The decision to set up Spain-listed Gamesa’s corporate venturing unit was taken by the company’s president, Jorge Calvet, when he took over the reins of the company in 2009.
"This is a personal project of the president," said David Mesonero, director of business development at Gamesa, who is overseeing Gamesa Venture Capital. Mesonero said he had to inform Calvet regularly of what was going on at the division, or "he would end up informing himself".
Mesonero added: "This business will always stay 100% inside Gamesa as it is so important to the company goals." He said Gamesa planned to back "only disruptive technologies" in other renewable sectors, and woul look to find synergies with the engineering solutions and multiple patents the company had developed in its core wind business.
Gamesa insisted on a right of first refusal for start-ups it backed, he said, because of the huge amount of "added value" that Gamesa would give to a company it backed. He said the company also sought to achieve a strong financial return and would not make investments purely for strategic reasons.
The business was officially unveiled in May this year, with a €50m ($65m) fund, and it has already made two investments, although Mesonero said he had been working on the project since the beginning of 2010 at the behest of Calvet, who had decided venture investing would be key to Gamesa’s ability to innovate.
Gamesa Venture Capital has already invested in Skybuilt Power, a USbased solar energy company, for a 28.7% stake, and WorldWater & Solar Technologies, a US-based purified water provider, for a 25% stake. The two companies’ products are designed to provide energy and water respectively to remote places. Gamesa donated two of WorldWater’s water purifiers to Japan during the Fukushima nuclear disaster earlier this year.
Mesonero said the company was currently talking with other venture capital firms to pursue joint investment opportunities, allowing it to participate in bigger deals.