Cleantech investments broaden

The folks at the Cleantech Venture Network confirmed today what many people already knew anecdotally, that cleantech investing is hot. Investors pumped $843 million into cleantech deals in the second quarter. It was a record amount of investing for any one quarter and also was about 130% more than the $368 million that VCs invested in the same quarter in 2005. Year-to-date cleantech invesments totaled $1.4 billion. As the Cleantech group pointed out in its release today, the surge in cleantech deals is coming not just from energy-related companies, but from growth in other cleantech segments, as well, such as agriculture, environmental IT, transportation and water (Cleantech Venture Network). —Alastair Goldfisher