Why I love Finland…

There is something about the way a Finnish entrepeneur can say - We now have a turn-over of 100 million Euro and next year it will be probably 300 and we have a profit of some 10 million Euro, as if he was stating that he just needs to go to the toilet before he’s off to catch his train.

I know I am generalizing but after having hosted three events in Finland, I believe it is a fact: Finns do more and talk less. There is no boosting in this country, there is also no talking down on others to make yourself look better, there is only people trying their very best to succeed at what they do!

After the Cleantech Venture Day in beautiful Sibelius hall in Lahti I am also impressed with the way that a lot of Nordic cleantech companies are moving forward (I tend to always be impressed by entrepeneurs willing to risk complete failure to succeed, but still…). I was not the only one impressed, feed-back from the investors present was generally positive towards the selection of investment opportunities (and this is not always the case). This time we had a later stage focus meaning that we had tried to round-up some companies that have managed to succesfully commercialise their solution and now were looking to expand further.

The companies that presented were not all in that stage but rather a mixture. Effpower of Sweden showed bipolar battery technology for hybrid vehicles and they have succesfully managed to find target segments where there is imidiate business for them. They were currently being tested in projects of total order values in the range of 100 MEUR. Energy storage was a theme among presenting companies wuth European batteries present (recently built Europes largest battery factory for large scale applications such as electric vehicles) and Alelion of Sweden to mention a few. A company still in the commercialisation phase that presented was Canatu. It is a Finnish company that does nano-tubes making thin films achieve a lot better electrical conductivity (one of many advantages if I understood correctly). When that get’s on the market I think we will see a very proftable company.

What else left an impression? Lord Brown of Riverside (former Chief executive at BP) gave a really good and clear presentation abot the role of government in bringing down carbon emissions.

- Avoid picking winners but be still involved in and invest in a few strategic energy choices.

- Aim for certainty and stability (while critisising CAFE standars and Cap and trade for their lack of that) and

- Aim to inernalise externalities in the final energy costs (including removing some of the 2-300 billion in current subsidies to fossil fuels).

It may not be news but it gives another impression when these things come from the former Chief Executive of BP…

Oh, and we gave a special award to Lassi Noponen, former chairman of WinWinD, a Finnish company that raised 120 MEUR from Masdar Cleantech fund when he was the chairman of it. He was genuinely moved and it felt great to be able to do something like that. He was at our first investor event beginning of 2007 and presented his business case to a crowd of very sceptical investors. They gave him a hard time about more or less everything. I remember the answer ha gave to the question, can a slow moving wind turbine like this really handle cold conditions? Lassis answer was short and sweet:

- It was developed in the north of Finland.

Say no more…

Here is a pic of me and Magnus with Lassi and the award, a piece of raku by Dan Leonette.

Another thing that left an impression was the cleantech related developments that are now taking place in India. Areas that are currently at very early (or non-existent) levels of environmental protection are having policies and regulations placed upon them in a way that will completely transform the India market. YES bank (they never say no:)), a rapidly growing India bank, gave a presentation on cleantech in India. Waste handling and treatment, water conservation and treatment, wind and the solar market will be huge in India over the years to come.

An interesting fact - There are 300 sunny days in India. Let’s see if someone turns that into a song…

Went to the Swedish cleantech contest yesterday

Each year, in Halmstad, there is a contest for early stage cleantech companies - Miljöinnovation. I usually go, I like to see all these up and coming ideas and I really like to talk to the people behind them. Very often the people behind the ideas are super-friendly!

This year Hyheat (energy from waste heat in proecess industry) won the whole thing followed by Solarus (solar panels producing electricity and heat) and Richard Nilsson (innovative rental business model for solar energy). Hyheat has its roots inside one of our members company group; Nykomb, so also congrats to them!

And I heard Hans Enblom of SEB Venture Capital in a panel say something that I really liked (apparently Obama said it before him but he wasn’t aroundJ):

- Don’t let perfection get in the way of good.

Very applicable in many ways, not least towards myself…

Oh and here is a picture of one of the inventions. This guy had a cool technical solution to cutting energy use in engines and was not shy about what he needed from the event!

Two new national cleantech initiatives coming up!

Cleantech Scandinavia member, Sweden Cleantech Incubators have recieved 15 million SEK (holy macaroni that is a lot of stålaresJ) to run the Cleantech Inn, where Swedish cleantech companies will get free coaching on their growth journey. They are also hiring so if you are a cleantech business coach waiting to be found, wait no more, apply for a job at Cleantech Inn. You can check in but you never check out…hehe.

And Finnish Vigo just launched an accelerator program that will invest in early stage cleantech companies and also assist them actively in their growth. Great to see early stage investment vehicles being formed! Very needed to accelerate the cleantech industry. The program will be managed by Cleantech Invest (soon to be Cleantech Scandinavia member;) and among others Tarja Teppo. Congrats Tarja!

Impressions of London cleantech venture capital

Home after three days of meeting venture capitalists with money to invest in the cleantech field, such as Wellington Partners, Capricorn, Frog (who has the coolest office in the world in an old concrete and wooden building) and Zouk as well as attending a UK cleantech investment forum (which I thought was quite a good event, with a few interesting sector panels). I got a few impressions I thought I’d share...

