French venture capital firms invest EUR 187.5m in cleantech in H1 2016

French venture capital firms invested some EUR 187.5 million (USD 206.85m) into cleantech companies over the first half of 2016, French private equity association Afic said on Thursday.

This six-month period marked the highest ever number of deals at 47 but in terms of money invested, it recorded a 22% decline from the EUR 243.5 invested from January to June 2015.

A total of 47 cleantech businesses were backed by French venture capital investments . Renewable energy and energy efficiency companies turned to be the main beneficiary. Together, the two sectors accounted for 40% of the investments across 24 companies.

Nearly 94% of the investments, or EUR 176.5 million, were early-stage or innovation capital investments.

The private equity sector has invested more than EUR 2 billion into renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility and circular economy solutions since Afic, in collaboration with GreenUnivers and Earnst & Young, started tracking cleantech sector investments in France five years ago.

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