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Battery/Storage brought
in $418 million; Energy Efficiency raised $797 million
To get a copy of
the report, visit: http://store.mercom.mercomcapital.com/product/smart-grid-2014-q4-funding-report/
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 2014.
Venture capital
(VC) funding into smart grid technology companies was $383 million in 73 deals
in 2014, compared to $410 million in 64 deals in 2013. Total corporate funding,
including debt and public market financings, came to $844 million in 2014,
compared to $584 million in 2013. There were 88 total VC investors in 2014,
with eight active investors participating in multiple deals.
Home automation
companies received the most funding within Smart Grid.
 The Top VC funded companies in 2014 were led
by Savant Systems, which raised $90 million. Zonoff brought in $31.8 million; this
was followed by the $22.6 million raise by ChargePoint. SIGFOX raised $20.6
million and EnVerv, raised $15.4
million.
 The top VC investors in 2014 included BDC
Capital, Constellation Technology Ventures, Emertec Gestion, Israel Cleantech
Ventures, Qualcomm, Siemens Venture Capital, VantagePoint Capital and Voyager
Capital with two deals each.
There were 32 Smart Grid M&A transactions
(12 disclosed) in 2014 totaling $3.9 billion. The
top disclosed transaction in 2014 was Google’s acquisition of Nest Labs for
$3.2 billion, followed by the $200 million acquisition of SmartThings by
Samsung Electronics and the $150 million acquisition of Aclara Technologies by
Sun Capital Partners. Bel Fuse acquired Power-One’s Power Solutions business for
$117 million and Sierra Wireless acquired Wireless Maingate for $90 million.
In 2014, Mercom expanded
its coverage to include Storage/Battery and Energy Efficiency sectors.
Companies in the Storage/Battery
space received $418 million in 32 deals. The top VC funding deal in 2014 was
the $55 million raise by Aquion Energy, followed by Bloom Energy, which raised
$50 million. Ambri (formerly Liquid Metal Battery Corporation) raised $35
million, Amprius raised $30 million and Powin Energy raised $25 million.
 Sodium-based Storage/Battery companies
received the most funding with $112 million.
There were also 19 debt and public market
financing deals in Storage/Battery totaling $490 million including one Initial
Public Offering in 2014. There were two third-party storage funds announced to
finance no-money, no-upfront, behind-the-meter storage projects.
M&A transactions in Battery/Storage
totaled 18, of which six transactions were disclosed, totaling $232 million.
Energy Efficiency companies raised $797
million in 80 deals in 2014. The top VC deal was the $100 million raise by View
(formerly Soladigm), followed by Lextar Electronics, which raised $83 million. LatticePower
brought in $80 million, Renovate America raised $50 million and Phononic raised
$44.5 million.
 Lighting
technology companies received the most funding in the Energy Efficiency sector
with $315 million.
Energy Efficiency
companies also raised $410 million in debt and public market financings with
two IPOs - Opower and Lumenpulse in 2014.
There were 26
M&A transactions this year in the Energy Efficiency category.
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