, it will be taking a closer look at software and networking opportunities in the space.
Next Story: If I forgot your name, blame the Gmail outage
Previous Story: Report: Twitter may close $100 million round today
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.