Greylock, Israel Cleantech establish joint venture

Greylock Partners and Israel Cleantech Ventures are reportedly establishing a platform to invest in the cleantech industry. The new venture, called CleanStart, will focus on investment in early-stage start-ups and ideas developed within Israeli academia, covering a range of sectors including clean energy, water technologies, and energy effiency.

In 2006, Greylock Partners, a leading U.S.-based venture capital fund, launched Greylock Israel, a separate $150M fund dedicated to investing in early-stage Israeli technology companies.

Israel Cleantech Ventures focuses exclusively on investments in Israel-related companies developing technologies in renewable and alternative energy, water resource and waste water treatment, “smart-grid” and process efficiency technologies, pollution monitoring and mitigation and “green” agriculture. It is raising a $60 million fund and has already invested in lighting solutions company Metrolight Ltd. According to "Globes", the fund is due to make three further investments in the coming weeks.