Cleantech Investor

Published in: 2011 - A Review of Cleantech Equity Deals, January 2012

Private equity investors focused on the water sector in 2011 with Liberation Capital investing in Bluewater Bio, Ambienta investing in Amplio Filtration and Permira taking a stake in Netafim. Irrigation was a target for VCs, with ET Water raising funds for its smart irrigation technology, while in desalination NanoH2O and Saltworks also raised funds. Waterlogic’s £48.5 million fundraising was a rare AIM listing in the water sector.

M&A dominated equity deals in terms of size. Transactions included Ecolab’s US$5.4 billion acquisition of Nalco Holding, the £2.4 billion acquisition of Northumbrian Water by Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, LG’s acquisition of Daewoo ENTEC and the purchase of a majority stake in WEX of India by Aquatech.

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

2010 was the year of Asian water IPOs. There were several large water sector IPOs in China, including the listing of water utility giant Chongqing Water Group (valued at $8.5 billion at the IPO price) as well as large IPOs for Beijing Water Business Doctor and Beijing Origin Water Technology Company.  In India, VA Tech Wabag raised funding through an IPO in October, raising $28 million.

Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market was the location for the listing of US company HaloSource. The company, which raised £31.5 million, has developed a technology for killing bacteria and viruses in drinking water.

In terms of venture investment, the countries of Israel and Singapore – both traditionally heavily focused on the water sector – have each featured amongst the fund raising deals for companies with innovative technology in this sector. Water technology deals during 2010 included Triton Water, a German company which raised funding from Singapore’s EDB Investments; and TaKaDu, an Israeli company which raised funding from Emerald Technology Ventures, alongside existing Israeli investors. Triton has developed CompEx, a rubber powder solution that separates oil from water and offers potential for applications including offshore oil spills. TaKaDu is a water infrastructure monitoring solutions company.

First published in Cleantech magazine, July/August 2010. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd

Water and solar are amongst the most developed cleantech sectors in Israel – but there is investment in a host of cleantech industries. Israeli companies benefit from significant government support, including funding from the Office of the Chief Scientist for research and development. However, a well established culture of venture investment is perhaps the main factor behind the growth of cleantech investment.

Israel has historically faced the challenge of water scarcity. In 2006 Israel’s Government launched the NEWTech (Novel Efficient Water Technologies) programme, which focuses on desalination, water purification, irrigation, sewage treatment, waste water recycling, leakage prevention, water security, usage planning and infrastructure construction. NEWTech’s role is to coordinate between government agencies, academic institutions and the private sector to maximise exports of water technology, expected to become one of the main growth engines of the Israeli economy.
At the time of NEWTech’s launch, Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer described Israel as the “Silicon Valley of water technology”. NEWTech’s target was for exports of Israeli water technologies to reach $2 billion by this year – double the 2006 level.

By Felicia Jackson

Significant institutional, regulatory and cultural change may be required before investment returns in the water sector rival those of energy.

There is increasing concern that the impact of a growing population and increasing agricultural demand, combined with climate change, could result in permanent drought in many regions, and water stress and scarcity are widely on the increase.  Security and integrity of water supply should be driving massive growth in the water sector. And yet…

First published in Cleantech magazine, November/December 2009. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2009

By Dr David Lloyd Owen, Head of Research, WHEB Ventures

Having worked on the listed equity side of the water and waste management sectors since 1989, working with a venture capital house in the water sector over the last year and a half has been perhaps the most interesting and instructive experience in my professional life. No longer the pondering over well-established outfits and their strategic nuances, but rather appraising what is happening at the raw end of the food chain, where ideas seek to become realities.

WHEB Ventures is a London- and Munich-based CleanTech VC house with £114 million under management through two funds. WHEB has adopted a research intensive approach that looks both at the companies and their competitive and market environments. The fund managers are backed by a dedicated staff of five researchers with (at the last count) twelve degrees between them as well as a lot of prior experience. In the water sector such experience matters, as water is CleanTech’s poor cousin when it comes to profile, deals and dedication. Even today, fewer than ten VC houses have more than one water sector company in their portfolios, so interest in the water sector can appear thinly spread.