Cleantech investing may have fallen by 30 percent in the past few months, but legendary venture capitalist John Doerr said this morning that hea4a4s still optimistic about backing startups in this field.
Doerr, whose investments include Internet giants like Google and Amazon, said that looking at the amount of money invested doesn&'t indicate the quality of companies &8212' after all, during periods of peak venture investment, many &''inconsequential&'' Web startups got funded. In cleantech, Doerr said the industry is waiting for its a4ANetscape momenta4. In other words, the industry needs a big, successful initial public offering that will a4Acapture the imaginations of investors and consumers alike.a4
a4AI think wea4a4re very likely to see that next year,a4 Doerr said.
(Some cleantech companies, namely Tesla and A123Systems, have already had successful IPOs, but their stock price subsequently dropped.)
Doerr made the comments at VentureBeata4a4s GreenBeat conference on the Stanford campus. In the past few years, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &' Byers (where Doerr is a partner) was largely seen as refocusing on cleantech, but it has made headlines over the past few months for its mobile and social investments. Still, Kleiner is definitely a4Aopen for businessa4 in cleantech, Doerr said, and it invested in six clean-energy companies during the past year.
Doerr also took the opportunity to talk about the recent election. Most Democrats are feeling pretty glum about the results (Doerr is a big Democratic donor and also served on President Barack Obamaa4a4s economic advisory board), but Doerr focused on the defeat of Proposition 23 in California, which would have halted the statea4a4s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He called the proposition a a4Aduplicitous, sinister proposala4 funded by Texas oil companies.
a4ACalifornians said, a4˜We want a clean energy future,a4a4a4 Doerr said.
[photo by Dean Takahashi]
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People: John Doerr
People: John Doerr
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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