According to an article published in The Times through the Business section of The Australian, even Richard Branson is jumping into cleantech and investing in Algae biofuel technology.
The article, written by Alexandra Freen and entitled “Branson bets his own money on renewable oils from algae“
RICHARD Branson is betting on algae as an alternative jet fuel and has invested a chunk of his personal fortune in its development.
Sir Richard has joined Unilever in investing in Solazyme as the industrial bio-tech company raised $US60 million in equity funding to develop oil-based products for use in goods ranging from biofuels to cosmetics and foods.
Sir Richard has invested in Solazyme’s financing in a personal capacity. His stake in the Californian company complements Virgin Group investments through the Virgin Green Fund in the renewable energy and resource efficiency sectors.
Here’s what Richard Branson has to say about this cleantech sector:
“Sustainable renewable oils and biofuels will play an important role in our future … We have made a number of investments in these emerging fields over the last four years and I’m excited about Solazyme’s potential to make oils for fuels, chemicals and foods at scale.”
This sector is really coming to the forefront of cleantech as it can produce environmentally responsible biofuel to meet the growing demand as oil prices continue to rise.
CleanTechTV has interviewed Roger Stroud of Algae.Tec this week as they are about to be one of the first companies to IPO in the Australian Algae sector producing biofuels and providing an industrial scale carbon capture solution for large carbon emitters. MOUs have recently been signed by Algae.Tec to build the first demo plant in Nowra and with a Hong Kong based company taking their technology into China. You can watch the CTTV interview with Roger Stroud of Algae.Tec here.
You can download a copy of the Algae.Tec Prospectus here.
For more cleantech news and to be part of the conversation join CTTV on twitter.
Tags: algae, algae technology, algae.tec, algaetec, bio fuel, bio fuels, biofuel, biofuels, cleantech news, Richard Branson, Virgin Green Fund
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CleanTechTV™ tells the world about Australia’s cleantech companies in a way that attracts investment, deals, partnering and licensing to drive the growth of this sector and Australia’s next wave of innovation.
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September 15th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
[...] further investments in the sector – covered in a previous CTTV post this week entitled “Branson banks on Algae” – and Australian-US based algae company “Algae.Tec” has announced MOUs [...]