We have just released the preliminary data on global venture activity within the cleantech space during 3Q 2012. Worldwide clean technology venture investment in the quarter totaled $1.56 billion. Measured by dollars invested, cleantech venture investment dropped only slightly compared to the previous quarter ($1.60 billion), but was off 30 percent from 3Q11 ($2.23 billion). The number of deals recorded in 3Q12 was 148, compared to 169 in 2Q12. You can find the full press release here. i3 subscribers can find the webinar slides and recording here.
The number may not look overly impressive, but taken into consideration that we are still under the influence of “headwinds” in cleantech (mentioned in the release last quarter) and approaching the epicenter of a presidential election, I believe that most of us would say these are solid numbers. Venture investors have proved skeptics wrong once again in 3Q 2012 that innovation in cleantech was (and probably never will be) not overlooked. Though there were “only” 148 venture deals in cleantech during the quarter, the total dollar amount roughly stayed put at $1.56 billion, with 91% of the deals having a disclosed dollar amount (compared to 75-80% average during the past few …





