Virgin Green Fund was established in 2007 to invest in companies in the
renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
and
resource efficiency Resource efficiency is the maximising of the supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively, with minimum wasted (natural) resource expenses. It means using the ...
sectors in the US and Europe. It closed in 2014.
Investment history
The fund's first fundraising round raised $199m from Virgin and other investors. A notable initial investor was
Wolverhampton City Council
City of Wolverhampton Council is the governing body of the city of Wolverhampton, England. It was previously known as Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough Council (WMBC) prior to the award of city status in 2000, and also as Wolverhampton City Co ...
. The fund's investment focus is on established businesses rather than start ups. It had invested in 10 businesses out of 3,700 considered as of 2010.
Portfolio
As of April 2010 Virgin Green Fund's portfolio included:
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Gevo
The Evolution Series is a line of diesel locomotives built by GE Transportation Systems (now owned by Wabtec), initially designed to meet the U.S. EPA's Tier 2 locomotive emissions standards that took effect in 2005. The first pre-production u ...
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Solyndra
Solyndra was a manufacturer of cylindrical panels of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film solar cells based in Fremont, California. Heavily promoted as a leader in the sustainable energy sector for its unusual technology, Solyndra wa ...
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Odersun
Odersun was a German photovoltaic (PV) company that developed and manufactured CIGS cells on a flexible copper backing, specifically designed for building-integrated photovoltaics. The insolvent company went into administration on 1 June 2012 an ...
* Metrolight
* Wildcat Discovery Technologies
* DuraTherm
* Seven Seas
* Quench USA
* GreenRoad
Shutdown
In 2014, the firm was closed down by the Virgin Group.
See also
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Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and w ...
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Aviation biofuel
An aviation biofuel or bio-jet fuel Note: About">Investable Universe>About' or bio-aviation fuel (BAF) is a biofuel used to power aircraft and is said to be a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The International Air Transport Association (IATA) co ...
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Sustainable aviation fuel
An aviation biofuel or bio-jet fuel Note: About">Investable Universe>About' or bio-aviation fuel (BAF) is a biofuel used to power aircraft and is said to be a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The International Air Transport Association (IATA) co ...
References
Further reading
Virgin Green Fund leads Odersun funding roundBenchmark, Branson Keep Eyes on Cleantech Road– Gevo has received investments from
Khosla Ventures
Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, financial services, agriculture, healthcare and clean technology sectors. Some of its most successfu ...
and Virgin Green Fund.
External links
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Bioenergy organizations
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