Gary Bloom

The press release states, “Siemens Industry, Inc.  announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the stock of eMeter Corporation, headquartered in San Mateo, California (“eMeter”). The parties expect to close the deal in December 2011, subject to necessary approvals and customary closing conditions. The parties will not disclose the terms of the agreement.

eMeter will be part of the Smart Grid Division of the Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector, which is housed within Siemens Industry, Inc. in the United States. eMeter will become a global business segment and center of competence for Meter Data Management (MDM), and will continue to operate from its San Mateo headquarters as part of the Smart Grid Division. eMeter employees will be integrated into the Siemens business structure. With the completion of this purchase, Siemens is making a strong commitment to strengthening its position in the Smart Grid market.

With its EnergyIP platform, eMeter is a leader in platform and MDM application software for this key market and is expected to enhance Siemens’ position. eMeter’s expertise will complement Siemens’ technology portfolio and integrated Smart Grid solutions offering.

“The acquisition of eMeter will allow Siemens to expand its reach globally in the Energy Information and Meter Data Management space,” said Jan Mrosik, CEO of the Smart Grid Division of the Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector. “Ever-increasing demand for solutions to improve the effectiveness of the Smart Grid for cities and utilities makes this acquisition even more important. eMeter is renowned for its superior software and services capabilities that enable electric, gas and water utilities to realize the full benefits of the Smart Grid. A combined portfolio of Siemens’ products and solutions and eMeter’s software represents a unique and complementary offering to our customers.”

“Siemens’ global reach and innovative products and services coupled with eMeter’s renowned EnergyIP platform, supports an aggressive growth strategy and further penetration into the Smart Grid market,” said Gary Bloom, CEO and president of eMeter. “I am confident Siemens will provide eMeter with the level of investment required in people, technology and operations to significantly strengthen our position in the market.”

J.P. Morgan served as financial advisor to eMeter in connection with this transaction.”

Read more: eMeter Press Release

Better Place will use the proceeds to expand into Western Europe while it continues to advance the company’s deployment projects in Northern California, Southern China, Japan, Ontario, Canada, and Hawaii. The company will launch its initial commercial service in Israel and Denmark early next year and has already announced a series of consumer offerings for electric mobility services that are competitive with gasoline-based cars. Better Place will begin initial commercial service in the second quarter of 2012 in Australia, starting in Canberra.

“We’ve worked hard over the past four years to engineer and build a technology solution that competes with oil-based transportation,” said Shai Agassi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Better Place. “We are entering the next phase of growth for our company where we prove that our solution works, that it’s in demand, and that it scales, as we begin to push into new markets and attract new investors and new partners. I believe that our investors should be applauded for having the vision to finance the future of transportation.”

New investors in the Series C round include GE and UBS AG, among others. Existing shareholders, including Israel Corp., HSBC Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, VantagePoint Capital Partners, Ofer Group and Maniv Energy Capital, also joined the round. The Series C financing transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2011.

“With this round, our shareholder base now includes the world’s largest banks, blue chip asset managers and leading industrial holding companies,” said Idan Ofer, Chairman, Better Place. “Our Board, as well as all of our investors, continues to be both confident and enthusiastic about the opportunity that Better Place presents. The highly competent Better Place team has the talent and technology to rapidly deploy its electric car network on a global scale. Our Board and investor base are committed to leveraging their vast networks, experience, and diverse set of skills to accelerate the global adoption of electric cars.””

Read more: Press Release

“We are excited to advance our electric vehicle capability by establishing Polaris as a business partner and part owner of Brammo, one of the most innovative and aggressive companies I have found in the electric motorcycle space,” said Scott Wine, Polaris CEO. “Our companies share a passion for performance, and I look forward to exploiting the numerous opportunities created by pairing Brammo’s industry-leading electric powertrain technology with Polaris’s vast array of market-leading powersports products. This is a small but important investment for Polaris in an electric vehicle market that we feel is poised for significant growth.”

