By Poornima Gupta
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Following a successful public debut of one of its companies last year, a San Francisco venture capital firm is now guiding two more of its green portfolio firms to raise money in the public markets.
CMEA Capital, an early stage investor in many green firms including battery maker A123 Systems that debuted successfully last year, is planning to brave the IPO market again with Silicon Valley companies Codexis and Solyndra.
"What A123 demonstrated is that the IPO market is available to companies that are very highly differentiated," said Tom Baruch, CMEA founder and managing director, in an interview.
Green start-ups that have distinct technology, and have demonstrated that their business model works, have a good chance of attracting investor interest, both in the public and private markets, Baruch said.
With oil prices moving up steadily and the U.S. economy stabilizing, investors and experts are forecasting that 2010 will be marked by some of the more mature green start-ups testing public enthusiasm for companies that have big growth potential, but little profit.
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