Green venture firm looks to close early stage funding gap

 
The venture firm says it's in talks to raise its second fund in early 2009, and has already invested about half of its first fund. About $6 million has gone into eight companies, including Solaicx and Mariah Power, said Pete Henig, managing partner of Greenhouse (see Two more IPOs to watch for).

The Sausalito, Calif.-based firm's investments range from $250,000 to $2 million, and Greenhouse plans to continue to make small investments to fill a funding gap in the cleantech sector for early-stage companies, Henig said (see Southern Water leads dealmaking).

"It's less about building a bigger venture capital firm and more about trying to establish early-stage and seed-stage investment funds for the cleantech field," Henig told the Cleantech Group. "We're also looking at the possible opportunity of creating a cleantech incubator to do true, true seed-stage deals where we find interesting technologies and work with the companies."

Greenhouse often partners with Big Sky Partners on investments that are too small for most venture firms, Henig said (see Two funds expand cleantech plans). Big Sky founder and Managing Director Michael Schwab serves as general partner at Greenhouse, and the two firms share office space in Sausalito.

Greenhouse plans to close its first fund by reinvesting in some companies and making two-to-three new investments in the sectors of water, carbon, diesel technology, energy management or green retail products, Henig said.