StartupCentral

Venture capital and corporate investments in cleantech globally grew 13 per cent to $8.99 billion in 2011, reports Cleantech Group, a San Francisco-based research firm focused on cleantech innovation. The number of deals declined seven per cent to 713, compared to volumes in 2010. Asian companies raised $879 million across 71 disclosed deals and Chinese companies alone raised $534 million over 43 deals.

While investments in the sector are up globally, 2011 has been a less favourable year for IPO-led exits. The sector reported 51 IPOs worth $9.59 billion, down over 41 per cent from 2010. There are, however, signs of consolidation in the sector with mergers and acquisitions worth $41.2 billion, a growth of 153 per cent (disclosed value of 119 deals out a total of 391).

China has had a particularly good year. At $534 million in funds raised, it ranks second after North America, which raised $6.81 billion over 470 deals. In terms of number of deals, China with 43 deals ranks third after the United Kingdom which closed 59 deals. The largest IPO in the sector came from China – state owned hydro power company Sinohydro raised $2.12 billion on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The top three investors in terms of rounds of funding were Kleiner Perkins Caulfied & Byers, DFJ Global Network and New Enterprise Associates. Solar was the highest funded sector, netting $1.81 billion across 111 deals.

Clean technology that uses water and sunlight (Source: TechCrunch)

How to survive investors in your company (Source: SGEntrepreneurs)

 Groupon’s gross billings up six per cent in November (Source: PEHub)

Vivo Ventures launches new fund, to increase investments in China (PEHub)

Some venture funds hit ‘pause’ on big deals (Source: Wall Street Journal)

Baidu adds travel features before Chinese New Year (Source: Penn Olson)

Qunar Baidu deal closes. How this could ripple through Chinese startups (Techcrunch)

Catamaran leads $9 million Series B round in Bigshoebazaar (Startupcentral)

ZTE sets up $15.5 million VC fund to drive innovation (Telecomasia.net)

VC funding for web reaches 10 year high (Gigaom)

2Q global cleantech investment down 33 per cent (Cleantech Group)

Chinaaccelertor – incubating startups in the sun and sea of Dalian (Technode)

How to get into the Nusantara Incubation Fund (e27)

Reggie Aggarwal’s Cvent gets $136 million VC funds (Economic Times)

Ecommerce startups command top valuations (Mint/WSJ)

D.Light Design founding CEO Sam Goldman stepped down today to transition his role to board chairman Donn Tice. The company’s other founder Ned Tozun continues in his current role as president, retaining responsibility for developing new markets while Goldman will take on the role of chief customer officer said a press release. In a letter to employees, Goldman and Tozun write, “Since the beginning we have been clear with our board and investors that at some point we would ask for a seasoned CEO to ensure that we meet D.Light’s ambitious goals. That time has come and the board has supported our request.”

Founded in 2007 by Stanford Business School graduates Goldman, Tozun, Xianyi Wu, Erica Estrada and Gabriel Risk, D.Light is best described as a micro-multinational. It makes solar-powered lighting solutions for bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers. The company is headquartered in the Cayman Islands with corporate headquarters effectively in Palo Alto, California. Product design and international sales and marketing is based in Hong Kong. Manufacturing and design is done out of Shenzhen in China and its primary markets are India and Africa. The company’s product offering currently includes three solar lighting products: the S250 solar lantern and mobile charger, the S10 lantern and the Solata S380 study light. Revenues and profit numbers are not known.

New CEO Donn Tice has been an advisor to D.Light since March 2008 and joined the board in November 2008. He earlier founded Sustainable Solutions in 2006 which helped consumer and cleantech private equity investors growth their portfolios, served as CEO of Nano-Tex between 2003 and 2006 (where he built a stain-resistant fabirc technology into a successful consumer nanotech business) and led Winterland between 1997 and 2002, growing sales from $30 million to $110 million. At D.Light he has been closely involved with the firm’s fundraising and product launches.

D.Light has raised several rounds of funding from investors such as Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Acumen Fund, DFJ, Gray Matters Capital, Garage Technology Ventures and Mahindra & Mahindra. The company raised a $5.5 million Series B round last June from Omidyar Network and existing investors. It raised a $5.5 million Series A round in November 2008. The round was led by Nexus and included a posse of investors including Mahindra and DFJ.

Image Courtesy: D.Light Design

[media-credit name="Snigdha Sengupta" align="alignnone" width="199"][/media-credit]D.Light Design, a startup which makes solar-powered LED lanterns for developing world consumers, has won the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy 2010. The Cayman Islands registered company won £40,000 as the Gold Award winner this year. D.Light’s lamps enable users to replace kerosene lamps that tend to be more expensive and hazardous to health. The company’s lamps (the ‘kiran’ in photo) are priced between Rs 500 and Rs 1,600 and can provide light  up to 12 hours on a full charge.

“The judges were particularly impressed with their highly effective marketing strategy which has put solar lighting within reach of over a million people in 32 countries…” said Sarah Butler-Sloss, founder-director of the Ashden Awards. The awards were instituted in 2001 to encourage the greater use of local sustainable energy to address climate change and alleviate poverty. So far, they have rewarded 140 winners globally. The total prize money this year, shared by five winners, including D.Light, was £140,000. Read the full story