The top 25 Nordic Cleantech Start-ups

24 Pages·2014·1.44 MB·English

The top 25 Nordic
Cleantech Start-ups
nordiccleantechopen.com | 02
03 | nordiccleantechopen.com
| Contents
Introduction
| 04 | The Jury
| 06 | The Applicants
| 06 | The Top 25
| 06 | Gender Bias
Interviews
| 09 | A look at previous contestors
| 09 | Sofia Kocher, Vasasensor
Introduction
| 10 | Jonas Carlsson, Just Common Sense
This year we received 107 applications | 11 | Hilmir Jonsson, Remake Electric
to the Nordic Cleantech Open. It is an
increase with 20% compared to last round.
The Top 25 Companies
This mirrors in a good way what we see
in our everyday work. The number of | 13 | Arsizio
cleantech companies coming out of the
| 13 | ATC Industrial Group
Nordic innovation system is ever increasing.
| 14 | Biocover
The Nordic Cleantech Open is a
| 14 | BioGTS
competition that aims to identify, upgrade
and highlight the 25 most promising | 14 | Chromafora
start-ups. The competition also aims to | 15 | Cityntel
benefit the entire field of Nordic cleantech
| 15 | Clean Motion
in that it is marketing the entire amazingly
diverse, numerous and innovative span of | 15 | ClimaCheck
new exciting companies that are currently
| 16 | CorPower Ocean
coming out of the gates. We promote the
Nordic cleantech brand by putting the | 16 | Craynano
companies in front of international investors
| 16 | Cyclicor
and industrials.
| 17 | Disruptive materials
All though we see the Nordic Cleantech | 17 | DWT
startup scene as a large smorgasbord, all
| 17 | Ecofective
the time filling up with even more of these
countless delicacies, we do know many | 18 | Ferroamp Elektronik
will end up failures. It is the sad fact of
| 18 | Giamag Technologies
any startup scene that good ideas usually,
fore different reasons, just do not pass the | 18 | Graphene batteries
harsh test of reality. This makes picking
| 19 | Nocart
the winners the challenge. The Nordic
Cleantech Open is serving the boiled | 19 | Optistring
down result of the preferred menu choices
| 19 | Orbital Systems
of over 50 venture capital and corporate
venture capital investors. These companies | 20 | SenSiC
represent the butter from the rich cream of | 20 | Spectral Engines
Nordic cleantech start-ups. Like fine wine,
| 20 | Stigo Electric Scooter
these companies will mature and become
even better with age. There will be less | 21 | Tamturbo
successful cases even among the selected
| 21 | Thermo Power Scandinavia
few but have no doubt; here lies the future,
the new green economy and the shooting
stars of business to be. | 22 | About the founders
nordiccleantechopen.com | 04
The Jury |
We are very happy about the jury of the Nordic Cleantech
Open! In fact it is hard to imagine a more competent jury.
It is large; it consists of the most competent people that
can be found in relation to the task and they have really put
their extraordinary talents to the task. The jury consists of 51
cleantech venture experts. Most of them represent venture
funds or corporate venture funds with an investment focus on
cleantech. Peter Cook Julien Mialaret Bernhard Mohr
Senior Investment Officer Investment Manager Managing Director
IMF Idinvest Partners Evonic Corporate
The jury members have worked very hard and did an excellent
Venturing
job in assessing all the applicants. We received a total of
1318 individual company assessments, each consisting of 3
individual grading’s of the companies’ innovation, market
potential and team. This means that the jury delivered 3954
votes! Each applying company was assessed by at least 11 jury
members and most of the numerical assessments were also
accompanied by written comments.
