In China, one doesn't have to look far to see the country's commitment to renewable energy. In cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, rooftops are now covered with solar water heaters. On the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, towering white wind turbines are popping up where only cattle, sheep and herders on horseback once roamed. While coal consumption is expected to climb more than 3% annually for the next two decades, the government has also required that electrical companies add a significant amount of alternative energy to their portfolios. With the global economy languishing, China — which is not only the world's most populous country, but also the most polluted — offers the promise that its green-energy drive can become a major source of demand for international wind and solar companies.

LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)-- Private business owners, senior lending, asset-based lenders, mezzanine fund managers, private equity groups, venture capital firms, attorneys and hedge fund managers may complete an online questionnaire (http://bit.ly/capsurvey) investigating the major private capital market segments through Friday, November 13, 2009. Individual responses will be kept confidential.

The study, the second in an ongoing series by Pepperdine University`s Graziadio School of Business and Management (http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/privatecapital), examines the private capital industry based on investment type, expected and historical rates of return, financial ratio thresholds, coupon rate distributions and other investment characteristics. Survey participants will receive a first look at the study`s revised outlook on private lending and investing, expected in the first quarter of 2010.

A GOVERNMENT-BACKED fund of at least £1bn is needed to provide finance for growth- focused SMEs, according to one of the UK’s leading venture capital figures.

Cardiff-born Chris Rowlands is completing a review for Business Secretary Lord Mandelson on the availability of growth finance for SMEs in the £2m to £10m bracket – and on whether intervention is required to plug market failure.

Ten-year venture capital returns are falling and they’re not getting up anytime soon.

Annualized U.S. venture returns for the decade ending June 30 were 14.3%, down from 26.2% in the prior quarter and 33.9% a year earlier, according to Cambridge Associates data issued Tuesday by the National Venture Capital Association . The reason is simple – 1999 was a terrific year for the venture industry and as those results roll off, the 10-year index plummets.

Figures can be misleading. Take the stats released on Oct. 27 by data provider DowJones Venture Source, which tracks venture capital investment worldwide. During the third quarter of 2009, VCs invested $998 million in 201 deals in Europe, a 23% jump over the previous quarter. That’s pretty good news. But here’s the rub. The third-quarter figure represented a 48% decline vs. the $1.9 billion (split across 312 deals) invested between July and September, 2008.

So what does this all mean? For one, venture capitalists are tentatively putting their toes back into the water, though many remain cautious. According to DowJones Venture Source’s Arno Castanet, “investors [are] spending less, but spending wisely.” Smaller investments focused on well-recognized growth markets is a trend. The top three European sectors garnering VC interest: IT ($425 million invested), Healthcare ($216 million), and energy/utilities ($296 million).

Innovative Australian life science companies will today get their chance to pitch directly for capital at the Inaugural Life Sciences Investor Summit in Melbourne.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Trade, Anthony Byrne, together with host Victorian Minister for Innovation, the Hon. Gavin Jennings, will launch the event which has attracted national and international investors, including the venture capital arms of the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from Australia, the Asia Pacific region, North America and Europe.

The Swedish government’s venture capital company for the automotive industry, Fouriertransform, has invested SEK 60 million (US$8.6 million) in Powercell Sweden, which develops, produces and sells fuel cells, fuel reformers and auxiliary power units.

“We regard it as very positive that Powercell will gain an additional strong financial owner. This will enable us to be a long-term partner in heavy industrial development projects,” said Per Wassén, chairman of Powercell Sweden and investment director at Volvo Technology Transfer.

The dearth of funding for venture capital investments puts the future of Israel’s entire high-tech industry at risk, says chairman of research company and founder of Giza Venture Capital.

Venture capital firms invested a total of $303 million in Israeli companies in the third quarter of 2009, 50 percent lower than the $600 million they invested in the country in the corresponding period in 2008.

Entrepreneurship and innovation are critical factors that determine the overall economic health of a country, according to the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index.

The index, which considers both material wealth and quality of life when evaluating the prosperity of nations, ranks 104 nations that account for 90 per cent of the world's population.

The World Bank recently released the results of its 2008 World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey. The results show something free marketers around the globe should appreciate. After accounting for differences in per capita income across countries, the World Bank researchers found that countries with easier and less expensive procedures for registering new businesses have higher rates of new business creation.

The figure below shows the relationship between rates of new-business creation and the time it takes to register new businesses. It shows that in countries where it is harder to start a new business (the country’s rank on ease of starting a business is a higher number), rates of new-business entry are lower (the entry-rate density percentage is smaller). (The United States ranked sixth in ease of doing business among the countries in the study.)

NEW YORK--(Business Wire)-- In the face of a severe global recession, the world`s 1,000 largest publicly traded corporate research and development spenders increased spending on R&D in 2008, affirming the critical importance of innovation to their corporate strategies, according to global management consulting firm Booz & Company`s fifth annual analysis of global innovation spending, released today. R&D outlays for these companies rose by 5.7 percent to US$532 billion, even as sales were up only 6.5 percent. While the increase in 2008 R&D spend was less dramatic than 2007's gain of 10 percent, it was just slightly less than the 7.1 percent global five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for R&D.

Overall, more than two thirds of companies maintained or increased their R&D spending in 2008, despite more than a third (34 percent) reporting that net income plummeted last year, according to the study. More than a quarter of companies decreased their R&D allocation in 2008.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States Senate today passed legislation to temporarily extend Small Business Administration (SBA) programs through April 30, 2010. S.1929 provides for a clean extension of all SBA programs. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today issued the following statement on the passage of the extension:

"A six-month extension of the SBA and its programs - including the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs - ensures that the agency has the stability it needs to provide our innovators and job creators the assistance they need to remain successful. While we continue to make progress on all of our reauthorization measures - SBIR/STTR, SBA's loans and venture capital programs, contracting assistance, and management counseling - this temporary reauthorization will help keep America's 29 million small businesses running through the holiday season."

Center for Venture Research

Director, Jeffrey Sohl

www.unh.edu/cvr (603)862-3341

THE ANGEL INVESTOR MARKET IN Q1Q2 2009:

A HALT IN THE MARKET CONTRACTION

Market Size

The angel investor market in Q1,2 2009 experienced a considerable decline in investment dollars from last year but exhibited a slight increase in the number of investments. Total investments in Q1,2 2009 were $9.1 billion, a decrease of 27% over Q1,2 2008, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. However, a total of 24,500 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in Q1,2 2009, a 6% increase from Q1,2 2008, and the number of active investors in Q1,2 2009 was 140,200 individuals, virtually unchanged from Q1,2 2008. The significant decline in total dollars, coupled with the small increase in investments resulted in a smaller deal size for Q1,2 2009 (a decline in deal size of 31% from Q1,2 2008). These data indicate that while angels have not significantly decreased their investment activity, they are committing less dollars resulting from lower valuations and a cautious approach to investing. While the market exhibited a decline from Q1,2 2008, when compared to the market correction that occurred in the second half of 2008 these data indicate that the angel market appears to have reached its nadir in Q1,2 2009.