Navasota Group, One Of The VC firms That Together Invested Nearly $5 Billion In Clean-Tech Market

March 10, 2011 - PRLog -- This marks an increase of roughly 25% in the first three quarters of 2010 over the same period last year, according to a new report by Navasota Group experts.

While $5 billion may seem like a lot of money, it is small money in the capital-intensive energy industry. To put this number in perspective, General Electric alone plans to double spending on energy-related research and development (R&D) to $2 billion per year over the next five years, which would amount to nearly half of the entire U.S. Venture Capital pie.

“At the corporate level there’s an acceleration of activity on the investment and acquisition side,” Kyle Lamar, Navasota Group’s Clean-Tech leader. “We definitely expect it will continue to accelerate in 2011 and going forward.”

Clean-Tech encompasses a diverse group of industry sectors and sub-sectors, ranging from solar and wind energy to batteries and biofuels. As a result of this diversity, the full-scale of investment activity is difficult to pin down with any degree of precision. But, based on the industry’s collective support for R&D, this investment level is likely modest at most.  The U.S. energy sector spends a miniscule 0.3% of revenue on R&D, which is far less than other industries typically invest in R&D, according to Battelle Memorial Institute’s Global R&D Funding Forecast for 2011. To put this in perspective, the total private sector investment in energy R&D is roughly equivalent to half of the amount spent on R&D by Merck.

Navasota Group has a significant portion of their Navasota Capital VI invested in the cleantech sector.

About Navasota Group

Founded in 2003, Navasota Group specializes in; alternative energy, biotechnology, oil and gas technology, medical devices and instrumentation, imaging and diagnostics, nanotechnology firms, heavy industry technology, and mining operations. Navasota Group funds total more than $800 million. For more information, please visit www.navasotagroup.com.

Media Contact

Emily Miyamoto
Navasota Media Coordinator
press@navasotagroup.com