First published in Cleantech magazine, January 2011. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2011
STING Capital is a unique venture capital fund which invests in very early stage companies, focusing on ICT and medtech as well as cleantech. It was founded in 2005 by Innovationsbron Stockholm and STING (Stockholm Innovation and Growth) and remains closely linked to STING - a not for profit company which is financed by the Electrum Foundation, Innovationsbron Stockholm, the City of Stockholm, KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology), Ericsson and ABB.
STING has an incubator programme and many of the companies in the incubator subsequently receive investment from STING Capital. The organisation also includes STING Business Angels, a source of deal flow for STING Capital. The links between the fund, the incubator and the business angel network are a powerful magnet to attract companies. There are also advantages in terms of costs. The management fee of a typical fund, if applied to a fund which invests in relatively low numbers of very small early stage companies, would be disproportionately high. However, the STING incubator management serve as the management of the STING Capital fund, a structure which keeps costs down.STING Capital has funds of SEK 85 million under management in its first fund, which was raised in 2006 from a variety of investors, including a number of institutions. The focus is on institutional investors for the second fund which will be fund raising in 2011. STING Capital frequently acts as a feeder for others searching for investments, once its companies have become sufficiently established.
According to STING CEO Pär Hedberg, the unique organisational structure plays an important role in encouraging Swedish companies to look beyond their national borders. Hedberg says that a UK start-up company in one of the sectors which STING encourages typically grows five times faster than its Swedish counterpart, by virtue of the benefit of a larger domestic market. In order to compensate for the relatively limited scale of the Swedish market, STING encourages companies under its umbrella to expand internationally - creating Swedish technology companies which can compete on the global stage and creating export oriented businesses in the Stockholm region.
Hedberg observes that for many technology companies it is easier to sell their products in emerging markets such as India or China than in Western Europe. He points to examples such as Midsummer, a company which is rolling out production of thin film solar production lines in multiple cities in China; and Predect, which offers real time measurement of water quality and has recently signed its first customer contract in China with a waterworks in Tianjin.
The table lists cleantech focused companies affiliated to STING and STING Capital.
Company | Description |
Cortus | Cortus has developed WoodRoll®, a process to produce synthesic gas from biomass for high temperature process industries. |
Diamorph | Diamorph has developed an advanced glass and ceramic material which is extremely hard, has high magnetic properties and thermal stability. |
FlexiClean | FlexiClean has developed a new filter container for purifying storm water, efficiently preventing pollutants from reaching water reserves. |
HiNation | HiNation has developed a high efficiency solar cell lamp which offers portable energy from a combined light source and portable electronics charger. |
Mantex | Mantex's technology detects biomaterial composition, enabling optimisation of raw material consumption in the paper and pulp and bio energy sectors. |
Midsummer | Midsummer has developed a new method of producing solar cells with radically lower costs and offers turnkey solar cell production lines. |
myFC | myFC develops high performance fuel cell chargers and low cost fuel cell components for portable electronics. |
Peepoo | Peepoo has developed a self-sanitising and biological degradable disposable toilet for people without toilet facilites - in the process creating a fertilizer resource. |
Plagazi | Plagazi has developed a method for extracting biofuel from waste which can also create hydrogen gas. |
Plasmatrix | Plasmatrix has developed vibration-dampening surface coatings for mechanical industries, providing enhanced precision, longer life and lower production costs. |
Predect | Predect offers a solution for real time monitoring of water quality with the ability to stop distribution and undertake sample testing where pollution is suspected. |
Rehact | Rehact has developed an integrated building energy system providing renewable heating, cooling and ventilation and large reductions in energy costs. |
SEEC | SEEC provides components and system design for seasonal energy storage (heating and cooling) in balanced ground storage, reducing energy consumption. |
Solarus | Solarus has developed solar power technology deploying both thermal and photovoltaic in one hybrid solar panel, enabling very low kW costs. |
TranSiC | TranSiC designs power transistors in silicon carbide for control systems for electric motors, typically in wind turbines and in electric cars. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
