3i is a leading international venture capital and private equity firm that was founded in 1945 to invest in buyouts, growth capital and venture capital in order to create market-leading companies. Since its inception, 3i has invested over $32 billion worldwide and has a staff of 700 employees operating in 14 countries.

In the U.S., 3i invests in early and late stage technology companies in the software, communications, semiconductor and healthcare sectors. We have offices in Menlo Park, Calif. and Waltham, Mass.

3i’s cleantech investments reflect the breadth of technologies that come into play and that can be considered "clean technology" – those that optimise the use of natural resources while reducing ecological impacts – such as software, chips, advanced materials, fuel cells, water treatment systems, wave energy converters and more.

Technologies in the sector tend to fall under one of the 11 segments: agriculture; air and environment; energy efficiency; energy generation; energy infrastructure; energy storage; manufacturing/industrial; materials; recycling and waste; transportation; and water and wastewater.

Within the clean technology sector we have invested in many companies including: Konarka (solar), Amperex Technology (battery technology), Electawinds (wind), and Daalderdrop (efficiency HVAC and solar).

Our Venture Capital business operates in Europe and the US, investing between $1-$50 million per deal in start-up and early-stage operations. Growth Capital invests between $10-150 million per deal to acquire minority holdings in companies across Europe, Asia and North America. We also make investments in infrastructure between $70-$350 million per deal, focusing on European, North American and Asian infrastructure assets. Our QPE team acquires influential or controlling shareholdings in small and mid cap companies across UK and Continental Europe typically with an enterprise value in the range of $100-$2 billion. Buyouts acquires majority holdings in European businesses with a enterprise value up to around $1 billion.