Angel investors are an important source of funding in cleantech

Angel investors are a major player in the financing of entrepreneurs in the U.S.  In the first half of this year, CVR estimates that 23,100 startups received funding totaling over $12B.  This is as compared to the $14.9B and nearly 2,000 venture deals tracked by Moneytree in 1H08.  Roughly comparable amounts, but more than 10x the investments — as reflecting the CVR survey’s conclusion that 46% of angel investments were in seed and start-up stage. Specifically to cleantech — the study indicates that 10% of the angel investments in 1H08 were made into “Industrial/Energy”.  So roughly that makes it about 2,000 cleantech startups which received angel funding during the first half of the year, of which about half were seed or startup stage.  Meanwhile, E&Y tracked 29 seed and first round VC investments into U.S. cleantech companies during 1H08.

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