Climate change is the defining crisis of our time and recent years have seen a huge amount of interest and drive to fight the crisis, from society at large, major corporations, SME’s and the wider investment community. Pressures on the sector, from politics to economics, mean that competition is rife for investment capital and market share, so what does 2022 into 2023 hold for the ClimateTech sector?
Following rapid growth between 2013 and 2018, ClimateTech investment plateaued through 2018-2020, tempered by macroeconomic trends and the pandemic. Investment rebounded sharply in the first half of 2021, driven, by a heightened focus on ESG in private markets, emerging regulations and standards, and a commitment to net zero strategies. So who are the investors driving the sector forward?
This is an opportunity to hear directly from a successful entrepreneur and investor who has developed a portfolio in ClimateTech. From setbacks and successes to where they see their next investment of development coming from, this session will provide an inspiration for all those in the room involved in highly innovative areas.
ClimateTech companies presenting innovative technology and investment opportunities. Each company will present for 10 minutes, in ONE of TWO Presentation Rooms:
Room 1: Energy Transitions
Room 2: New Horizons
This is an opportunity to hear directly from successful entrepreneurs and investors who have developed a portfolio in ClimateTech. From setbacks and successes to where they see their next investment of development coming from, this session will provide an inspiration for all those in the room involved in highly innovative areas.
Energy Transitions
In collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) as part of the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) Resource Team program, NANO Nuclear is currently in technical development of its proprietary portable and on-demand capable advanced nuclear micro reactor or micro-Small Modular Reactor (µSMR), “ZEUS”. The “ZEUS” design will be modular and enable it to connect with local power grids or power systems, revolutionizing how remote communities, recovery from natural disasters, mining project, and military bases, among others, obtain consistent electricity.
New Horizons
ZESST – for Zero Emission Speed Shuttle - vision is to contribute to mobility decarbonation by providing a green maritime alternative to road transport. ZESST mission is to provide the world’s most compelling zero emission ships. ZESST are hydrofoil vessels powered by green energy that are fast, comfortable, silent and wave free. Our product line starts with the ZESST Precursor, a 7 persons hydrofoil ship for leisure and water taxi that is a stepping stone toward a 100 passenger ship for public transport.
Energy Transitions
CAUSIS' unique ability to deliver a complete mass transit network with net zero emissions, connected by an AI powered smart technology network will transform public transport as we know it. It is clear that CAUSIS has been listening to what the world needs right now, and we’re excited to see how governmental ministers and private transport network providers respond to this revolutionary transport solution provider.
New Horizons
Our technology programme is transformational providing a curated deal flow of selected and coached tech start-ups clearly aligned to market Net Zero challenges.
We are the one stop shop for commercial success in the Scottish and UK Water sector. Those that are selected to participate in our programme are coached and supported to build a clear line of sight to field trial and commercial success. We reduce the risk of failure through our bespoke programming and complete support offering including deep and broad market access, specialist facilities and flexible funding opportunities.
We aim to become the center of gravity for water innovation and technology, offering access to a community of exciting, transformational tech businesses supporting and leading Scotland’s efforts in delivering Net Zero before anyone else.
Energy Transitions
INERGIO intend to replace diesel generators by a ‘’fuel flexible’’ fuel cell technology. The main goal is to allow the consumer to first benefit from commercial fuels such as LPG (camping gas) or bio-gas, or natural gas to i) Not bother with challenges of Hydrogen (production, storage, distribution, safety, etc), ii) benefit from liquid fuel with an energy density of 60x more than Li-Batteries, iii) to be able to switch to Hydrogen once it will be widely and commercially available without any technology adaptation
New Horizons
Hexem’s wastewater treatment system will be rented out to industrial wastewater producers. It is currently developed to reach TRL 6. The TRL 5 prototype treated 2-5 m³/day of cheese whey while producing up to 80% pure biogas. The prototype already surpassed the literature value of a 20-fold size reduction compared with current technology. It still has to reach its full capacity. In the next step, the pilots will treat 20-50 m³/day. Two different locations in Switzerland, one in the Netherlands, one in Germany and one in the UK are currently in early stage planning (Letters of Interest are available). The funding requested will be used to build the five pilots treating industrial wastewater and to launch a commercial product that can be rented out.