Joost Waeterloos Joško Bobanovic´ Changhua Wu
The Dow Chemical Partner Director
Company Sofinnova The Climate Group
Greater China
Aaron Small Mikko Huumo Victor Christou
Associate Fortum Venture Partner
WHEB Partners Wellington Partners
Indrek Kelder Juha Lehtola Ulf Bojö Lennart Ohlsson Jaan Heinsoo Nils Lehmann
Investment Manager Investment Director Senior Investment Senior Vice President, FDI Manager Manager
SmartCap Finnish Industry Manager Metso Sustainability and Estonian Investment Agency The Carbon Trust
Investment NEFCO technology development / Enterprise Estonia
Johan Gerklev Harald Olderheim Thorbjørn Machholm Johan Reynaert Fredrik Jonsson Nina Harjula
Environmental Manager Investment Manager Director, Grundfos New Investment Manager Partner Head of Development
Skanska Sweden Energy Future Invest Business Capricorn Venture Deloitte Cleantech, LADEC and
Grundfos Management Partners Finnish Cleantech Cluster
05 | nordiccleantechopen.com
| The Jury
Hans Enocson Toby Moore Nicolas Maréchal-Abram Linda Zheng Marc David Daniel Zhu
President and CEO for Managing Partner Project Manager General Manager in Investment Director Venture Partner
General Electric the Nordic Imprimatur Capital Fund Veolia Environnement China ALIAD Venture Capital Tsing Capital
and Baltic Regions Management Research and Innovation Conduit Ventures
Richard Riggs Andrus Viirg Giovanni Ravina Kai Engelhardt Adrien Henry Alberto Clergue
Investment Manager Director, Enterprise GDFSuez Mahle Blue Orange Investment Manager
BASF Venture Capital Estonia Silicon Valley SODENA
Mikael Hannus Per Ericson Karsten Höjberg Claire Cockerton Hans Engblom Aslak Andersen
VP Biorefinery Venture Partner Autodesk Level39 SEB Venture Capital Analyst
Stora Enso Biomaterials Environmental Technolo- Agder Energy Ventures
gies Fund
Tarja Teppo Pål Breiland Stefan Jakélius Binella Vannesjö Andreas Stubelius Andre Lindvest
Partner Investment Associate Investment Director Business Developer Business Developer Investment manager
Cleantech Invest Investinor Industrifonden Swedish Energy Agency Swedish Energy Agency Marble Invest
Magnus Agerström Olof Blomqvist Jussi Nykänen Peteris Treimanis Kari Herlevi Pia Salokoski
Managing Director Project Manager Founding Partner & CEO Investment Director Senior Technology Adviser Programme Director
Cleantech scandinavia Cleantech Scandinavia GreenStream BaltCap TEKES TEKES
nordiccleantechopen.com | 06
The Applicants |
The applicants
More companies than ever applied to this round of the Nor-
Number of applicants to the different rounds of
dic Cleantech Open. We received 107 valid applications to
Nordic Cleantech Open
this round of the competition. Actually we have seen a steady
120 growth in the number of applicants of around 20% for each
100 round we held the competition. The large number of applicants
80 is a quality indicator for the top 25. In this batch only 23% of the
applying companies made it to the list. This means that 77% ore
60
82 companies did not make it. Most if not all of these applicants
40
are also very promising young innovative companies. The jury
20
just found the top 25 even more promising!
0
2010/11 2011/12 2013/14
The applicants represent all the Nordic countries. The number
National origin of applying companies of applicants from each country is a result partly of the size and
quality of the cleantech startup scene in each particular country
partly of the outcome of the marketing effort we as organizers
Year 4
Denmark have been doing. For this round the number of Swedish appli-
Estonia cants is larger than ever and also represent a larger percentage
Finland
of the applying companies than ever. 51% of the applicants were
Year 2
Iceland
Swedish. Also the number of Danish applicants has increased
Norway
Sweden over time and this round 13 Danish companies applied repre-
Year 1 senting 12% of all applicants. The number of Norwegian com-
panies were very small this round. Only 6 Norwegian companies
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% applied. Estonia was participating in the competition for the first
time. This resulted in 11 Estonian applications.
Applying companies spread on the different segments
Regarding which cleantech segments the applicants say they
Year 4 are active in there have been some minor developments since
Air, Water, Waste previous rounds. Although the spread on the different segments
Energy Efficiency have been quite stable there have been a slight increase in the
Year 2 Green Building number of applicants from the two smallest segments, smart
Renewable Energy
power and transportation. Also we recorded a slight decline in
Smart Power
the previously largest segment; renewable energy.
