Venture Capital - Articles - Zimbio

Google joins in Brightsource’s $115m VC round

Sun, 19 May 2008 09:10:39 GMT

posted by Greenbang

If Google was keen on finding a source of renewable energy, Greenbang would humbly suggest building a bonfire out of the wads and wads of large denomination notes that doubtless make up the company’s founders’ pocket change. Just throwing the spare wads of twenties that have slipped down the back of the sofa on the fire should be enough to keep the Google campus warm for a day or two.

But that wouldn’t be that environmentally friendly - Greenbang would imagine that burning notes would kick up a bit of an emissions funk - so instead, those nice folk over at Google have put on their VC cap and poured their funding into utility scale solar bunch Brightsource.

Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, was one of the investors in Brightsource’s series C funding round this week, which saw the company rake in $115 million, $10 million of which came from Google.

Brightsource said this about the shenanigans:

VantagePoint Venture Partners, the company’s initial investor, played a major role in forming the syndicate, which includes Google.org, BP Alternative Energy, StatoilHydro Venture and Black River. All of the company’s existing investors, including Morgan Stanley, DBL Investors (formerly a subsidiary of JP Morgan), Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Chevron Technology Ventures participated in the round.

It also said that it would be using the cash to “accelerate its plans”, but that doesn’t really tell us much.

The first of Brightsource’s Mojave Desert solar power plants should be up and running next year and it’s already got supply agreements in place with PG&E for 900MW.

SMART CITY COCHIN INDIA (Construction work will commence in 6 months)

Sat, 13 Apr 2008 15:49:00 GMT

posted by LEGALEAGLEABE

Two consultants short-listed

Staff Reporter

To prepare master plan for Smart City project in Kochi

KOCHI: Giving impetus to the proposed Smart City project, a director board meeting of the company here on Wednesday short-listed two consultants for drawing up a master plan for the project. The names of the consultants would be announced as soon as the formalities in this regard are over.

“The short-listing of master planners for SmartCity Kochi is a defining step towards our commitment to the fulfilment of the project. The master plan will focus on creating complete business and community infrastructure keeping in mind the requirements of high-quality work environment for knowledge-based industries and the experience of a rich community lifestyle for its workers,” Fareed Abdulrahman, Chief Executive Officer of SmartCity, said.

Lease agreement

The company had received proposals from four national and international players for preparing the master plan last year.

Though the lease agreement for the remaining 12 acres, which were excluded from the lease deed signed last November owing to the presence of inhabitants, was to be signed on Wednesday, it did not materialise.

New directors

The meeting inducted into the board as directors Anirudha Damkey, Director of Finance, Tecom Investments, and Ajay Kumar, Secretary, State Information Technology.

The company has taken steps for securing the Special Economic Zone status for the remaining 100 acres. In addition to this, efforts are being made to obtain another 167 acres for future development of the project.

The Board decided to participate in the forthcoming OutsourceWorld Exhibition in London to promote Kochi as a major centre of Information Technology and IT Enabled Services. Kochi will be showcased to the world as a hub for knowledge-based excellence.

The Hindu

Election Implications for VCs

Mon, 4 Nov 2008 16:42:47 GMT

posted by johnniewalker8080

As would be expected, there have been numerous conversations and dialogues on what the implications are for VCs whether McCain or Obama is elected. (My, this post already feels pretty irrelevant)

VIANY hosted a panel event last week with two major figures from DC commenting on probable impacts/opportunities; notably carried interest and capital gains tax. I didn’t draw much in the way of conclusion from the discussion, other than Obama is likely to prevail in the election.

But, interestingly, today PE Week Wire has two posts on Republican vs. Democrat benefits to VCs. I haven’t spent much time up to now analyzing the political statements for relevance to VCs (as I have a life), but in reading these two posts, there is an obvious, stark contrast in approach: Republican commitment to minimizing tax and regulatory impact on business, vs. Democrat commitment to ‘planning’ and ‘guiding’ innovation through a “Blueprint”… I don’t want to get lost here in a syrupy mire of ideological guff (as others are far more adept at that), but I have to place more confidence that the US will perform better under the former than the latter - ‘better’ to the extent that productivity and quality of life will improve at a faster rate; a rather euphemistic and pretentious definition, but it must consequently lead to greater innovation and a more fun, opportunity-laden life for a VC. (NB: I’ve avoided the thorny issue here of the environment, which it cannot be denied requires some form of top-down regulation/management - however, I fear the cleantech boom…).

So… do we wait with baited breath? Or just accept the fact that Obama will send us his Innovation For Dummies guide shortly…

In any case, given that Europe is about to implode shortly, I guess staying here in the US over the mid-term might be relatively preferable anyway…

Conclusion: must dash off and buy a yacht to sail round the world for the next 12 months or so.

