Clean Technology

Clean Technology deal volume continued its upward trend by showing a 31% increase to $93 million in total funding among eight companies. Much of the funding was for series B or later funding rounds, with four of the eight companies receiving $70 million out of the $93 million total.

Quench and Miox Corporation raised $26 million and $19 million, for their series B and series C rounds respectively.

Quench, a water cooler company, has developed what it says is "our exclusive Ultraviolet Light, seven step purification process…” Miox has created technology around mixed-oxidants that enables users to purify water in remote locations. The company says mixed oxidants are safer and better than standard chlorination approaches.

Energy

Venture-backed Energy company fundings dropped by 20% compared to the previous quarter. The number of companies funded also dropped 25%, from 16 the previous quarter to 12 in the current quarter.

Boston, Massachusetts-based Focal Energy raised a $35 million round of funding during the quarter. Focal invests in "income generating assets in the distributed energy and infrastructure sectors in India."

Also on the international front, Kosmos Energy secured $15.6 million from Warburg Pincus. Kosmos is focused on finding and developing oil reserves in the west African region.

Ionova Technologies received $75,000 in grant funding from the Maryland TEDCO. Ionova is developing what it calls 3-D Nanofilm technology that dramatically increases the energy storage capability of lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors.

One of the largest funding rounds of the quarter went to PowerGenix, which received $30 million from a syndicate of venture capital firms. PowerGenix has developed a "high energy density, high cycle life and low cost nickel zinc (NiZn) battery that is specifically designed to utilize existing nickel-cadmium (NiCd) manufacturing processes, techniques and equipment, thereby significantly reducing time-to-market, and eliminating costly equipment design steps.” The company has raised over $57 million to date.

Environmental

The environmental sector tallied four transactions, three of which were series A rounds totaling $27.5 million out of the $30 million for the quarter. Mobile handset recycler ReCellular received a $15 million series A financing round from Investor Growth Capital. The company said it would be able to expand its operations as a result of the funding.