Founded in 2002, Brammo has made its mark by developing electric vehicle technology tailored specifically for the motorcycle segment. Brammo currently offers the Enertia line of motorcycles, capable of speeds in excess of 60 mph and ranges up to 80 miles on a single charge. Brammo plans to expand their product line to include high-performance sport motorcycles capable of more than 100 miles on a single charge, as well as a full line of entry- to high-performance dirt and dual-sport motorcycles.

“We have always been impressed with Polaris’ leadership within the motorsports industry. Polaris is a company founded on innovation and quality, and as such their decision to partner with Brammo is a resounding endorsement of our technology,” said Brammo CEO and founder Craig Bramscher. “This is a terrific scenario for Brammo’s customers, as we bring Polaris’ legendary engineering, manufacturing, and customer service expertise to bear on our products.”

In addition to utilizing Brammo technology in its own products, Polaris will collaborate with Brammo to grow their core business. Polaris and Brammo each bring distinct competencies and assets to this partnership, and share cultures centered on a passion for excellence and innovation. This combination of capabilities and culture will allow Polaris and Brammo to create and seize opportunities that neither could capture independently.”

Read more: Press Release

“As a leading producer of distributed generation solutions for light commercial applications, ClearEdge Power is changing the way businesses across the world get their energy,” said ClearEdge Power President and CEO Russell Ford. “This new investment provides the capital necessary for ClearEdge Power to build on our already strong foundation by entering new markets, advancing our technology and commercializing new products.””

Read more: Press Release

The Series B round brings Mission’s total to-date funding to $15.0 million. Proceeds from the financing will support the commercialization of Mission’s electric powertrain technologies and allow the company to expand its partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

“We are proud to have a firm as respected as Warburg Pincus leading our Series B round,” said Mission Motors CEO, Jit Bhattacharya. “With this funding, we plan to grow our powertrain technology business by becoming a reliable production supplier to our OEM customers. The financing adds to what has already been a big year for our company. With the backing of Warburg Pincus, we will be able to build on our recent accomplishments, taking the powertrain technology that we have developed and integrating it into high-volume production vehicles.”

For Warburg Pincus, the investment in Mission Motors continues a long-tradition of the growth of innovative portfolio companies and technologies.

“Mission Motors has developed innovative and flexible electric drive system technology, which can be applied to a range of vehicle types,” said Michael Graff, a managing director at Warburg Pincus. “We believe they are well positioned to take advantage of the strong growth in this segment, and we look forward to partnering with Jit and the Mission Motors leadership team.”

Mission currently provides vehicle manufacturers with optimized electric powertrain solutions based on the company’s core technology. Examples of Mission’s latest technology at work include the integration of Mission powertrain components in high-performance hybrid race cars and the record-breaking Mission R electric superbike.

Read more: Press Release

CUE is headquartered in Chicago and plans to use this new capital to embark on a road show fueling strategic development in four new major U.S. cities, including: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. CUE’s software as a service (SaaS) platform is an automated, scalable, energy-optimization system that exploits the thermal mass of commercial office buildings to make buildings more energy efficient. By aggregating and optimizing the thermal storage properties of multiple buildings, CUE unlocks valuable transmission and distribution capacity for utilities and grid operators in the most constrained environment: the urban city.

“Smart building technologies are quickly becoming a significant new category of investment in cleantech, where energy efficiency meets mainstream IT,” said Jason Matlof, Battery Ventures Partner. “CUE’s a perfect example of this trend. Their solution uniquely combines proven building physics, a robust hosted software analytics platform, and a SaaS business model to deliver dramatic energy spending savings to commercial office buildings. Rich Earley is a proven entrepreneur and leader and we’re excited to partner with him to help grow CUE into a category leading, sustainable business.”

CUE essentially turns a “building into a battery”™ capable of energy storage on a multi-MW scale. CUE technology helps large commercial office buildings reduce building HVAC energy use and expenses by 15 – 30 percent, improve electric generation efficiency and environmental performance, and at a macro level introduces demand elasticity into electric grid markets.

