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Israel Cleantech Ventures closes $74m second fundJan 30, 2013 (Globes - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Israel Cleantech Ventures Funds has announced the final closing of its $74 million second fund. The firm raised its first fund in 2007, and now has $150 million under management. The firm raised the capital from investment institutions, family trusts, and foreign companies, many of which had invested in the first fund. Israel Cleantech Ventures originally planned to raise $100 million, but its managers said that changes in the venture capital market and in the global cleantech industry forced it to lower expectations. Israel Cleantech Ventures is run by general partners Jack Levy, Meir Ukeles and Glen Schwaber. It said that it will use the proceeds to continue its strategy of investing in Israeli based or Israel related high growth, clean technology, early and growth stage companies. It added that it has invested in 15 companies to date, that it seeks opportunities across diverse cleantech sectors including clean materials, wastewater treatment, alternative energy generation, energy storage & efficiency, green building, smart grid, process efficiency technologies and sustainable agriculture. Ukeles said, "When we first started out in 2006, our database held approximately 120 companies mostly in seed and early stage and there was effectively no VC money available for cleantech in Israel. Fast forward to today and dozens of global funds have invested in approximately 150 deals in Israel and our database now holds over 1,300 opportunities. We look forward to building a strong portfolio for our second fund in the coming years." ___ (c)2013 the Globes (Tel Aviv, Israel) Visit the Globes (Tel Aviv, Israel) at www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/nodeview.asp fid=942 Distributed by MCT Information Services |