Cilion, Angstrom Power, Orb, Crystal IS, and Pangaea

Lots to catch up on:

• Matt Marshall at VentureBeat had a scoop last week on a new $170mm raise by ethanol producer Cilion. The funders weren't disclosed, but it's known that existing investors participated alongside new backers -- Khosla Ventures and Western Milling put $40mm into the launch of the company way back in June.

• Micro fuel cell manufacturer Angstrom Power announced an $18mm round of financing led by VantagePoint Venture Partners. Existing investors included Ventures West, GrowthWorks Capital, Chrysalix Energy, OPG Ventures, and Micro-Generation Technology Fund.
  

• Orb Energy, a Singapore-based developer of solar-based backup and thermal systems, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from zouk ventures' Cleantech Europe, Ed Stevenson's Renewable Capital, and the Singh Family. Orb is initially targeting the Indian market, and expects to build their first manufacturing facility in Bangalore.

• Crystal IS, which has proprietary technologies for the production and working of aluminum nitrate substrates, has raised a $10.6mm Series B led by Lux Capital, with participation from 3i, ARCH Venture Partners, Harris & Harris Group, Credit Suisse (on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund) and Taiwanese Linkmore Ltd. The cleantech applications of these substrates include solid-state lighting and UV for detection and purification of contamination (eg: drinking water).

• Cleantech investors in the news: Pangaea Ventures announced the first close of Pangaea Ventures Fund II, which is targeted at $50mm by final closing. The amount of the first close wasn't disclosed, but early LPs include BASF, Solvay and Ciba Specialty Chemicals... Christopher Darby has been brought in as the new CEO of In-Q-Tel, and batteries and nanotech are top priorities... Also of note, Dan Primack notes that Dan Goldman has left New Energy Capital and is taking on an operating role with GreatPoint Energy.

• Venture-backed cleantech M&A: OrganicID, which is developing RFID solutions for tracking forest products and had been backed by ITU Ventures, was bought by Weyerhaueser... Consolidation in the M2M sector as well, with the recent acquisition of MaxStream by Digi International. The $38.5mm deal was done at what looks to be a 3.7x sales multiple.

Other news and notes: Q2 European energy tech investing was up 5x year on year, and was up significantly even if one excludes Ocean Power's big raise... The end of the silicon shortage is growing near, as illustrated by this recent announcement from Dow... We don't talk about politics much on this site (on purpose), but here's an interesting column by Matt Marshall about some wiser venture investors who have taken another tack, and likely provided some good impetus for the state's cleantech industry along the way... Here's an interesting column which shows how cleantech IPOs might be leading the way when/as the IPO window opens back up.