Smart energy related firms raised $1.7bn in 2015

According to a report by Mercom Capital Group, smart grid, battery and storage, and energy efficiency firms raised $1.7bn in venture capital funding last year. The smart gird sector raised $435m over 57 deals, up from $384m in 2014 and the battery storage sector raised a total of $397m over 37 deals in 2015; with flow battery companies receiving the largest amount of funding at $120m, followed by energy storage system companies with $96m. Finally the efficency sector saw funding increase to $852m over 67 deals.

Smart grid, battery and storage, and energy efficiency companies raised $1.7 billion in VC funding in 2015, according to Mercom Capital Group.

Clean energy communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group published its report on funding and merger & acquisitions activity in the smart grid, battery/storage, and energy efficiency sectors for 2015, revealing that across each of the sectors, a total of $1.7 billion was raised.

In the smart grid sector, venture capital (VC) funding increased to $425 million over 57 deals in 2015, compared to $384 million over 74 deals in 2014. Total corporate funding, including debt and public market financing, reached $527 million, down from $844 million in 2014.

The top venture capital funded company in 2015 was SIGFOX, raising $115 million.

Two debt and public market financing deals were announced in 2015, totaling $102 million, and only one IPO, raising $98 million by Alarm.com.

Only 20 smart grid merger & acquisition (M&A) transactions took place in 2015, 10 of which were disclosed, reaching $5.3 billion, with Honeywell’s $5.1 billion acquisition of the Elster Division of Melrose Industries far and away the largest.

The battery/storage sector brought in a total of $397 million over 37 deals in 2015, compared to $431 million over 34 deals in 2014. Total corporate funding reached $676 million, compared to $921 million in 2014. Flow battery companies received the largest amount of funding, with $120 million, followed by energy storage system companies with $96 million.

The top VC funded company in 2015 was VionX Energy, raising $58.1 million.

Debt and public market financing for the sector fell to $279 million in 2015, down from $490 million in 2014. There was only one IPO in 2015, Electro Power Systems, who raised $15.6 million.

A total of 11 M&A transactions took place in the sector, four of which were disclosed, totaling $2.4 billion, compared to 18 M&A transactions in 2014, six disclosed, totaling $232 million.

The efficiency sector saw VC funding increase to $852 million over 67 deals, compared to $797 million over 80 deals in 2014. Total corporate funding reached over $2 billion, compared to only $1.2 billion in 2014. The top VC funded company was View (formerly Soladigm), which raised $150 million.

Lighting technology companies brought in the most funding with $187 million over 23 deals. The whole sector raised nearly $1.2 billion in debt and public financing, and there were five securitization deals, reaching $801 million. Two IPOs brought in a combined $168 million, and there was an almost two-fold increase in M&A activity for the sector, with 45 transactions and 22 disclosed, compared to only 26 and 10 in 2014. The largest disclosed transaction was the mammoth $2.8 billion acquisition of an 80.1% interest in Lumileds by GO Scale Capital Investment Consortium.

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