Doral, a newly-listed, Israel-based solar energy group, has set up a NIS50m ($15.3m) corporate venture capital fund.
The Doral Renewable Energy Resources Group, which builds, develops, and operates renewables energies and earned 32% on its previous investment in Phinergy, founded Doral Energy-Tech Ventures to invest the allocated capital during its first year.
Doral Energy-Tech Ventures will back early-stage solar, wind, biogas, storage, managing infrastructure, and waste treatment startups.
Yaki Noyman, CEO of Doral Energy, which floated earlier in the month, told news provider Calcalist: “The purpose of these investments is to gain a competitive edge over other energy companies that we deal with in Israel, Europe, and the US. We are directing our investments to leverage Doral as a significant player in launching companies’ activities’ and aim to be the first to invest in them, but without becoming a controlling shareholder. However, we also are not ruling out investments in later stage-companies, such as what we did with Phinergy.”
Doral had invested NIS8m ($2.4m) in solar panel company Phinergy in December. Doral holds 1% of the company’s shares at a valuation of NIS 10.6m after its flotation.
Doral carried out the investment as part of a contract it signed with Phinergy to collaborate on research and development as well as its energy storage technology that uses solar panels with zinc-air batteries.
Separately, US-listed asset manager BlackRock said it would launch Decarbonization Partners to invest in cleantech. BlackRock, which also raised a $4.8bn global renewable energy fund, said there was a $10 trillion investment opportunity in the transition to a net-zero economy.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Amazon, Microsoft and Generate Capital each have launched funds of $1bn or more aimed at accelerating the transition to a low-carbon future, while renewable energy and storage companies raised a record $20bn in public markets in 2020 and electric vehicle makers raised nearly $28bn, according to BloombergNEF. Some $732 billion in sustainable debt was issued.
