In fact, in June 2005, Pasadena, CA-based solar company, Energy Innovations, raised $16.5 million in venture capital led by Mohr Davidow Ventures. At around the same time, Nanosolar raised $20 million (also led by Mohr Davidow Ventures), solar startup HelioVolt, based in Austin, TX, secured an $8 million investment from New Enterprise Associates, and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers led a $16 million investment in Miasol, a thin-film solar firm.

The current focus on energy investments, and particularly “clean energy”, will hopefully be a true win-win; investors will make a good return on their investments and our environment will be positively impacted. In fact, The California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) was recently launched to “make attractive investments, but also to provide an engine of economic growth while reducing California’s dependence on fossil fuels.” Soon after this $30 million fund was launched, it announced agreements with three leading venture capital firms: Nth Power, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and VantagePoint Venture Partners.

While some of the venture capital firms are new to the energy space, Nth Power is not. The firm began investing in 1997 and has over $250 million under management, with investments in energy intelligence, power reliability, distributed generation and related services. Other traditional energy VC firms include EnerTech Capital, founded in 1996.

In the foreseeable future, energy and clean energy investments seem promising. Not only must alternatives to high oil and gas prices be combated, but nearly 20 states have already set goals for the percentage of energy sources that must come from renewable sources. As a result, there are many, many buyers for energy products; the challenge is for entrepreneurial companies to invent them.

Author: Dave Lavinsky
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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When seeking a venture capital firm, there are six key variables to consider: location, sector preference, stage preference, partners, portfolio and assets.

Location: most venture capital firms only invest within 100 miles of their office(s). By investing close to home, the firms are able to more actively get involved with and add value to their portfolio companies.

Sector preference: many venture capital firms focus on specific sectors such as healthcare, information technology (IT), wireless technologies, etc. In most cases, even if you have a great company, if you fall outside of the VC’s sector preference, they’ll pass on the opportunity.

Stage preference: VCs tend to focus on different stages of ventures. For instance, some VCs prefer early stage ventures where the risk is great, but so are the potential returns. Conversely, some VCs focus on providing capital to firms to bridge capital gaps before they go public.

Partners: Venture capital firms are comprised of individual partners. These partners make investment decisions and typically take a seat on each portfolio company’s Board. Partners tend to invest in what they know, so finding a partner that has past work experience in your industry is very helpful. This relevant experience allows them to more fully understand your venture’s value proposition and gives them confidence that they can add value, thus encouraging them to invest.

Portfolio: Just as you should seek venture capital firms whose partners have experience in your industry, the ideal venture capital firm has portfolio companies in your field as well. Portfolio company management, since they are industry experts, often advises VCs as to whether the company in question is worthwhile. In addition, if your venture has potential synergies with a portfolio company, this significantly enhances the VCs interest in your firm.

Assets: Most companies seeking venture capital for the first time will require subsequent rounds of capital. As such, it is helpful if the VC has “deep pockets,” that is, enough cash to participate in follow-on rounds. This will save the company significant time and effort in maintaining an adequate cash balance.

Finding the right venture capital firm is absolutely critical to companies seeking venture capital. Success results in the capital required and significant assistance in growing your venture. Conversely, failing to find the right firm often results in raising no capital at all and being unable to grow the venture.

Author: Dave Lavinsky
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

The key processes in the capital-raising process include
1) perfecting the business plan, offering memorandum, and other company due diligence materials,
2) developing a comprehensive, targeted prospective investor list,
3) contacting this list and responding to investor due diligence requests, and
4) negotiating the transaction.

Completing the business plan typically requires at least 200 hours of work. This time is dedicated to conducting the market research to validate the opportunity, developing a comprehensive financial model, determining the most effective way to lay out the business strategy, and actually writing and proofing the business plan.

The next step, developing a comprehensive, targeted prospective investor list is also very time consuming. There are thousands of potential investors, each of which has very different tastes regarding the types of ventures that interest them. Some invest by market sector (e.g., healthcare vs. telecommunications), stage (seed stage vs. later stage), geography, or a combination of these. Many hours must be dedicated to determine which investors are the right fit for your venture. This process involves creating a master investor list, visiting each investor’s website to view investment criteria and past investments, and determining who is the right contact at the firm.

To see how easily the time adds up, consider that only about 25% of prospective investors who show an initial interest in a transaction actually progress to detailed company due diligence. Only about 10% of this 25% actually progress to a bonafide offer of funds, of which only 25% of these actually result in an investment transaction. So completing a financing transaction requires, on average, contacting approximately 160 pre-qualified prospective investors.

The due diligence process, where investors scrutinize the investment, can also be very time consuming for the company. Investors often request many documents, some of which can be easily retrieved from files (e.g., prior tax returns), while others may take more time to prepare (e.g., additional market analysis, customer lists with past purchases, contact information, etc.). Finally, negotiating a transaction can take a significant amount of time depending upon the complexity of the transaction and number of parties involved.

Too many companies fail to raise capital since they are unaware of the significant time requirements to do so. Those firms who understand these requirements and budget accordingly are the ones most likely to persevere and end up with the capital they need.

Author: Dave Lavinsky
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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