
Venture capital funding into smart grid technology companies hit $383m in 2014, according to new research.
This figure was reached via 73 deals, compared to $410m in 64 deals in 2013, states the report on funding and mergers and acquisitions in the smart grid sector from consultants at Mercom Capital Group.
Total corporate funding, including debt and public market financings, came to $844m in 2014, compared to $584m in the previous year.
The top three venture capital-funded companies in 2014 were Savant Systems, which raised $90m, Zonoff with $31.8m, and ChargePoint with $22.6m.
The top venture capital investors last year included Siemens Venture Capital, Constellation Technology Ventures, Emertec Gestion, Qualcomm, and Voyager Capital.
There were 32 smart grid M&A transactions totalling $3.9bn.
The top disclosed deal was Google’s acquisition of Nest Labs for $3.2bn, followed by the $200m acquisition of SmartThings by Samsung Electronics and the $150m buy of Aclara Technologies by Sun Capital Partners.
Bel Fuse bought Power-One’s Power Solutions business for $117m and Sierra Wireless acquired Wireless Maingate for $90m.
Mercom also covered the storage/battery and energy efficiency sectors in its research. Companies in the storage/battery market received $418m in 32 deals last year. The top venture capital-funding deal was the $55m raised by Aquion Energy, followed by Bloom Energy, which raised $50m.
Sodium-based storage/battery companies received the most funding with $112m.
There were also 19 debt and public market financing deals in the storage/battery sector, totalling $490m.
M&A transactions in battery and storage totalled 18, of which six transactions were disclosed, totalling $232m.
Energy efficiency companies raised $797m in 80 deals in 2014. The top venture capital deal was the $100m raised by View (formerly Soladigm), followed by Lextar Electronics, which raised $83m.
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