In its ‘Solar funding and M&A, Q1 2012 report', Mercom Capital Group, llc states that VC funding in the first three months of the year amounted to US$329 million, down from $511 million in Q4 2011, and $658 million in Q1 2011. Despite the falling financial figure, the actual number of deals has increased, however, from 29 and 25 in Q4 and Q1 2011, respectively, to 34.
As Raj Prabhu, managing partner at Mercom Capital Group noted, "While VCs interest in the solar sector remains strong, their appetite for risk appears to be lower as the average VC funding round amount in Q1 was $10 million, compared to $18 million in 2011."
The U.S., meanwhile, was identified as the leading country for VC investments (22 deals, worth $268 million), followed by the U.K. (two deals worth $12 million), France (two deals worth $2 million), and Belgium (one deal worth $7 million), Canada (one deal worth $7.5 million), China (one deal worth $8 million), Germany (one deal worth $13 million), India (one deal worth $10 million), Ireland (one deal worth $1 million), Israel (one deal worth $0.8 million) and Spain (one deal, amount undisclosed).
Prabhu believes solar investors will remain cautious throughout the year, due to the well-publicized problems of overcapacity, policy changes and lower feed-in tariffs.
VC deals
A total of 11 new cleantech and solar-focused investment funds were announced in Q1 2012, which amounted to an impressive $5.7 billion. "A significant positive event for the solar sector in Q1 was the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the microinverter company Enphase Energy, which raised $62 million as part of its offering," commented Mercom.
Overall, it found that five funding deals accounted for around 60 percent of the funding announced. The table below details the transactions.
Company | Country | Funding type | Amount (US$M) | Investors |
SolarCity | U.S. | Undisclosed | 81 | Silver Lake Kraftwerk, Valor Equity Partners, DBL Investors, Shea Ventures, Nicholas J. Pritzker, partner at Tao Ventures, Elon Musk SolarCity chairman |
MiaSolé | U.S. | Undisclosed | 55 | VantagePoint Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bessemer Venture Partners, Firelake Capital Management, Passport Capital |
Nanosolar | U.S. | Undisclosed | 20 | Mohr Davidow Ventures, OnPoint Technologies, aeris CAPITAL |
Solar Junction Popular content | U.S. | Series D | 19.2 | New Enterprise Associates, Advanced Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, IQE |
AQT Solar | U.S. | Series B | 18.7 | Undisclosed |
(Source: Mercom Capital Group)
CIGS on top
Looking at VC funding by technology, both thin film and downstream companies attracted the lions share, having each reaped $118 million. "Maintaining last years trend, with half a billion dollars raised in 2011, CIGS companies continued to receive the most amount of VC funding as a technology group," continued Mercom.
The company believes that CIGS is seen as "one of the last few areas in solar with the ‘promise' to compete for market share. With large amounts already invested and no near-term exit strategies, investors dont seem to want to walk away as these companies enter commercialization phase and start shipping products. It will be a telling year for CIGS companies."
Meanwhile, photovoltaics companies attracted $39 million worth of VC funding in Q1 2012, while concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) received $33 million and solar thermal, $21 million. "Surprisingly", balance of system companies attracted no funding (see graphic above), despite the fact that cost reduction is now focused on this area, following the price reductions of photovoltaic modules.
Large-scale financing
Compared to the $1.8 billion in Q1 and $1.9 billion in Q4 2011, Q1 2012 saw just $1.5 billion invested into large-scale project funding. Again, while the amount decreased, the actual number of deals rose to 22, up from 11 in Q1 2011, and 19 in Q4 2011.
Of the 22 projects announced in the first three months of this year, 17 worth $539 million were for photovoltaic endeavors. CPV accounted for $720 million and thin film for $258 million.
Company | Country | Funding type | Amount ($M) | Investors |
SolMex Energy (Four 50MW CPV Projects) | Mexico | Debt (200 MW) | 720 | FINEXIM |
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com. Share     Becky Beetz [javascript protected email address] Related contentElsewhere on pv magazine...This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy. The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. |
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.