The financial crisis and subsequent recession has led to a sharp decrease in VC investment in technology. The New York Times reports that the clean tech sector–and solar in particular–has been the hardest hit:
During the first quarter of 2009, investment in green technologies by venture capitalists, who drive a disproportionate amount of financing in new technologies, shriveled.
In the first quarter of this year, they invested only $154 million in 33 young companies, a drop of 84 percent from the last quarter of 2008 when, despite the crumbling economy, they invested $971 million in 67 start-ups, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. Investment in the first quarter of 2009 reached the lowest level since 2005, before clean technology became Silicon Valley’s newest new trend.
The story includes a graphic that almost made me lose my lunch:
