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If you want to know what’s next in green living, just follow the money. Venture capital giant, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers recently announced that it had raised $500 million, which it plans to dole out in $10 million to $50 million chunks to large companies working on green products.
Venture capitalists usually focus on start-ups, but with green gaining traction as a lifestyle (and getting hotter as investment prospect), the VC crowd is starting to recognize that even established companies need serious cash-infusions to get innovative green products and clean technologies to market. Mainly, it takes time to build real life, tangible products—be it electric cars, modified power plants or facilities capable of churning out biofuel—and the VC industry is leading the way in adopting the mindset that slow payoffs and extremely lucrative ones aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. According to Thomson Financial, $2.2 billion dollars were invested in clean technology companies in 2007 and the National Venture Capital Association reported that of the top ten venture capital deals last year, four were made in clean technology companies.
Interestingly, many of these big investments went to overseas companies blazing the trail on clean technology. It seems countries whose policy makers have embraced the green effort more enthusiastically than the U.S. have the advantage when it comes to developing new clean technologies, and apparently an edge in scoring big checks from the VC community as well.
