David Gelbaum

21Ventures

Posted on by matthewlim

About: Founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York, 21Ventures invests in seed, early stage and PIPE (Private Investments in Public Equities) technology and publicly traded companies in the security, clean energy and mobile software markets. The fund’s primary geographic focus is Israel, where over half of the company’s investment capital has been deployed to date. 21Ventures currently manages more than $300 million worth of investments in 25 companies in Israel and the United States. More than half of 21Ventures’ investments are in clean energy companies

www.21ventures.net

See also http://davidanthonyvc.com/

Key Personnel:
David Anthony, Managing Partner

Portfolio:
Wind – Magenn Power, TechnoSpin, Variable Wind Solutions
Solar – 3GSolar, Applied Solar, Entech Solar, GreenRay, Lightwave Power, Solar Enertech Corp
Water – Advanced Hydro, BioPetroClean, Colorep, ThermoEnergy
Storage – Axion Power International, Firefly Energy, Graphene Energy, H2Scan, LaunchPoint Technologies
Agriculture – Aero Farm Systems
Efficiency – Advanced Telemetry (acquired by Siemens), Clean Power Technologies, Energy Focus, ETV Motors, FreeGreen, Glacier Bay, ReGen Power Systems, TBT Group
Note: In almost all the companies above, Quercus Trust is the lead investor while 21Ventures is mostly the co-investor or board member or both.

News: 21Ventures seems to work closely with the secretive Quercus Trust. 21Ventures’ cleantech portfolio is mostly led by Quercus Trust. In Sep 2008, 21Ventures and the Quercus Trust announced that they have awarded a $200,000 grant to support the solar energy research of Professor David Cahen of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Also in May 2008, The Quercus Trust and 21Ventures announced that they have awarded a $100,000 grant to the non-profit humanitarian organization Engineers Without Borders – USA (EWB-USA). EWB-USA partners with developing communities around the world to implement environmentally, economically, and culturally sustainable projects while providing training and experience for students and professionals. So, if you want to know where Quercus Trust invests, you probably might guess by looking where 21Ventures invests. This article says “David Gelbaum, a famous former trader turned secretive cleantech investor and philanthropist, is a friend with whom David Anthony says he feels very lucky to do deals.”

Looks like 21Ventures recently started a quarterly newsletter since Q4 2008. Its latest Q2 2009 can be found here. David Anthony has his own website. If you’re wondering why he invests heavily in Israeli companies despite concerns about the political stability and missile and terrorism threats, he offered his views here and here. The factors of his decision are Israel’s strong business economy, military-trained workforce, strong intellectual property law and expertise in export to international markets.

If you’re interested in investing in Israel, see David’s video here (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) or his article in this Israel Venture Capital & Private Equity Journal. Note: David is legally blind.

21Ventures

Quercus Trust

Posted on by matthewlim

About: Quercus Trust is known to be very low-key and yet David Gelbaum’s Quercus Trust have amassed a large portfolio that very few companies (such as Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures) have invested more in cleantech than Quercus Trust. Quercus Trust is so quiet and secretive that its website does not have any information except a link to email them. Even an article was written by Michael Kanellos from Greentech Media on how to contact the Quercus Trust.

www.thequercustrust.com

Key Personnel:
David Gelbaum, Trustee (LA Times wrote an extensive article on him in 2004 but no mention of Quercus Trust)

Portfolio:
Since the website doesn’t have any information, you’ll have to look elsewhere for information such as Cleantech Group. This Greentech Media article by Michael Kanellos on 7 Nov 2008 scoured through SEC filings and press releases and found at least 34 companies in the Quercus portfolio which was more extensive than previously reported:

Ascent Solar, Axion Power International, Beacon Power, BlueFire Ethanol, China Solar and Clean Energy (formerly Beijing Deli Solar), DayStar Technologies, Electro Energy, Energy Focus, Emcore, Environmental Power, Odyne, Open Energy, Solar Enertech, Spire, Thermoenergy, WorldWater and Solar, Sencera, Nanoptek, Promethean Power, Hydro Green Energy, Standard Renewable Energy, GridPoint, Colorep, LiveFuels, Firefly Energy, Cyrium Technologies, Ener1, Akeena Solar, Octillion, Lighting Science, Enviromission, Dynamotive, Nano Si Solar, Magenn Power.

