Jan

Green Cars Now Attract the Smart Money

Posted by admin Published in Green

You need only think back to the early dot-com boom days to remember some astonishingly silly investments funded by Silicon Valley venture capital firms (Webvan, Pets.com or CyberRebate, anyone?). Still, it’s plus true that VC firms that stretch along Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif., have created some of the most dominant engines of entrepreneurial capitalism the world has known. nowadays that money is increasingly flowing toward green cars.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (Netscape, Amazon, Google) announced that it was taking a stake in Fisker’s Karma, an electric sports sedan announced at the Detroit Auto Show that week. The firm counts Al Gore as a partner. Aptera Motors and Phonenix Motorcars have found funding

from various Silicon Valley VC firms. And the startup Project Better Place, which is run by Shai Agassi, former CEO of the SAP software behemoth, has raised $200 million in funding for electric cars and a network of recharging stations.

Of course, most VC-backed startups fail within two years. Still, the trend is unmistakable: Green cars won’t be merely a repository for government handouts and good-conscience citizenry; in all likelihood, they’ll be a source of tremendous wealth.

Source: Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek

Original post by Marty Jerome