$900M in cleantech investment from U.S. VC firms in first half of 2007, New England companies snag 7%...

(Bob Buderi, co-founder of Xconomy.com and former Editor of Technology Review Magazine, had a nice post on U.S. cleantech investment here.)

U.S. VC Cleantech Investment for First Half 2007:

• $892.6M in 71 deals/5.4% of all VC investment

For reference, this is up 70% from $525M/46 deals for First Half 2006 and only 1.4% of U.S. VC investment was in cleantech in 2001.

Four N.E. companies snagged 7% of this First Half 2007 funding:

• A123 Systems - new battery company from tech out of MIT Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang's Lab raised another $40M, bringing it to over $100M in total funding. Very exciting developments with GM's plug-in hybrid plans.
• Advanced Electron Beams - electron beam tech for clean, efficient industrial energy raised $17.5M. Congrats to CEO, good friend, and NEEIC co-founder Mitch Tyson.
• Ze-gen - waste to syngas waste gasification company raised a $4.5M first round of financing.
• Greentech Media - a cleantech market reserach/news website raised $1M. This has become my own go to clean tech news site.
• SolarOne Solution - a maker of solar powered lighting systems - raised money as well. I had not heard of these guys before reading Bob's post.