| Company in the spotlight: Akkuser |
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We are glad to present the first interview in a series of "Cleantech company in the spotlight". These interviews will help highlighting Nordic cleantech growth companies and most importantly their current market status. Most of these companies are currently looking for funding, like today's featured Finnish battery recycling company Akkuser.
 Surely you must have wondered what happens to the gazillions of batteries (or 200,000 tons in the EU to be more exact, quoting the Finnish Minister of environment) that are increasingly used in the things we play around with. Finnish expansion company Akksuer knows. We talked to CEO Jarmo Pudas about an expanding battery recycling market. Read more...
Cleantech Scandinavia Hall of Fame: Lassi Noponen!
During the Cleantech Venture Day in Lahti we gave a special award (a pice of raku art by Dan Leonette) to Lassi Noponen from Finland. This was the first award of this kind and also marked the opening of a Scandinavian Cleantech Hall of Fame, where we will continue to award people like Lassi who have inspired others in the Nordic cleantech industry, helping to accelerate Nordic cleantech development and growth. Lassi was a true early mover in the Nordic cleantech industry. He started cleantech focus investment firm Proventia as early as 2000. WinWinD was the result of a spin-off in that time and Lassi was the chairman of WinWinD when the investment from Masdar Cleantech Fund went into the company.
 The official motivation is:
"For showing by example that big capital injections from international actors are possible in the Nordic cleantech sector. The investment by Masdar Cleantech Fund in WInWinD was a milestone for Nordic start-ups looking for investors in the commercialisation stage. It was the single largest cleantech investment by far in year 2008 and helped place the Nordic region on the international cleantech capital map."
Lahti leaves a taste for moreThis year's Cleantech Venture Day in the beautiful Sibelius Hall in Lahti on November 25th - 26th (with a waiting list of 30 people!) went well in many ways. It was encouraging to see the way a lot of Nordic cleantech companies are now moving forward, both in development and in market shares. Investor feed-back was also generally positive towards the selection of investment opportunities.
This time we had a by invitation/members only investors lounge with 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. This session was very appreciated, and will be followed by others like it. The programme of the Pre-event is posted for download on the "Publications" page of our website. The companies that presented the day after were not all in that stage but rather a mixture. This did not make them less interesting, and also here it shows that markets are opening up and sales focus is paying off.
Other things that left an impression this time was Lord John Browne of Riverstone Holdings LLC (former Chief Executive at BP) who gave a presentation on the role of government in bringing down carbon emissions, and the cleantech related developments that are now taking place in India. Areas 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 Indian market. YES Bank, a rapidly growing Indian bank, gave a presentation that clearly highlighted these growing market segments.
Success of the Stockholm Cleantech Venture Day'09Cleantech Scandinavia has been a co-organiser of the Stockholm Cleantech Venture Day held on the 29th of Spetember, and two side events - Stockholm Cleantech Tour and the Workshop for Cleantech Start-ups. All events have been a success, drawing participants from across Europe, Asia and the USA. View the slideshow of the pictures taken during the event. Photographers: Lasse Lychnell and Bea Tigerhielm. Here you will find the video footage made during the conference. The author is Björn Paulsson from Open Entrepreneurship. Watch the presentation Alexander Lidgren gave during the conference: "Nordic Cleantech: Facts, Trends and Outlook".
"We are very happy with the turn-out. We had more than 300 participants, a large crowd of entrepreneurs and investors, and got positive feedback from basically everyone. I think our challenge ahead with events lies in delivering new and sometimes even unexpected content, and screening actively for new investment opportunities. We will do both" - says Alexander Lidgren, co-founder and chairman of Cleantech Scandinavia. "Hunting for Green Ideas" - a video report by Venture Cup Denmark (in Danish). Author: Kasper Hulthin.
The highlight of this year's programme was the 25 pitches by the promising Nordic cleantech companies that were competing not only for investors' attention, but also for the "Cleantech Company of the Year" award. The competent jury had a difficult task of selecting a winner out of such competition, but the award has found its hero - Malmö based company Watreco. Congratuations to the CEO, Mats Eliasson! You can read more about the award in the press-release.
About Cleantech ScandinaviaCleantech Scandinavia is a membership network of investors and affiliated cleantech professionals designed to:
In addition to our network activities, we also offer consultancy services on an individual assignment basis. Read more about it and download our fact sheet . |
