Big IPOs will chart course for the cleantech industry

Enlarge Image

All eyes are on Tesla and Solyndra as the first of the Bay Area’s giant venture-backed cleantech companies prepare for public offerings.

Venture investors say it’s too early to tell if the huge bets they made on the capital-thirsty companies will pay off — but the performance of these IPOs are likely to loom large over the way investors approach big-ticket cleantech companies for years to come.

Both electric-car maker Tesla Motors Corp. and solar panel manufacturer Solyndra Inc. have filed registration papers to go public, planning to raise $100 million and $300 million respectively later this year. A good performance by the companies in public offerings will send a strong message that big investors in cleantech can expect to see a payoff, and could quell some of the unease about the sector, said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association. But as a warning from Solyndra’s auditor last week showed, that’s anything but a sure thing. Even after raising $1.4 billion in equity and debt, Solyndra might lack the financial staying power to survive as a “going concern,” auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers said.

“Companies such as Solyndra and Tesla, who have been through an awful lot, if they can go public and go public in a way that makes these companies look like they’re lasting players, I think that sends the signs of stability that are critically important to the rest of the cleantech community,” Heesen said.

Read the full story in the San Francisco Business Times.