“This funding is an important and critical milestone for our business, and will enable us to accelerate product engineering and customer acquisition during this next phase of rapid growth,” said Rich Earley, CUE CEO. “The market knowledge and relationships that our new investors bring to the table will help us rapidly penetrate the property management and owner community to become a leading technology provider in the market.”

With this round, Jason Matlof from Battery Ventures and Joshua Ruch from Rho Ventures will assume seats on CUE’s board of directors.

“CUE represents a major milestone in the convergence of the cleantech and IT industries,” said Joshua Ruch, Rho Ventures managing partner. “With a compelling SaaS-based solution, CUE is delivering a new standard of electricity savings that uses a building’s thermal mass and delivers significant megawatt storage capacity to grid operators. We believe CUE is well positioned to take advantage of a significant market opportunity in building energy efficiency.””

Read more: Press Release

Semprius builds its modules using novel processes that combine extremely tiny solar cells with low-cost, efficient optics that concentrate the incoming sunlight more than 1,000 times. Despite the high level of concentration, Semprius modules remain cool for improved long-term reliability and performance.

In addition to its highly efficient cell technology (greater than 40 percent NREL-certified), Semprius utilizes an automated manufacturing process, leveraging standard manufacturing equipment and commodity materials, to dramatically reduce capital and labor costs.

“Semprius modules have been under on-sun testing for several years now with excellent field performance,” said Carr. “From our proprietary micro-cell technology to the enclosure and everything in between, we’ve designed our modules to be efficient, low-cost and reliable.””

Read more: Semprius Press Release

“Our goal at Proterra is to fundamentally transform urban transit,” said Jeff Granato, Chief Executive Officer of Proterra, “The tremendous resources of Kleiner Perkins, leveraged with GM’s automotive expertise and the financial and technical strength of Mitsui, Vision Ridge and 88 Green Ventures gives us an enviable platform to compete and win in the electric transit bus market.”

Proterra’s 35 foot (10 meter) EcoRide BE35™ bus, in daily service at Foothill Transit in Pomona, CA since last September, will be rolling out to VIA Transit in San Antonio and Tallahassee StarMetro later this year. The whisper-quiet, emissions-free bus of tomorrow is completely recharged in under 10 minutes with Proterra’s FastFillTM charging station resulting in a 1 for 1 replacement of diesel buses in service on routes today. Proterra’s lightweight, composite-body bus is a major advance in the transit industry, meeting the stated 2030 goals set by the Federal Transit Agency (FTA) for advanced technology buses nearly 20 years ahead of schedule. Providing significant operating cost savings for its customers, the EcoRide is averaging close to 24 miles per gallon (diesel equivalent) in service, a more than 600% improvement over a typical diesel bus, which averages under 4 miles per gallon, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel cost savings.

“Electrification of public transportation has tremendous benefits to governments, municipalities and citizens by reducing the operating cost of transit, while also eliminating local air pollution and reducing C02 per passenger mile in the industry,” said Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President and Partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

This investment enables Proterra to complete critical federal validation testing of its bus, roll out additional pilot fleets and complete initiatives to significantly reduce costs and increase volume production at its Greenville, South Carolina manufacturing plant, which will have a capacity to produce 400 buses annually. The bus has more than 80% U.S. content from 33 states, and will create approximately 2,400 jobs nationwide by 2015.

Proterra has also strengthened its board by electing a manufacturing industry veteran, David Lehmann, as its new chairman. Mr. Lehmann is a seasoned multinational business executive and has successfully built businesses with $2 billion annual sales. He has conducted business in 28 countries for firms such as General Electric Co., Caterpillar and Solar Turbines Inc. Michael Linse, a partner at KPCB, has also joined the board.”

Read more: Press Release

Today, we’re announcing that we’ve investing $280 million to create a fund that will help SolarCity finance more solar installations across the country. This is our largest clean energy project investment to date and brings our total invested in the clean energy sector to more than $680 million. We’ve also launched a partnership to offer SolarCity services to Googlers at a discount.”

Read more: Google