Frog Capital, the growth capital investor, has invested €3m in agri.capital, Europe’s leading producer of biogas energy.
Based in Munster, Germany, agri.capital has grown from inception in 2004 to become Europe’s largest biogas producer, operating 46 electricity production sites with an installed electrical capacity of 29MW and 3 gas-to-grid sites with a bio-methane production capacity of 7MW. The company employs 130 people and generates revenues of €1m–€2m per annum from each plant.
Germany is Europe’s largest producer of biogas, the product of the natural biological decomposition of organic matter, or biomass, derived from energy crops and agricultural waste. The key attractions of biogas are its ability to produce electricity constantly, irrespective of weather conditions, the fact that it can be stored and that it can be supplied through multiple channels, including the electricity grid, the gas grid or as heat (CHP).
Biogas offers stable revenue streams based on tariffs, currently fixed in Germany for 20 years from the start of each plant’s operation. The German government has set a goal for biogas of 18% of total energy consumption by 2020, as part of the country’s strategy of reducing reliance on imported oil and gas.
Commenting on Frog’s investment, Iyad Omari said: “We have watched the biogas segment with keen interest for some time and are delighted to be making an investment in it through agri.capital. It’s a market segment with considerable momentum and great potential, and the management led by new CEO Dr Anton Daubner have just the right combination of commercial, technical, development and financial experience to take advantage of this.”
The investment was acquired from an existing shareholder and constitutes a portion of the €60m F Series round led by TCW Group that completed in May 2009.
Frog Capital has been investing in cleantech companies since 2005. Its investments include SiC Processing AG, a global recycler of key fluids that are used in the production of semiconductor and solar wafers; Ostara, a wastewater treatment company that recovers polluting nutrients from sludge and recycles them into an ecologically-friendly fertilizer; Hydrodec, a recycler of valuable industrial oils such as the transformer oils that keep electricity grids running; and Solar Century, the UK’s best-known solar energy company.