Cleantech Investor

First published in Cleantech Infocus: 2010 - Equity Deals of the Year, January 2011.  Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd

The fuel cell industry has been out of favour with investors for some time, but the tide may have turned in 2010. A key focus is fuel cells for stationary applications. As we reported in the Fuel Cell Special issue of Cleantech magazine last September, commercialisation of automotive applications for fuel cells is still some time off, but fuel cells for stationary applications are a reality today.

There were a number of secondary offerings during the year, but no IPOs. Companies raising funds included NASDAQ-listed FuelCell Energy in the US (a secondary offering of $30 million to support strong order activity) and Ceramic Fuel Cells (in the UK and Australia).

Notable venture capital deals included ACAL Energy in the UK (to finance the development of its FlowCath technology), Diverse Energy and the investment by PGM Development Fund of South Africa in Altergy and Clean Energy Investments.
The announcement which characterised the trend for the year in fuel cells, however, wasn’t in fact a deal.  It was the news that California-based stationary fuel cell power developer Bloom Energy had emerged from ‘stealth mode’ in February 2010, revealing an impressive list of customers which included Google, ebay, Walmart, FedEx and CocaCola. Bloom has raised almost $400 million since it was founded in 2001 and its lead investor is Silicon Valley firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.