Energy

US-listed industrial conglomerate General Electric backed OPower from its $200m Ecomagination clean-tech corporate venturing fund and the firm has subsequently closed a $50m B round

Venture capital firms in era of change as numbers shrink but new firms and professionals emerge to take their place.

Companies increase amounts and role in entrepreneurial investment syndicates and new and existing units prepare for further growth.

Average life of a corporate venturing programme increased from 2.5 years to 3.8 years over the past decade as they become a recognised part of the innovation toolkit.

The number of maturing venture capital funds heavily outnumbers those being raised as the industry contracts.

The Emerald Isle promotes its venturing strategy in the first of a new series of places trying to support its entrepreneurial ecosystem.

SSE Venture Capital and ABB Technology Ventures back Aquamarine Power's wave energy technology.

Pentalum Technologies raised $9m in its first round from venture capital firms Cedar Fund, Evergreen Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson in July. The round was then kept open to allow ABB in.

Venture capital firm North Bridge Venture Partners led the $8m round in CoolPlanetBioFuels as a repeat investor with GE Energy Financial Services also participating.

General Electric's $200m Ecomagination Challenge finds an initial 12 companies to support out of 70,000 clean-tech entries.