1. Electric transport is being pushed all over, also in the UK. There is government focus and stimulus initiatives in China, Germany, Denmark and Paris just to mention a few. UK is no exception. The UK Comitteee on Climate Change has electrifying transport as one of three main pillars in their policy program that is now being put forward to the government. The goals are to have 240 000 cars on the roads in 2015 and 1,7 million in 2020. Not surprisingly then perhaps that energy storage was pointed to by Justin Adams of BP Alternative Energy Ventures as a coming booming investment area.

2. Long term incentives, higher price on carbon, listen up politicians! The carbon price is the long term determinator for many of the markets which is why investors would like to see politicians focusing that. As pointed out by many panelists, what investors really want too see are long term incentives that they understand and have confidence in. The huge stimulus program in USA with earmarked cleantech money is a blessing for many cleantech companies that get a piece of the pie but it is also in reality slowing some investment decisionsdown since they are now uncertain if the particular company they are looking to invest in or one of its competitors will end up on the receiving end of stimulus money. There is also a concern that the state should not be picking winners, but rather provide markets with the right incentives and let innovators, customers and investors do the rest. Still everyone seems to thinks the stimulus money was needed and that it is a good thing that a chunk of it goes to cleantech. So let's hope they hurry up spending it!

3. An interesting fact was displayed. Looking at new installed capacity of energy last year, number one, two and three are Wind, Gas and PV. Renewable energy has certainly turned mainstream in terms of new capacity.

A final note, I do not remember who said but it kind of stuck in my head: Most problems can be solved if we focus on them. I like that. I also like that Cleantech Scandinvaia will most likely have a some more UK members after this trip. AND I got to see my wifes lovely cousins every evening I was over!

London cleantech

Have just had a Cobra beer and some great Rogan Josh:) I am in London on behalf of a client to present some cleantech investment opportunities to selected investors. Am also meetings with potential Cleantech Scandinavia members and attending the Essential Cleantech Investor Summit. I will of course let you know what came up at this event!

Transport panel coming up

Today I talked to the participants in a panel on ”the future of transport” aimed at an investor audience at our next (fully booked I am pleased to say) event in Lahti end november. They are an exciting mix:

European Batteries – a high capacity battery producer that is setting up one of Europes biggest factories delivering lithium battery system to the vehicles industry

Fortum - a biiiig energy utility that is engaging actively in promoting the electric vehicle build up, check out their electric vehicle charging project here.

St1 - a Waste to Etanol energy supplier building up a distribution network of its own

Volvo Technology Transfer - the venture arm of Volvo Group, who have invested in a huge amount of more environmentally friendly transport related companies. Have a look at their portfolio here (both Fortum and VTT are btw members of Cleantech Scandinavia)!

Interesting to note is that being a part of a new evolving transport industry these actors are used to facing both the scepsism and the hype and as usual, the reality seems to lie somewhere inbetween. It will be a great learning experience for me and (hopefully) the audience I think. Will report about this panel and the entire event afterwards, including the regular visit to the Finnish sauna:)

Cleantech jobs and a Danish cleantech winner

Swedish newsletter Teknik360 writes about green collar job creation today. Job growth in industries such as solar panels and wind is overtaking biotech in terms of job creation and predictions are naturally that jobs will continue to rise in the cleaner parts of industry. The whole report is available at

http://www.cleanedge.com/reports/pdf/JobTrends2009.pdf. Showing how jobs are created in the cleantech industry is is extremely important as a motivator for politicians when they consider policies such as taxing emissions.

And here is a video from our Danish partner Venture Cup when they selected the Danish contestant for Cleantech Open in Silicon Valley. Check out who won!

I read a report today

I started my blog today. Had to try. And I read a report today. It is difficult to choose what information to actually go into in this field since there is a lot available.

This one was done by Innovation Norway and is about wind and ocean based energy. I think both topics are interesting and since one is commercially widespread and one is clearly not, that somehow made it more interestingJ. It was an interesting read, covered both areas pretty well I think. It went trough some of the leading countries and what they do in both fields.

There is a shift in the geographical market for wind, were countries such as Germany and Denmark were previously leading the way in terms of new installed capacity, it is now US, China (and to some extent India) that are the big markets for new wind installations. Naturally wind remains strong in the Nordics in terms of companies with Vestas in the forfront and a lot of both suppliers and other companies following and creating their own solutions. Vertical Wind is one of the companies with their own solution. So is Chapdrive of Norway.

Wave and tidal energy are potentially lucrative since the energy potential in the waves is large. There are some hot spots in the world where the conditions are more optimal such as UK and Portugal. The Nordics have quite a few ocean power companies, all with their very own way of harnessing the powers of the sea. Langley, Seabased, AW Energy, Wavestar, Floating Power Plant, Minesto are a some of them.

Ocean based energy seem to divide the investment community. One group is sceptical towards it and think it will be a very long time before it reaches commercial price levels/kwh if ever. The companies I mentioned are mostly venture capital backed so among their owners and among other investors are believers that over time this form of energy will be a stable solution and reach a profitable price point.

I hope the latter are right...