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!