Chrysalix Energy, a venture capital firm focused on early stage clean energy technologies, says its latest fund has increased to more than USD100m with an investment by the Oregon Investment Fund, an affiliate of Credit Suisse.
Chrysalix chief executive Wal van Lierop (pictured) says the Chrysalix Energy Limited Partnership III is on target to reach USD150m by 31 March 2010.
"Our goal is to work with strategic partners to build the energy giants of tomorrow," says van Lierop. "By building partnerships with international leaders like Credit Suisse, Chrysalix continues to build momentum for clean energy technology venture capital, bridging the gap between industry leaders and entrepreneurs."
"Clean energy technology is becoming an increasingly attractive investment class. The Chrysalix team has built one of the strongest organisations in this still young but rapidly evolving sector, and they became one of the strongest choices as an investment partner for us and our investment programme in Oregon," adds David Almodovar of Credit Suisse’s customised fund investment group.
Other investors in the fund are Total Energy Ventures, Kuwait Petroleum, Delta Lloyd Private Equity, European utilities Fortum and Essent, Robeco Clean Tech Private Equity, Sitra and FondAction. Earlier Chrysalix funds also included energy and industrial organisations BASF, Mitsubishi and Shell.
The announcement was made in conjunction with Premier Gordon Campbell’s unveiling of the British Columbia Clean Works Initiative.
"British Columbia is growing as a global hub for clean-energy research and investment," says Campbell. "As the world searches for cleaner ways of producing energy, these kinds of investments help position BC to meet that supply and, at the same time, generate new growth and jobs here in our province."
Chrysalix has already made five investments from its CELP III fund. The companies are Brammo, an Oregon-based company producing North America’s first production-ready street electric motorcycles; General Fusion of Vancouver, which is developing a utility-scale fusion engine; Plas2Fuel, an Oregon company developing technology to convert all streams of waste plastic back to synthetic crude oil; NanoSteel, headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, producing a new steel stronger than titanium; and Primus Power, a California-based large-scale energy storage company with low cost battery technology.
