Some highly successful early internet investors are setting their sights on white (industrial) biotech, a recent stream of venture capital suggests. This could give fresh momentum to attempts by white biotech companies to attract muchneeded investors.
On April 17, Pacific Ethanol, a Fresno, California-based company planning to build four ethanol production facilities in west coast states, announced it had completed the sale of shares worth $84 million to Cascade Investment, a firm investing the personal fortunes of Bill Gates, the cofounder and chairman of Microsoft of Seattle.
In February, investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers of Menlo Park, California, which is closely associated with John Doerr, a venture capitalist best known for jump-starting internet household names like Netscape, Amazon and Google, put aside $100 million for investments in technologies producing cleaner energy, transportation, air and water. This adds to the $50 million Doerr has already devoted to green ventures. “Greentech could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century,” Doerr said in a statement.
Perhaps answering his call, on May 1, New York-based bank Goldman Sachs poured CA$30 ($27) million into Iogen Corporation, a biotech company based in Ottawa, Canada that plans to build its first cellulose ethanol production facility near Idaho Falls, Idaho, next year. According to Iogen CEO Brian Foody, the deal makes Goldman “the first major Wall Street firm to make a commitmentto cellulose ethanol.”