Germany-based industrial conglomerate Siemens’ corporate venturing unit and UK-based energy company British Gas have backed Germany-based smart-grid company Power Plus Communications.
The pair of investors joined existing investor Climate Change Capital Private Equity, a €200m European private equity fund which is managed by Climate Change Capital, a subsidiary of US-based Bunge, in the company’s €12m ($15m) series B round. Siemens and British Gas invested €4.5m each, while Climate Change Capital Private Equity invested €3m, according to a person familiar with the deal.
CPE is a €200 million European private equity fund that invests expansion capital in high growth, later stage companies and buy-outs in the areas of clean power, clean transport, energy efficiency, waste recovery and water. CPE is backed by leading institutional investors including Alpinvest, Robeco and Universities Superannuation Scheme.
Bruno Derungs, a Partner of Climate Change Capital Private Equity said, “We are very satisfied that during our competitive fund raising process, we were able to select two investors as partners who we believe will be able to substantially contribute to the future development of PPC”.
In November 2008, CPE invested €10m in PPC. Other shareholders include founders, management and key employees. Detlef Pohl of SFS and Petter Allison of British Gas will join Manfred Krüper (Chairman), Torsten Gerpott and Bruno Derungs on PPC’s supervisory board.