Energy Transitions
We have been deploying our fuel cell solutions since early 2020 on a wide range of mobile and stationary applications. We are currently developing fuel cell systems of greater than 200kW for large power applications such as in mining, marine and large back-up power. In addition, we are collaborating with high end automotive players and major aerospace companies. We have raised nearly 10M CHF thus far, and are currently in our Series A as we scale up our production capacity to meet the growing needs of our clients.
New Horizons
Leather is a beautiful, durable, natural material, up-cycled waste from the meat industry. Consumers and brands increasingly demand high quality leather with Net Zero and better water efficiency.
Qualus dramatically improves the environmental and financial performance of leather manufacturing. Its SferesTM patented retrofit technology replaces water used in the production process with inert, reusable polymer beads. The efficient retrofit system eliminates c.40% of the process water, 15-25% of chemicals, and significantly reduces cycle time, effluent, energy usage and embedded carbon.
Energy Transitions
Pelican Energy Partners (“PEP”) is a private equity fund based in Houston, Texas, the energy capital of the world. PEP has a ten-year track record of investing in small to mid-size companies that provide highly technical products or services to the energy sector. Our core competency is sourcing proprietary deals, working directly with owners and entrepreneurs as the first institutional capital in the companies in which we invest. We have developed a proven methodology to drive professionalization of the business to achieve growth well beyond what the founders had attained. We do control deals and have a deal team consisting of highly experienced executives with C-level management experience that creates a strong foundation for our investing approach and methodology.
New Horizons
Plastogaz SA develops technologies for the transformation of unrecyclable plastic waste into value-added products using catalysis. Specifically, our hydrocracking technology converts polyolefin waste into their precursors which can be used to manufacture virgin grade products.
ClimateTech is not just one thing that needs to be changed, and whilst each and every ClimateTech sector has seen increased investment, they have not benefited equally nor in proportion to their potential beneficial climate impacts. How for example are the worst offending industries e.g. heavy industry, power and energy and heavy duty transportation evolving, are they receiving the backing they need?
- Is capital being put off by unpredictable timelines for product development and as yet unproven tech?
- What is the roadmap for success in ClimateTech and is there cross-over between sub-sectors?
- At what stage is the funding gap in ClimateTech and is all the best tech able to properly scale?
- Are investors really focused on the big long-term problem or affecting incremental improvements for short-term gain?
ClimateTech companies presenting innovative technology and investment opportunities. Each company will present for 10 minutes, in ONE of TWO Presentation Rooms:
Room 1: Solar
Room 2: Circularity
Solar
Maana Electric has developed a revolutionary system, the TerraBox, to turn raw sand (desert sand or mining/construction waste streams) into solar panels directly on-site. The solution offers a much lower price per watt compared to conventional silicon solar panels, a local production, reducing supply chains, associated emissions, and enabling the local economy, a vast reduction of CO2 emissions and chemicals usage in the production process. Overall, the production processes guarantee the greenest solar panels on Earth!
KPI’s: 12 different technologies with several patentable | 5 pilot projects for 2023 | TRL: 6 | TAM: €568 Bn in 2030 and €1,700 Bn in 2050 | CAGR 10% | Next Step: Industrialization
Circularity
SAMAWATT has developed OptimalAsset™, a plug-and-play automated trading software-as-a-service solution that monitors simultaneously the fluctuation in the renewable farm production and the dynamics of the wholesale electricity market supply, demand, and prices. OptimalAsset™ implements a novel kind of machine learning models to optimize the electricity future sales commitments in order to manage in advance the unexpected supply to the grid due to production intermittence.
