VC MONEY FOR SMART GRID STEADY

VC Funding in Smart Grid Sector Remains Flat in Q1 2013 with $62 Million…Pace of funding largely unchanged for last five quarters

May 2013 (Mercom Capital Group)

“…Smart grid venture capital (VC) funding in Q1 2013 totaled $62 million in nine deals. The quarter’s funding was nearly identical to the first quarter of 2012, when the same amount was raised by smart grid companies but in 10 deals instead of nine. With the lone exception of home security and automation company Alarm.com’s $136 million raise in Q3 2012, the pace of funding has remained largely unchanged for the past five quarters…

“The Top 5 VC deals in Q1 2013 raised a combined $52 million. The top two VC deals each raised $15 million. Cylance, a provider of cyber security products for the infrastructure industry, raised $15 million from Khosla Ventures and Fairhaven Capital in a Series A round, and Sentient Energy, a developer of advanced grid monitoring solutions…raised $15 million in an undisclosed round from Foundation Capital…”

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“There were only four M&A transactions in Q1 2013. One of the transactions; Toshiba Corporation’s acquisition of privately-held energy management company Consert, was disclosed for a total of $11 million. Last quarter, $22 million in M&A activity was disclosed in the same number of transactions.

“Despite a rather slow quarter, the smart grid sector saw a rare IPO. Silver Spring Networks, a provider of smart grid products and services to utilities, raised $81 million by offering 4.75 million shares at $17.”

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