Start-up Strikes $1.25 Billion Partnership With Chinese Company
Massahcusetts-based GreatPoint Technologies strikes a deal to build a large-scale, environmentally friendly plant in China.
GreatPoint Energy, a Massachusetts start-up, is set to sign a $1.25 billion partnership with China Wanxiang Holdings to build a large-scale power plant in China. It’ll be the country’s first that uses hydromethanation—a process used to convert coal into natural gas, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The first phase of the project will be completed in 2015, at which point the plant’s energy production is expected by the companies to make up around 0.5 percent of China’s energy needs. Following the construction of the first plant, GreatPoint Energy and China Wanxiang Holdings hope to build similar plants elsewhere around Asia and the globe, according the Journal.
This energy deal—coming amidst efforts by the Chinese government to control the country’s pollution—includes a $420 million equity investment by China Wanxiang in GreatPoint, which, according to VentureSource, is the largest investment ever by a Chinese corporation in a U.S. start-up funded by venture capital. The deal will generate 2,000 full-time jobs, GreatPoint Energy president Daniel Goldman told the Journal.
“The U.S. had good energy technologies and strong research and development capabilities,” Dr. Gu Jun Yuan, President of China Wanxiang Holdings, told the Journal. “We can’t let commercial interests hinder the development of new technology and clean energy for the world.”
The partnership announcement comes as Western eyes examine China’s particular breed of thriving entrepreneurialism after a year of boom, in which 138 venture-backed companies in China went public. What else should you keep on your radar regarding China? We at Inc.com created a list of 7 Start-ups to watch this year.–Abby Tracy
Photo via madiko83
