Update on my previous article on our portfolio company Isilon:
The Seattle-based company debuted on NASDAQ on Friday, December 15, 2006 under the symbol “ISLN” and opened at $25, up 92% from its IPO price of $13. It’ll be the third biggest opening day gainer of the year and will have market cap far above $1.4Bn! Atlas Venture V was a founding investor in Isilon in May 2001.
What an amazing year end! Congrats to the whole team involved!
Isilon, one of our portfolio companies, a worldwide leader in clustered storage systems and software for digital content, today went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Isilon is enabling enterprises to transform data into information and information into breakthroughs. Customers include media power houses such as NBC, mySpace, LexisNexis or ABC.
My dear fellow Fred Destin has provided some further insights into this exciting deal. Priced at $13, the stock hit highs in the $20-s during today’s trading.
Congratulations to the responsible Atlas team on this great success story!
Almost unnoted by many here in Germany was the recent IPO by Petrotec, a producer of bio-diesel based on renewable resources (various forms of natural or chemical substances, oil etc.). In 2005, the company delivered revenues of €40.5M and an EBITDA of €8M, and now has a market cap of €180M.
The global market for bio-diesel is poised for explosive growth in the next ten years. Although Europe currently represents 90% of global bio-diesel consumption and production, the U.S. is now ramping up production at a faster rate than Europe. Currently, Germany still has a leading position in the consumption of Bio-Diesel here in Europe (see chart below):
The bio-diesel market, especially here in Europe , has gone through various ups and downs in the last couple of years. Recently, the legislative changes in several countries have lead to a reduction of subsidies, which could potentially hamper demand in these markets.
For example in June of 2006, German legislation was adopted in order to tax bio-diesel going forward:
“Für Biodiesel und Pflanzenöl soll ab 2012 der volle Mineralölsteuersatz gelten. Reiner Biodiesel wird ab August 2006 mit neun Cent pro Liter besteuert. In Stufen von sechs Cent wird die Steuer ab 2008 jedes Jahr bis 2011 erhöht. Ab 2012 greift dann ein Steuersatz von 45 Cent. Er liegt damit zwar um zwei Cent unter dem Satz für fossile Brennstoffe, allerdings ist der Brennwert von Biosprit auch entsprechend geringer. Auch reines Pflanzenöl, das zunächst steuerfrei bleiben sollte, wird ab 2008 in Stufen von acht Cent besteuert.”
Takeaway: After the solar / photovoltaic market, the bio-ethanol / bio-diesel market might be the next big wave in cleantech. The favourable feed-in-tariffs in Europe, especially in Germany , have not only led to an enormous market uptake BUT to an unprecedented increase in innovation and new technologies. Many successful start-ups have grown up and did successful IPOs in the past few years. Bio-Fuel could be another of these opportunities for Germany to spur innovation, if legislation remains favourable and if venture capitalists continue to invest in these emerging areas.
OpenBC, one of the top Web 2.0 companies in Germany, has revealed plans to go Public in 2007. Below are a few facts:
– From 1.7.2005 to 30.6.2006, almost €6M revenues have been achieved.
– Per September 2006, 1.45 Mio members have registered at OpenBC
– About 13% of these members are paying members.
– The company plans to offer additional services in 2007 and plans to expand to the USA.
There are a lot of speculations in the air about timing (as soon as within the next few weeks), possible valuation (some estimate €200M) or exit proceeds.
Congratulations to Lars for building up such an amazing Web 2.0 company here in Germany and good luck for the closely watched IPO!
Congratulations also to BrainsToVenture for seeding OpenBC / XING, when few people have even heard the word “social networking”.
GermanVentureBlog.de 
