Google, No. 2 Cleantech Venture Investor in Q3
Google has taken such an enthusiastic role in investing and promoting clean energy that the search engine giant was the second most active cleantech venture investor during the third quarter, according to a report from the Cleantech Group. That’s in terms of number of deals; Google invested in five startups for the period: lithium-ion battery startup Actacell, geothermal company AltaRock Energy, electric vehicle makers Aptera Motors, high-altitude wind developer Makani Power, and geothermal company Potter Drilling. Google had more deals than well-known cleantech investors Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures for the quarter (for the rest of the third-quarter numbers, look here.)
Still, we’re pretty sure Google is nowhere near the top when it comes to the actual dollar amounts spent on cleantech investing. Google only invested $2.75 million into its green vehicle startups, $10.25 million into its two geothermal technologies, and $5 million for the latest round into Makani (plus a previous $10 million in 2006). That’s not much compared to some of the rounds raised last quarter, like the $200 million raised by solar startup SoloPower.
Google is being very aggressive in terms of investing in clean power generation and electric vehicles, and has also previously made several bets on solar, including eSolar, and BrightSource.
Even though we applaud Google’s efforts, these investments are generally outside of the company’s expertise. We’re still waiting for it to make a bigger push into managing energy data. Given Google has built its business on organizing the world’s information, we’re thinking it would have a lot to offer in terms of networking and communication technology to make energy data more useful. We know Google and GE have that smart grid partnership, but we haven’t seen much yet.
More on Google’s green plans:
Google’s “Clean Power by 2030″ Plan Could Save U.S. $1 Trillion
[...] search engine giant became the second most active cleantech venture investor for the third quarter.read more | digg [...]
[...] think of Google mainly as a search engine and provider of online services. Google is also a major investor in renewable energy, energy conservation and smart grids. As Earth2Tech tells us, in the 3rd quarter of this [...]
[...] By looking at Google’s expanding data center operations and its growing power needs, it’s easy to see why the company has taken a leadership role in clean technology. Katie, Craig and Celeste follow its activities on our cleantech blog, Earth2Tech. As Katie points out today, Google was the second most-active VC investor in cleantech in the third quar…. [...]
[...] wonder Google was recently declared the second most active cleantech investor for the third quarter. The plan is similar to Al Gore’s in calling for almost 100 percent of U.S. electricity to [...]
[...] господство. В третьем квартале 2008 года Google стал вторым по активности в венчурном финансировании зеленых [...]
Google is #2 Cleantech Investor in Third Quarter | Deliggit.com…
rnGoogle has taken such an enthusiastic role in investing and promoting clean energy…
[...] read more | digg story [...]
Must be nice to have a few million laying around.
Jiff
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[...] read more | digg story Filed in Uncategorized « Google Blogsearch Relaunches [...]
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Thanks for the interesting post
Cleantech is a disgusting organization pretending to have something to do with sustainable power. What they’re really about is making money on lies like clean coal and “carbon free nuclear”–MY ASSl; nuclear causes global warming, if you consider the cycle from beginning to end, starting with all the coal burned to mine uranium.
Once in awhile they’ll talk solar or wind, but if so, it’s only big, concentrated solar and wind—not distributed power, energetic or political. No surprise that Google is so heavily invested in them. I’m sure Big Al Giore is too.,
[...] Google, No. 2 Cleantech Venture Investor in Q3: Google has taken such an enthusiastic role in investing and promoting clean energy that the search engine giant was the second most active cleantech venture investor during the third quarter, according to a report from the Cleantech Group. [...]
[...] Google, No. 2 Cleantech Venture Investor in Q3: Google has taken such an enthusiastic role in investing and promoting clean energy that the search engine giant was the second most active cleantech venture investor during the third quarter, according to a report from the Cleantech Group. [...]
[...] Google, No. 2 Cleantech Venture Investor in Q3: Google has taken such an enthusiastic role in investing and promoting clean energy that the search engine giant was the second most active cleantech venture investor during the third quarter, according to a report from the Cleantech Group. [...]
[...] fact, out of all of Google’s grand energy schemes, among them its $4.4 trillion energy proposal, its $45 million investment into energy-related startups and its plug-in vehicle project, energy [...]
[...] out of all of Google’s grand energy schemes, among them its $4.4 trillion energy proposal, its $45 million investment into energy-related startups and its plug-in vehicle project, energy data management could be one of the only places where [...]
[...] fact, out of all of Google’s grand energy schemes, among them its $4.4 trillion energy proposal, its $45 million investment into energy-related startups and its plug-in vehicle project, energy [...]
Google really needs to set the example here.
[...] two largest energy markets to collaborate on renewable energy makes a lot of business sense for the fast-growing cleantech investor. Google.org is a for-profit charity organization which has more than $100 million invested with its [...]
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[...] philanthropy with Google.org, as well as investing in clean energy projects — in one quarter Google was the second most active investor in cleantech after funding 5 [...]
Good to see they are opening their wallets for the sake of the world. Now if they only could open up their checkbooks too…
[...] the expertise to make smart investments. (Google already has investments in satellite companies, clean technologies, smart grid and WiMAX.) There’s also a fine line between thinking like a technologist, and [...]
Clean technology is one of the great investments of the future, and I’m glad to see that Google is getting involved. There are lots of plays in the investment world regarding clean tech, and you can discuss them at the MarketFriends website
I get my trade ideas from there all the time, as there are numerous informational resources that use the site.
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[...] in the process). None of this is new; it’s a matter of applying internet design principles, business community buy-in, public support, and exercise of a new national highway act focused on energy. The key to this is [...]