Cleantech Survey

Results of the Cleantech Investment and Private Equity survey conducted by Cleantech Investor and Norton Rose earlier this year have now been published. The survey was conducted amongst both cleantech companies and investors - predominantly from Europe and North America. Key findings included the following:

Energy efficiency is expected to be the cleantech sector attracting the most investment interest in the immediate short term

Wind will continue to be the main sub-sector in cleantech energy generation; notwithstanding this trend, solar has recently attracted more investment than any other sub-sector

Cleantech generated electricity cannot immediately satisfy the world’s ever increasing energy needs; it is felt that it will take some considerable time to displace fossil fuel based technology; in reality the expectation is that it will require a mixture of different technologies to satisfy consumer demand

The USA was identified as being the most likely beneficiary of private equity driven cleantech investment

Europe is perceived as offering the greatest incentives for cleantech investment

Political and regulatory support by governments, and the financial incentives they provide for cleantech innovation, are seen as crucial factors in the continuing growth of the cleantech sector

Banks are still cautious about lending to the sector, despite proposals to support the green economy, and debt remains tightly controlled

Cleantech investments are viewed with a greater degree of caution in comparison with other sectors; despite this, any fear of a cleantech ‘bubble’ does not appear founded.

A summary of the survey has been published in the latest issue of Cleantech magazine and is available on the Cleantech Investor website. The full survey is also available for download from the Cleantech Investor website.

WHEB chosen by Environmental Innovation Fund

WHEB Ventures is the first fund to receive investment from the Hermes Private Equity Environmental Innovation Fund. WHEB Ventures focuses on Cleantech companies with solutions for resource efficiency and conservation and invests predominantly on Europe.

Hermes was selected to manage a fund of funds on behalf of the UK Innovation Investment Fund and confirmed that it had raised £125 million in January (read comment in Cleantech magazine).

The UK Innovation Investment Fund was launched last year by Lord Drayson.

Cleantech Investor takes over Clean Ventures blog

Cleantech Investor has taken over the Clean Ventures blogspot from Tim Chapman. Tim has been a regular contributor to Cleantech magazine for almost three years and we are sad to lose his input, but we wish him well in his new role - and we would like to thank him for handing over the blog. We hope we can keep up the high quality of comment and insight into venture activity in cleantech which Tim has been providing over the years.

Cleantech Investor will comment here on cleantech venture activity. The blog should compliment our coverage of deals and fund news on the Cleantech Investor website and in Cleantech magazine: Cleantech Deal Tracker - and Cleantech Fund News.

Watch this space!

Anne McIvor, Editor Cleantech magazine