VC Funding in Smart Grid Reaches $405 Million in 2013, Reports Mercom Capital Group

By Marketwired

Jan 22 2014, 18:58 PM EST

Mercom Capital Group, LLC, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm, released its report on funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity for the smart grid sector for 2013.

Venture capital (VC) funding into smart grid technology companies came in at $405 million (M) in 63 deals in 2013, compared to $434M in 40 deals in 2012. Total corporate funding, including debt and public market financings, came to $579M in 2013, compared to $506M in 2012. There were 94 total VC investors in 2013, with 12 active investors participating in multiple deals. It was an active Q42013, with $148M in 31 deals.

"Deal activity picked up towards the end of the year, and after a long pause, IPOs have made a comeback," commented Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group. "After half a billion dollars of VC investments into home energy companies, the market is finally coalescing around connected home packages as convenience is seen as a better sell with consumers. A single vendor offering a bundle with cable, security, phone and other services and no upfront costs, has removed the barrier for these technologies to find their way into homes."

There were three IPOs in 2013 raising a combined $162.3M.

The top VC funded companies in 2013 were led by Nest Labs, which raised $80M (Nest was recently acquired by Google for $3.2 billion). Utilidata raised $20.5M; Space-Time Insight raised $20M; Enlighted raised $20M; and GreenWave Reality raised $19M.

The top VC investors in 2013 included RockPort Capital Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Navitas Capital.

By technology, Home/Building Automation & Energy Management companies raised $190M, Grid Optimization companies - $51M, Demand Response companies - $50M, AMI companies - $32M, and Data Analytics companies brought in $16M.

There were 16 M&A transactions that changed hands in 2013 for $5.3 billion. Only five transactions had disclosed dollar amounts. The top disclosed transactions were the $5.2 billion acquisition of Invensys by Schneider Electric, followed by the $107M acquisition of JouleX by Cisco, and the $11M acquisition of Consert by Toshiba.

Eighteen companies made multiple acquisitions since 2010. The top acquirers have been ABB, Schneider Electric, GE, Siemens, and EnerNOC.

To learn more about the report, visit: Smart Grid Q4 and Annual 2013 Funding and M&A Report.