Cleantech Investor

14 June 2013

by Andrew Mitchell of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation

Venture Capital is broken – at least according to a report last year by the Kauffman Foundation. This was certainly a talking point in Washington DC at the US Department of Energy’s National Business Plan Competition on 12 June 2013. Indeed, someone even dared to mention a “cleantech nuclear winter”. The facts are that in all sectors since 1997 less cash has been returned to investors than they originally invested – which makes negative interest rates from the European Central Bank seem not so insane!

But go figure. If I had a big enough bag of money I would invest in each one of the six finalists pitching at the US Department of Energy’s National Business Plan Competition. With absolute confidence that at least one of them would return all the money back, and more. Add to this the confidence from Andrew Chung at Khosla Ventures that corporate venturing is going to save cleantech, there is no nuclear winter and, as David Danielson said, the world has passed the 400ppm CO₂ milestone, so we have to make this work.

Wednesday, June 12th 2013.

Andrew Mitchell of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation reports for Cleantech Investor on his experiences as the only non US pitch judge of the US DoE National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition.

An Australian activist, a Scottish banker and an American serial entrepreneur walk into a bar; and start-up a successful global clean energy venture. No joke. Danny Kennedy, former Greenpeace activist, and Founder & President of Sungevity, brought into focus a key insight from the second annual US Department of Energy National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition.

I am back in Washington DC for a second year to participate in the 'Investor Connect' element of this prestigious competition, which was kicked off yesterday by US Secretary of Energy, Dr Ernest Moniz, with a rallying call for entrepreneurs to deliver on the dual challenges of a clean energy future and jobs, driving further economic recovery for the United States.

Advice for early stage cleantech companies seeing funding: Peter Whiting of Clean Capital spoke at the Investor Readiness Workshop, sponsored by Marks & Clerk and K&L Gates, during the Water Tech Invest conference on 14 February 2013. View a video of Peter's address here:

The five most read articles from Cleantech magazine during 2012 were:

• Learning to breed black swans - by Elisabeth Jeffries (February 2012)
• UK Innovation in Fuel Cells and Hydrogen - from Cleantech Infocus publication in partnership with the Technology Strategy Board (October 2012)
• Editor's Letter - Cleantech magazine  2012 Issue 3 - the 'Islands' special issue (May 2012)
• Beauty, Broadband and the Internet of things - interview with Mary Turner, CEO of AlertMe (November 2012
• The Capricorn Cleantech Fund (Capricorn Venture Partners) - summary of Presentation, Cleantech Fund Manager Platform (March 2012)

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First published in Cleantech magazine, Volume 6 Issue 6. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd

Fast growth in Chinese water sector patent applications makes a case for urgent patent applications by western companies.

By Anne McIvor

Patent applications relating to the water sector in China are soaring. According to data from Marks & Clerk, Chinese applications for patents have grown at high annual double-digit rates over the last eight years, peaking at over 40% in 2010. This year, based on figures to the end of November, Chinese applications look set to grow by over 20% and to account for around 28% of all patent applications globally,within the International Patent Classification System ‘CO2F’ category. This category includes all patents relating to “Treatment of Water, Waste Water, Sewage or Sludge”.

2012 Patent Applications in CO2F Category (Treatment of Water, Waste Water, Sewage or Sludge)

Total: 20,026 (to end November 2012)

Source: Marks & Clerk