Become a Cleantech Nation – Just Don’t Forget the Sustainable Part

Published on CleanTechies by Susan Gladwin, Global Program Manager of the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program

There’s a compelling and thought-provoking book making the rounds called Clean Tech Nation that should make its way to your must-read list this Fall.

Authored by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, the thrust of the book is that the U.S.—long a leader in various technological revolutions—is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to clean technology leadership.

To wit: the UK is the world’s number one generator of offshore wind power. China has become the world leader in wind turbine and solar panel manufacturing. And Germany added more new grid-connected solar PV and produced more biodiesel in 2010 than any other country in the world. Read more….

ECC : First Arena meeting on October 2-3 in Milan, Italy

We would like to give you some insight into the first Arena Meeting which will take place on October 2nd and 3rd in Milan, Italy. The program will begin with the Investors Round Table the first day, then the Cleantech Growth Arena the following day.

These events are co-organised by the International Venture Club and Intesa San Paolo.

You can find a summary of both events in which the 20-25 best selected startups will get the chance to take part in at the end of Phase 1 (submission of your ideas online and evaluation by a scientific jury) on the International Venture Club website :

http://www.iventureclub.com/events/list-upcoming.aspx

Bootcamp Sessions with Maverick Angels

The angel investor network will provide European Cleantech Challenge’s finalists with intensive coaching and training to make them become highly successful entrepreneurs. You will get advice on how to master communication skills in order to make high-quality and convincing presentations in front of investors.

Check out their website :http://www.maverickangels.com/about-us/

Here is what entrepreneurs who previously participated in the Bootcamp are saying about the Maverick Angels: http://www.maverickangels.com/testimonials/

European Cleantech Challenge’s International Investor Roadshow : Who Are The Investors ?

         Many thanks to all of those who have taken their time to submit their entry ! We have received some great submissions so far and it will surely be a tough task for the judging panel to select a shortlist. Let us remind you that, if you haven’t done so already, the NEW submission deadline is next Sunday, August 26^th at midnight GMT.

Today, we would like to give you some details about the International Investor Roadshow. For those of you who have already registered and/or submitted ideas, you might be wondering : Who am I going to meet in this International Roadshow ? Who are these “top investors” I will get the chance to pitch to in Arena Meetings ?

         Well, here are some names of Venture Capital firms and Business Angels who participated in last year’s editions of the European Cleantech Challenge.  We hope this non-exhaustive list will reassure those who have registered to the challenge and will encourage those who haven’t done it yet !

• Sofinnova Partners (Paris, France)
• Aster Capital (Paris, France)
• Caixa Capital – Sociedade de Capital de Risco (Lisboa, Portugal)
• BASF Venture Capital GmbH (Ludwigshafen, Germany)
• 360° Capital Partners (Milano, Italy)
• Atlante Ventures (Milan, Italy)
• Italian Angels for Growth (Milan, Italy)
• IBAN – Italian Business Angels Network Association (Milan, Italy)
• Environmental Technologies Fund (London, UK)
• GP Bullhound Ltd (London, UK)
• GreenTEKventures (Switzerland)
• Clean Capital (London, UK)
• Jefferies International Limited (Frankfurt, Germany)
• Robert Bosch Venture Capital (Stuttgart, Germany)
• Earlybird Venture Capital (Hamburg & Munich, Germany)
• Vaekstfonden (Hellerup, Denmark)
• Samsung Ventures Europe (Staines, UK)
• Veraventure Oy (Helsinki, Finland)

European Cleantech Challenge : What happened to previous participants ?

Are you still hesitating on whether you should participate in the European Cleantech Challenge or not ? Sure, meeting business angels and VCs in an International Roadshow sounds like a great idea. However, is it worth the travel time and cost spent for all these Arena Meetings? Well, let’s take a look at what happened to Agroils Technology, a renewable energy company who participated in the Cleantech Challenge. Last March, we were glad to report that the Italian start-up, based in Florence, Italy had raised about $1.5 Million (€1.1 M) in the venture financing round. The investment was provided by X-Capital S.p.A. ($1.2 M/ €0.9 M) and Italian Angels ($0.27 M / €0.2 M) – Source: Biofuels International, Italy.