Transportation
Year 1
Actually the applicants from the different countries are quite
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
equally distributed among the different segments this year. The
previously strong bias towards the renewable energy segment
Applying companies from the different countries,
among Norwegian companies cannot be seen. Transportation
spread on the different segments
is a small segment particularly in Finland but larger in Denmark
and the newcomer Estonia.
Sweden
Norway The top 25
Air, Water, Waste
Iceland Energy Efficiency
The top 25 is distributed among the countries in almost the
Green Building
Finland Renewable Energy same way as the applicants are. Norway had a good year in
Smart Power this respect as 3 out of 6 applicants made it to the top 25 and
Estonia Transportation Denmark, Estonia and especially Finland was not very fortunate
Denmark this year as a smaller share of their applicants made it to the top
25 than could have been expected from the number of applying
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
companies. Sweden had a slightly higher percentage of appli-
cants on the top 25 list than of the total number of applicants.
The different countries share of top 25
51% of the applicants were Swedish and so were 56% of the
top 25. In total the Swedish dominance in the competition was
Year 4 strengthen in comparison to previous rounds. Only Denmark
Denmark managed to keep their previous share of the top 25.
Estonia
Finland
Year 2 Comparing with the share of applicants one segment generated
Iceland
Norway more companies to the top 25 than expected. 40% of the top 25
Sweden companies are in the segment Energy Efficiency while only 28%
Year 1 of the applicants are. The segments with a smaller share of com-
panies on the top 25 list are to some degree Air, Water, Waste
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
07 | nordiccleantechopen.com
| The Applicants
but more importantly Renewable Energy. Within Renewable Different cleantech segments share of the top 25, %
Energy there are only two more traditional power generation
companies, BioGTS and CorePower Ocean. In contrast there
are three different companies doing power inverters for renew- Year 4
able energy. These are Ferroamp, Optistring and Nocart. Air, Water, Waste
Energy Efficiency
Compared to previous rounds the Energy Efficiency segment Year 2 Green Building
Renewable Energy
is growing in importance in the Nordic Cleantech Open top
Smart Power
25. One reoccurring type of company in this segment are the
Transportation
Year 1
optimizing companies that typically bring in small and relative-
ly cheep devices that optimize previously installed equipment.
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Examples of such companies are ATC/Scypho, ClimaCheck
and Ecofective. Other examples are the sensor companies
this year represented by Spectral Engines and SenSic. Also Gender of the companies spokesperson, all applicants, %
the small segment of Transportation has an increased num-
100%
ber of companies on the top 25 list this time. There are two
actual vehicles on the top 25 list, CleanMotions Zbee and the 80%
amazing Stigo electric scooter. In the area of new advanced
60%
materials there are several very exciting companies; CryNano,
Giamag Technologies, Cyclicor, Disruptive Materials, DWT and 40%
Graphene batteries. A qualified guess would be that we will 20%
see at least one of them among the top three in the competi-
0%
tion.
Female Male
Other companies on the list are water saving company Orbital
Systems with a shower that saves 80% on energy and 90% on
Gender of the companies spokesperson, top 25
water. Arsizio, with an extrusion tool that enables new prod-
100%
ucts and material savings of up to 50%. Biocover, that has
working solution solving problems applying slurry to farmland. 80%
Problems with hazardous heavy metals can be solved through
60%
Chromoforas innovative technology. Cityntel has a self config-
uring system for truly intelligent streetlights. Tamturbo offers 40%
completely oil free compression. Thermo Power develops new, 20%
more compact and efficient cooling devices for trucks. Read
0%
more about all the companies in the Nordic Cleantech Open Female Male
Top 25 section of this report.
It is hard to make conclusions on trends for the entire Nordic Gender of the jury members %
Cleantech start-up scene based on the statistics above but the
100%
developments are in line with trends we have seen also else-
where, like in the Dealflow report 2012 and 2013. The inter- 80%
est in the Renewable Energy segment is not quite as large as
60%
previously while interest in the other segments remains strong.
