Algae-based biofuel companies have been raking in the venture capital this year, raising a record-breaking $179.5 million to date, according to numbers from the Cleantech Group.

That compares with what appears to be about $32 million raised last year, based on a Cleantech Group chart of quarterly totals that doesn't list the actual numbers.

"Algae has really exploded this year as an investment theme," Brian Fan, a senior director of research for the group, said at the Cleantech Forum earlier this week in Washington, D.C.

The latest round of financing arrived Wednesday, when Cascades Investments, an investment firm owned by Bill Gates, doled out $50 million to algal biofuel maker Sapphire Energy (see Bill Gates Digs Algal Oil).

The move comes on top of the $45.5 million the Cleantech Group had already tracked this quarter, bringing the total so far to $95.5 million – and the quarter isn't over yet.

That compares with less than $4 million raised in the third quarter of last year, and makes the third quarter the best ever for algae-based (or algal) biofuels.

Before this year, the first quarter of 2007 held the historical high for the most money raised in a single quarter with $15 million, Fan said.

But while VC investments in algal biofuels are up, they still only comprise a fraction of the total amount that biofuels companies have raised.

In the first two quarters of 2008 algae biofuels raised $84 million, with all of the investments in the second quarter, while the rest of the biofuel sector raised $406 million.

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