Agroils Technologies focuses on innovative processes enabling the production of superior quality biofuels, animal feed and molecules of pharmaceutical interest from no-food Jatropha energy crop. The Italian company intends to use the proceeds from the financing to develop its technology to produce biofuel, protein biomass for animal feed and Jatropha. Their solution has already helped many Jatropha farmers to optimize their production in Senegal, Nigeria and Dominican Republic.

This is only one of many success stories of start-ups that have successfully closed their funding round following the program. Give yourself a chance to succeed as well : www.europeancleantechchallenge.com ! Please note that registration and submission deadline is August 24^th.

5 Reasons to join the European Cleantech Challenge 2012:

1. Funding

If you are a start-up looking for funding, this is really a unique opportunity to pitch to top investors (Angels and VCs) in Milan, London, Frankfurt, Paris, New York and San Francisco. Every investor Arena Meeting is attended by, on average, 75 selected investors. Many of the start-ups that went through this program in previous editions have successfully closed one or more rounds of funding. One of the finalists from last year is now incubated at 500 Startups.

2. Coaching/Mentoring

If you have already gone through start-up bootcamps in your career you might be doubtful whether there will be any value in attending yet another one. Having gone through the program ourselves, we really think there is something special about this one. The group / one-to-one sessions held by Bill Barber and his team at Maverick Angels are top quality. They really focus on helping you improve the pitch and provide some great insights on how to approach investors and fine-tune your 10 slide presentation.

3. Networking with other start-ups

You will have the opportunity to meet and bond with start-ups from different tech fields and countries. Going through each stage of the program you will meet great fellow entrepreneurs and share ideas, experiences, feedback and insights that can be extremely valuable.

4. Intesa Sanpaolo Partner Network

Being the second largest Italian bank, with a significant presence abroad, Intesa Sanpaolo reaches out to a large network of partners, service providers as well as large corporate organizations. These contacts can be extremely useful for start-ups looking to grow their business. The focus is on funding, but you will get much more out of it (media coverage, meeting potential partners, customers.)

5. Free to Join!

There is no fee to join and the submission only takes a few minutes to complete. We really think that, if selected, you will benefit hugely from the program!

 

If you have any question or need any further clarification, feel free to send us a message at carole.nguyen@skipso.com. All the best on your submission and we hope to see many of you at the first bootcamp weekend in Milan on October 2^nd !

Get to know the European Cleantech Challenge 2011’s finalists : EnerCloud and Windesign

Today, we would like to describe the last two finalists of last year’s European Cleantech Challenge : EnerCloud, specialized in ICT and Windesign, focused on energy and transportation. Both successfully passed each selection phase and got the chance to meet top investors from all around the word in Arena meetings.  These two start-ups stand out amongst 30 other participants thanks to their strong business project.

ENERCLOUD

Link in Italian http://www.provincia.torino.gov.it/ambiente/energia/progetti/Enercloud/index

Founded in 2012 in Torino, Italy, EnerCloud is a project co-funded by the local government. It is led by MIC TORINO and involves Public Administration, Noverca (Italian Telco Operator), Microsoft Italia and important energy managers.

EnerCloud offers an intelligent cloud-based energy monitoring solution system enabling organisations to access, gather, store and analyse energy consumption data over the web. Planning and implementing efficient energy solutions becomes easy to manage. As a result, EnergyCloud’s long term monitoring service allows users to obtain significant savings.

WINDESIGN

Link in Italian : http://www.windesign.it/home.html

Established in 2009 in Forti, Italy, Windesign develops, manufactures and distributes a unique patented and innovative micro wind generator consisting in a small scale vertical axis and a hybrid Savonius/Darrieus turbine for power generation dedicated to low wind speed sites. The mini turbine is very quiet, provides high level technical performance and is a means to limit environmental pollution.