Sapphire Energy, which converts algae into synthetic crude oil, raised $144 million in one of the biggest cleantech deals in the past 12 months,according to VentureBeat. Monsanto, Venrock and Arrowpoint Partners, among other undisclosed investors, participated in the funding round.
Sapphire has signed deals with Continental Airlines and Boeing to test out algae-based jet fuel, and the company provided fuel for the Algaeus, an algae–powered Toyota Prius.
Solazyme, Algae.tec, and Sapphire are the biggest players in the algae-to-fuel space.
Sapphire was founded in 2007 with investments by Arch Venture Partners, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, the Wellcome Trust, Venrock, and Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment, according to the article.
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