CMEA Scraps Green Growth Fund
We've written a lot about the cleantech funding void, for VC-backed companies with some sort of manufacturing component (e-vehicles, biofuels, etc). Many of these startups were founded on the assumption of available credit, but fell into a capital hole when the banks began blowing up. This led to the creation of gap-filling “green growth” funds, from firms like Blackstone Group, C Change Capital, CMEA Capital and Kleiner Perkins. Actually, scratch CMEA Capital from that list. San Francisco-based CMEA has canceled plans to raise the $500 million-targeted fund, as first reported this morning by VentureWire. I spoke with CMEA managing general partner Jim Watson, who said that the decision was driven by the recognition that CMEA’s core competency is in early-stage transformative science rather than in later-stage growth financing.
