Advanced Bioeconomy investment jumps 11% in past year; industry raises $430M in Q2

August 14, 2014 | Jim Lane

Advanced Bioeconomy investing jumps, both direct and via strategics.

The Digest has the data and the scoop in our 5-Minute Guide to the investment landscape

In Florida, Biofuels Digest reports that 12 biobased ventures raised $430.0 million in new capital in Q1 2014. The industry raised $447M in Q1, $128.6M in Q4, and $463.8M in Q3. Overall, the industry raised 1469.4M in the past 12 months, up from $1.318 billion for the Q2 2013-Q1 2014 period, and up from $1.23 billion for the Q4 2012-Q3 2013 period.

In addition, the Digest revised its Q1 capital raise figures from $391M to $447M based on increased final amounts realized by Solazyme and Mascoma.

The capital raising activity

Here’s the deal detail, as tracked at biofuelsdigest.com.

Verdezyne – $48M April
Cool Planet – $100M April
Pacific Ethanol– $28M April
Rivertop Renewables– $26M April
Methes Energies – $5M May
Avantium – $50M June
Amyris – $4M April
Gevo – $25.9M May
REG – $125M June
Cobalt – $2.9M April
Coskata – $5.2M April
KiOR – $10M July, August

TOTAL – $430.0M Q2

Deal Flow of note: Q2 2014

In April, Verdezyne negotiated key terms for an investment of $48 million led by Malaysian multinational conglomerate, Sime Darby Berhad. Led by Sime Darby, this $48 million financing for Verdezyne was joined by existing investors BP Alternative Energy Ventures, DSM Venturing B.V., OVP Venture Partners, and Monitor Ventures. Individually, Sime Darby was reported to invest $30 million in return for a 30 percent stake in the company, which would give Verdezyne a valuation of $100 million.

In April, Cool Planet announced that it closed on its targeted $100 million Series D financing. North Bridge Venture Partners and Concord Energy were the lead investors for the round. The round added investors from Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Mexico to a marquee existing investor base, including North Bridge Venture Partners, Shea Ventures, BP, Google Ventures, Energy Technology Ventures (GE, ConocoPhillips, NRG Energy), and the Constellation division of Exelon.

In April, Pacific Ethanol announced it priced an underwritten offering of 1,750,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $16.00 per share, for gross offering proceeds of $28.0 million. Lazard Capital Markets LLC and Cowen and Company, LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Pacific Ethanol intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to pay approximately $0.9 million in outstanding principal and accrued and unpaid interest owed under the terms of its senior unsecured notes, and will use the remaining balance of the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes.

In April, Rivertop Renewables announced that it had raised $26 million in its Series B investment round from Cargill, First Green Partners and existing investors.Rivertop will leverage these funds and an existing manufacturing relationship to produce market development quantities of salts of glucaric acid for select customers. In addition, it will complete construction and begin operations at a semi-works facility at its headquarters in Missoula, where it will optimize its process for world-scale deployment.

In May, Methes Energies International announced the pricing of its previously announced underwritten public offering. The Company is offering 2,500,000 registered shares of its common stock, par value $0.001 per share, at a price to the public of $2.00 per share. In connection with the offering, the Company has also granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 375,000 shares of common stock from the Company to cover over-allotments, if any.

In June, Avantium announced that it had closed a financing round of $50 million from a consortium of iconic strategic players. This unique consortium consists of Swire Pacific, The Coca-Cola Company, DANONE, ALPLA, and existing shareholders. Follow on investments were made by existing shareholders Sofinnova Partners, Capricorn Venture Partners, ING Corporate Investments, Aescap Venture, Navitas Capital, Aster Capital and De Hoge Dennen Capital.

In April, Amyris and Kuraray announced the expansion and extension of their ongoing collaboration in high performance polymers using Biofene, Amyris’s brand of renewable farnesene. As detailed in the agreement, Amyris will receive an undisclosed amount of collaboration funding over the next two years, and Kuraray will purchase approximately $4 million of Amyris’s common stock in April of this year.

In May, Gevo announced the closing of a $25.9M financing with Whitebox Advisors consisting of a senior secured term loan exchangeable into senior secured convertible debentures. The Convertible Debentures can be converted into common stock of the Company at a price equal to the lesser of $1.49 or a 15% premium to the 5-day forward looking volume weighted average price following closing of the Financing. The Convertible Debentures carry a 10% coupon, of which 5% is payable in cash and 5% is payable in kind and capitalized to the principal amount of the Convertible Debentures. Gevo also has an option to draw an additional $5.2 million if certain conditions are met.

In June, the Renewable Energy Group sold $125 million aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2019. In connection with the offering, REG expected to grant the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional $18.75 million aggregate principal amount of such notes to cover over-allotments, if any.

In addition, Cobalt raised 2.9M (here), Coskata raised $5.2M (here) and KiOR raised $10M (here).

Previous quarters

Q1 2014

KiOR – $25M March
Solazyme — $202M March
LanzaTech – $60M March
Ceres — $20M March
Genomatica – $6.8M March

Mascoma — $2.0M March
Rennovia – $25M February
Renewable Energy Group – $26.2M February
Chromatin — $36M January
Amyris — $34M January

TOTAL – $391.0M Q1 2014

Q4 2013

Amyris — $51.8M October
Coskata – $3.3M December
Gevo — $25M – December
Green Biologics — $25M December
Cobalt Technologies – $4.1M December
Z-Trim – $1.4M December
Ennovor — $12M November
Verdezyne – $6.0M November

TOTAL – $128.6M Q4 2013

Q3 2013

KiOR – $70M July, August, September
Heliae — $28.4M July
Coskata – $3.0M August
Intrexon – $160M August

Lyxia — $1.6M August
Amyris – $60M August
Triton Algae — $5M September
CoolPlanet – $19.4M September
Fermentalg — $16.4M September

TOTAL – $463.8M Q3 2013

Q2 2013

AgBiome – $14.5M April
Ostara – $13M April
KiOR – $30M April, May, June
Cobalt – $23.2M April
Coskata – $4.5M May
Genomatica – $20M – Versalis JV, April
Intrexon – $150M May
Camson Bio Technologies – $10M May
BioAmber – $80M May
Enerkem – $50M June
CoolPlanet – $29.9M June
Amyris – $10M June