VentureLoop Sees Dramatic Increase in Venture-Backed Startup Jobs

Thu, 12 Oct 2007 14:36:00 GMT

posted by CareerHunter
Editor's note: While we have promoted the effectiveness of using venture capital firms and VC funding as a way of finding jobs in startups, the tools to do that have not been as focused or specific as we would have liked. We recently came across the VentureLoop website, which is focused on jobs through and with VC firms.

The distinction is important. If you are a sharp financial wizard, you will appeal to the VC's, who research startup opportunities to fund. If you are a mid-career, fast track technical manager, you will appeal to many VC clients, many of whom are in areas like software, biotech, telecomm and other technical industries.
They also provide a concise and accurate resume guide to use with startups. While this press release has the usual amount of puffery, it does explain the size and importance of VC's for those looking to work for startup firms.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - October 9, 2007) - While some sectors of the job market might be cooling off, VentureLoop, the world's leading career website dedicated exclusively to venture-backed startup jobs, has seen a surge in hiring activity in the venture-backed market for 2007.
"Our business is seeing unprecedented growth," said Jeremy McCarthy, VentureLoop's CEO. "Portfolio companies are telling their venture investors that they can't find the talent needed to grow, and the venture capital firms are turning to us for help. A strong economy and competition for talent from established technology firms have created a very tight market, so venture capital firms enlist VentureLoop to provide the products and services that help their portfolio companies find the employees they desperately need."
According to the National Venture Capital Association, venture capital firms raised $27.9 billion in 2005 and $30.3 billion in 2006. That is almost equal to the combined amount raised from 2002 to 2004 ($32.9 billion). And 2007 looks to be keeping a similar pace to 2006.
Venture capital firms have been actively raising funds from limited partners over the past three years, and that money has to be invested. Add the recent hedge fund phenomenon of startup investment competition, and you can see the makings of a very healthy market for startup funding. When those companies get funding, they must quickly hire talent to meet development, sales and marketing goals. The resurgence in the IPO and acquisition markets is also pressuring companies to grow now and exit while valuations are high.
About VentureLoop

VentureLoop is the leading website dedicated to job postings for venture-backed startup companies. Founded in 1999, VentureLoop creates direct relationships with the world's top venture capital firms to connect their portfolio companies with quality candidates. Candidates can search the VentureLoop website for thousands of jobs at startups backed by top tier venture capital firms. VentureLoop's VentureCareers product is a hosted career page for venture capital firms, allowing portfolio companies to advertise job openings directly onto their venture capital firm's public website. VentureLoop also publishes the weekly VentureLoop Insider newsletter, which communicates valuable information about startup news, funding, and career advice. Find out more at http://www.ventureloop.com/.
CONTACT: Melissa Ta, Senior Public Relations Consultantmailto:Consultantmelissa@ventureloop.com http://www.ventureloop.com/

Fear and Loathing in Silicon Valley – VCs and startups are feeling the economic pain

Thu, 3 Oct 2008 23:34:00 GMT

posted by morrisjd1
Chicken Little cried, “The sky is falling”; but it was just an acorn. Is the sky financial falling or is it only a short term liquidity shock? The current credit derivative swap debacle takes us back to the implosion of LTCM. Only this time the entire financial market is intertwined together in the credit swap insurance scam. The troubles on Wall Street are rippling through all other financial instruments and impacting global markets. The impact to Silicon Valley is…..bad.

Venture Capitalists and startups are feeling the pain. In a recent study by Dow Jones Venture Source, 2008 is shaping up to be the worst year on record since 2003. There hasn’t been a viable IPO market in over a year and it is not predicted to improve any time soon. There were only seven IPOs accounting for only $551 million this year. The worst news is that M&A, the staple of Silicon Valley, is down 65% from 116 to 66 deals during the same period last year. It seems that the proverbial sky is falling.

Weathering the storm is going to be challenging. Based on feedback from VC friends, venture capital funds are keeping their powder dry and only investing in their existing startups in hopes of getting them through this bad spell. As supply/demand shifts to the venture capitalists favor, the competition for follow-on funding is expected to be very high; therefore, VC will get preferred terms. The expectation is that there will be numerous startups that will be forced to close the doors. Generating revenue may not be enough to get new capital, if startups are not near cash flow positive. Entrepreneurs seeking series A funding are going to have a harder battle, as venture capitalists appetite for new high risk investments has evaporated for the time being.© 2008 Morris Strategy Consulting - All Rights Reserved - http://www.morrisstrategyconsulting.com/ Musings over Silicon Valley Startups