Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), a venture capital firm, has used its corporate venturing-backed clean-tech fund to lead a £3.3m ($5m) investment in UK-based hydro generation schemes developer Green Highland Renewables.
Economic development agency Scottish Enterprise was the other participant in the Green Highland investment. Green Highland specialises in developing small scale ‘run of river’ hydro projects from about 100kW to 2MW.
SEP’s Environmental Energies Fund is a £95m ($153m) fund set up after the secondaries sale of portfolio companies by local energy utility Scottish & Southern Energy’s corporate venturing unit, SSE Ventures.
Tony Robison, who focuses on the secondary investments in the Environmental Energies Fund, said: “We consider Green Highland Renewables to be ideally placed to exploit the significant growth opportunity in the small to medium scale hydro market….Our investment will enable the company to expand its operations and cement its position as the leading Scottish-based developer of run of river hydro generation schemes.”