Kanellos added 3 more in this article: 1366 Technologies, NetCrystal, Lightwave Power.

Kanellos added another 10 the list to become total 47 in this article: BioPetroClean, 3GSolar, Advanced Telemetry, ETV Motors, ReGen Power Systems, TBT Group, Technospin, Variable Wind Solutions, LaunchPoint Technologies, Graphene Energy.

According to Cleantech Group report, Quercus had 3 deals in 1Q09 in Advanced Hydro, Graphene Energy, Sencera.
I add other companies to the list from Cleantech Group 2008 report: Glacier Bay, Suniva.

News: Although the Cleantech Group 2008 report stated that Quercus Trust invested in Suniva but it seems that this Earth2Tech article updated its report that it was Quercus Investment, a firm that has no relation to or relationship with David Gelbaum’s Quercus Trust, that has invested in Suniva’s $50 million Series B funding round. A press release by Suniva states “Quercus Investment” but offers no description about the firm.

Yesterday, 27 July 2009, Suniva raised $75m in Series C funding round, which is led by Warburg Pincus. Also participating in the round were APEX Venture Partners and returning investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), HIG Ventures and Advanced Equities. Reuters covered this news as well.

Reuters reported on 26 July 2009 that “U.S. solar company Applied Solar Inc filed for protection under Chapter 11 on July 24, court documents showed. The San Diego maker of building-integrated solar products declared assets of $17.6 million, and total debts of $29.1 million. In May, the company had said it would seek bankruptcy protection, as part of a loan agreement with its largest investor, The Quercus Trust. The solar company had borrowed $698,000 from Quercus, an investment firm that focuses on clean technology companies. Quercus is run by investor David Gelbaum.” I was looking for Applied Solar in the portfolio list above but couldn’t find it. Then I found that Open Energy Corporation had changed its name to Applied Solar, Inc in January 2009.

quercustrust

New Energy Finance: League Table 2008

Posted on by matthewlim

New Energy Finance recently released the Clean Energy Leagues Table 2008 in March 2009.

The top 10 VC/PE investors by number of disclosed investments are:
1. Good Energies – 21 no. of deals ($65.3m)
2. Draper Fisher Jurvetson – 20 ($102.9m)
3. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers – 16 ($187.2m)
4. RockPort Capital Partners – 14 ($166.3m)
5. Khosla Ventures – 14 ($111.5m)
6. Quercus Trust / David Gelbaum – 12 ($37.3m)
7. Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital – 12 ($12.6m)
8. Demeter Partners – 11 ($51.4m)
9. VantagePoint Venture Partners – 9 ($79.3m)
10. Emerald Technology Ventures – 8 ($41.6m)

The top 10 VC/PE investors by indicative $ amount invested are:
1. Magnum Capital – $910m (1 no. of deal)
2. Doughty Hanson & Co – $735.8m (2 deals)
3. First Reserve Corp – $707m (2)
4. Denham Capital Management LP – $375m (3)
5. Mubadala Development Company – $262.6m (6)
6. General Electric – $257.9m (6)
7. Goldman Sachs – $210.5m (4)
8. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board – $200m (1)
9. Rabobank Group – $193.1m (7)
10. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers – $187.2m (16)

The list of investments are in the report.

Comment: A number of the largest amount of investments are due to PE buyout. For example, the Portuguese buyout firm Magnum Capital has the single biggest buyout deal after agreeing the €1.2bn ($1.5bn) acquisition of the renewable energy assets in Enersis owned by Babcock & Brown, the Australian investment bank and infrastructure specialist, and its listed wind power subsidiary in 4Q 2008. B&B, one of Australia’s biggest casualties of the credit crisis, has put its European wind assets up for sale in a move to raise much-needed cash.