Greenhouse Capital sets sights on $100m clean tech fund

The rude health currently being enjoyed by the global green investment sector was underlined again yesterday with the news Greenhouse Capital Partners is planning to raise between $75m and $100m for its latest clean tech fund.

According to reports from the Cleantech Group analyst firm, the venture capital outfit is in talks to raise its second clean tech fund early next year and it will be around eight or nine times larger than its initial $11m fund, raised late last year.

"It's less about building a bigger venture capital firm and more about trying to establish early stage and seed-stage investment funds for the clean tech field," managing partner Pete Henig told the Cleantech Group. "We're also looking at the possible opportunity of creating a clean tech incubator to do true seed-stage deals where we find interesting technologies and work with the companies."

The company also confirmed it has invested around half of the $11m it raised for its first fund through eight deals ranging from $250,000 to $2m, including investments in PV solar cell manufacturer Solaicx and wind specialist Mariah Power.

The move provides further evidence that the clean tech sector is bucking the generally downbeat trend that has afflicted the venture capital sector over the past 12 months. According to recent figures from the Cleantech Group, investment in the sector defied the economic slowdown affecting the US and Europe, climbing 42 per cent year on year during the first quarter of 2008 to $1.25bn.