Last week, Mascoma and GM announced that the automaker would invest an undisclosed amount in the cellulosic ethanol process being developed by Mascoma Corporation. Perhaps its a sign of the times that Marathon Oil Corporation has also ponied up a $10 million equity investment in research and development for the second-gen biofuel process.
As part of the Marathon deal, Marathon senior vice president Cliff Cook joined the Mascoma Board of Directors. Mascoma has also netted $26m from the Department of Energy and Domestic Fuel says that Mascoma has raised a total of $61m in its third round of funding. Considering that GM's investment was part of that $61m, we can calculate that GM's investment is no larger than $25m. Considering there are other investors that make up that $61m, GM's total is something less than $25m. Earlier this year, GM invested (also an undisclosed amount) in Coskata, another company working on bringing cellulosic ethanol to the masses. [Source: Domestic Fuel]
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1. Starting to talk some real money here. When you see companies like this get tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital and third party investment, there's something to this. GM especially wouldn't invest their money if they didn't expect a return on it. And this is the second cellulosic ethanol company they've given money to.
Posted at 8:00PM on May 7th 2008 by Cervus