SAMAWATT democratises access to the wholesale electricity market for more than 6500 small- and medium-sized farms in Europe alone. It is uniquely placed as the first fully-fledged end-to-end integrated platform that meets all the requirements for renewable energy trading: production forecasts, dispatch optimisation, price risk management, profitable trading strategies, automated algorithmic market execution and real-time financial reporting.
Solar
Voltiris’ solution is crop-compatible solar modules, based on spectral filtering. The modules let through the light components needed by the crops for photosynthesis, while the rest is reflected and focused onto photovoltaic cells to generate electricity. This results in the production of renewable energy without impacting the agricultural yield of the crops below the modules, as 100% of the light required by the plants for their growth is transmitted to them.
Modules are installed inside the greenhouses, above crops and protected by the roof. An advantage resulting from this is that the solution can be deployed quickly as no permits are required.
Circularity
The business model falls into three areas:
SageTech has developed a medical device to capture the waste gas on a sustainably sourced carbon media contained in reusable canisters.
Once full the canisters are collected and taken to a local hub to be emptied. Empty canisters are provided to the hospital.
The waste is collected in large bulk vessels and taken to a central purification facility to be processed. The purified anaesthetic can then be sold to a pharmaceutical company to bottle and sell back to hospitals or SageTech has the option to bottle its own product for re-sale.
Hence there are 3 revenue streams:
- Sale of capture device capital equipment
- Waste collection service, cycling full and empty canisters to the hospital
- Sale of purified, recycled anaesthetic gas
A similar business model will be used to serve the veterinary market.
Solar
Solaxess exploits 7 CSEM patents to develop and manufacture innovative colored foils, increasing social acceptance of PV energy on buildings (BIPV), small infrastructures (e.g. bus stops, car parking), vehicles, boats or any other iPV application. Each color is specially developed to ensure the best visual/performance tradeoff and is thoroughly tested to ensure long-term reliability. The technology is designed to be the easiest to implement during PV panel manufacturing, with the potential to be extremely cost-competitive at large-scale.
PV modules become full-building elements that are cost effective, durable and aesthetically-pleasing to replace conventional passive surfaces. These respect both the architectural environment and building traditions, while contributing to the well-being of city residents by reducing the urban heat island effects, a major future problem in urban areas.
Circularity
Stamp Free is made up of three core products.
- Easycode: offers a no-hassle, end-to-end label free returns journey for carriers and customers. Cost-saving and secure for retailers. Easy and contact-free for their customers. No need to write an address. Access an Easycode on your smartphone, write it on the return, then post or drop off as usual.
- Digicode: customers simply access a Digicode using our app/integrated carrier app, write it on the parcel/letter (just like a handwritten barcode) and post as usual. Our solution is stand-alone or can be embedded in the carrier’s app. World-leading AI handwriting recognition technology scans and validates each item for security and end to end tracking.
- Digitrack: this app is for carriers to manage, sort and track Easycode and Digicode sent items. It offers speed, accuracy & easy handling of hand-written barcodes for carriers throughout their network. From A to B completely label free.
Accessing global investment can offer venture and growth-stage ClimateTech companies considerable opportunities to successfully grow, especially in the current climate. But with challenges for smaller companies expanding beyond their native regions, from fragmented regulatory markets to scaling complexity, what should founders and investors consider when looking globally?
- Foreign capital pools: opportunities and risks
- Do you relocate for proximity to investors, split over 2 locations or stay put?
- When in the life cycle is the right time for international expansion?
- Expanding beyond the local environment: R&D, regulatory considerations; geographical and cultural requirements
Special pre-scheduled individual One-To-One meetings will be taking place in our dedicated meeting area. This session will consist of 4 x 20min One-To-One meetings.
This will be an informal reception allowing you to network with all attendees, building and expanding valuable networks.