GE Energy Financial Services, the corporate venturing unit of energy conglomerate General Electric, led a $22m funding round for the US-based eco-construction company Project Frog on Wednesday.
In June, GE named Project Frog as one of the 10 home energy companies it planned to invest in as part of GE’s ecomagination Challenge. Although specific figures for each company remain undisclosed, the total investment in the 10 comes to $63m. GE has also begun construction on a Project Frog sustainable building at its Learning Centre, based in New York state.
Ricardo Angel, senior vice president of venture capital at GE Energy Financial Services, said: "Project Frog fills a market need for high-quality, energy-efficient buildings at a lower cost and less time to completion, which our investment and collaboration will help demonstrate."
Also participating in the round were venture capital firms Claremont Creek Ventures, Greener Capital Partners and RockPort Capital Partners. Rockport led Project Frog’s November 2008 series B round, which raised $8m from investors including Aristone Capital Management, a key backer in Project Frog’s February 2008 $2.3m series A round.