Private investors poured $10.5 billion into clean energy in 2019. These are the top funds making bets on the industry.
- Venture capital and private equity investors flooded clean energy with $10.5 billion in 2019, according to a new report by BloombergNEF. It's the largest annual investment since 2010.
- Business Insider highlighted the 10 most active venture capital and private equity investors, based on the number of deals that closed in 2019, using data from BloombergNEF.
- The list shows that oil and gas giants are among the most active private investors, alongside the Bill Gates-led investor coalition, Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
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Private investment in clean energy is continuing to climb, with venture capital and private equity funding in the sector reaching $10.5 billion in 2019, according to a new report by the research firm BloombergNEF (BNEF).
That's the largest annual investment in clean energy since 2010 and more than two times higher than the decade low of $4.1 billion in 2013.
"We're seeing a resurgence in the last two years," Tom Blum, a member of Clean Energy Venture Group, told Business Insider late last year. "Renewables, which had been plodding along steadily, are taking a huge upturn."
Data from PitchBook show a similar trend: VCs flooded the clean-tech industry with nearly $10 billion in 2019, which is the second-highest investment sum in a decade.
The largest clean-energy investors of 2019 include well-known giants like T. Rowe Price, Amazon, and BlackRock. They were all involved in a $1.3 billion PE deal with the electric vehicle (EV) company Rivian Automotive in December.
None of the top 20 clean-energy investors, by capital, were involved in more than two deals, according to BNEF. Business Insider looked, instead, at VC and PE investors that were most active, based on the number of deals they financed or co-financed that closed in 2019.
Here are the most active clean energy VC and PE investors, ranked from fewest to most deals in 2019.
Note: "Clean energy" refers to "renewable energy excluding large hydro-electric projects, but including equity-raising by companies in smart grid, digital energy, energy storage, and electric vehicles," per a BNEF spokesperson.