As renewable energy is traditionally the preferred segment 40%
of Norwegian cleantech this may explain why there is less 20%
vibrancy in the Norwegian cleantech scene.
0%
Female Male
Gender bias
It is should be a surprise to none but we still want to point it
out, there is a grave need of more female entrepreneurs in
the cleantech sector. Out of 107 applicants to the competition
only 5 of the contact persons mentioned in the applications
are women. The contact persons are usually the CEO or have
another leading role in the company.
When it comes to the top 25 only two of the 25 spokespersons Of the 51 Jury members 44 are men and 7 are women.
mentioned in the applications were women. This is however As in the rest of the business there is a strong gender bias
a much higher percentage than for all the applicants. This also in the jury of the Nordic Cleantech Open.
confirms our belief that a successful cleantech sector needs
more women.
nordiccleantechopen.com | 08
Interviews |
09 | nordiccleantechopen.com
| Interviews
What happened to the previous top 25 companies
We have had a look at what happened to the previous 49 of success for young research intensive companies like the
top 25 companies (there are 49 as Enevo was allowed to ones we are examining.It might be that turnover and profit is
compete both in the first and second round). Just from going something that will be richly present in the future but not in
through the web pages one can conclude that there have the current development stage. The company’s development,
been both successes and failures. One company, Numcore on average, looks like steady growth in turnover for most
(top 10 2011/12) was so successful it was sold already while of the companies. A few good examples are Seaweed
in the competition. Several companies have attracted private Energy Solutions, Svenska Aerogel, SEEC, Just Common
funding after participating in the Nordic Cleantech Open top Sence, Ecospark, Applied Nano Surfaces and Cortus from
25. Examples are Applied Nano Surfaces, BT Wood, Ecospark, round one and Tomologic from round two. There are also
Enevo, Ekobalans Fenix, Oreexplore, MetGen, MGH Systems, some companies with a less clear growth pattern. There are
NeoZeo, Reformtech, Rehact, Seaweed Energy Solutions, SEEK, also several companies that still in 2012 do not have much
Sorubin, Svenska Aerogel, Vasasensor, Vigor Wave Energy and turnover to talk of.
ZenRobotics. Also many of the companies have attracted public
funding. Examples of companies that received public funding As always we would like to see the figures for the latest year
after participating in the Nordic Cleantech Open top 25 are (2013) before making to many conclusions. It seems clear
Centriclean Systems, Cortus, Danish Power Systems, Ecospark, however that the companies in the top 25 from the first round
Gridmanager, Norsetek, ReTurn, Sorubin, Svenska Aerogel, of the competition have gathered more momentum than the
Tomologic, Vasasensor and Vigor Wave Energy. (There may be ones in the second round. This confirms that it takes time for
others as well, not mentioned here) Three of the companies these companies to become successful. Also we would like to
have gone bankrupt. see a few more hockey sticks among the graphs…
When it comes to turnover one can easily access information We called up three of the previous top 25 companies and
for the years 2008-2012 on the internet for Swedish, Norwegian asked them what has happened since their participation in the
and some Danish companies. These figures must be interpreted Nordic Cleantech Open. Here are their stories.
with great caution. Turnover may not be the best indicator
Sofia Kocher, CEO, money into the business more than once.
Vasasensor Obstacles may be that you will need contacts. In reality either
you have contacts or you do not. Once you have the contacts
How has the business everything is much easier. If you do not know people it is a
developed since the Nordic clear barrier. Generally it is difficult when you have an industrial
Cleantech Open? product, not an app or similar. You need a prototype to be
It’s going fine! I found that developed in cooperation with an industrial client. It may take
Nordic Cleantech Open 10 years to develop the product and then it must be tested at a
stood out among business demonstration plant. We have to test our product in industry and
competitions, as the focus therefor we have to find customers who dare to go for something
was very much on getting to that is unknown. This is very difficult in a slow moving industry
know potential investors. This like ours. Although we minimise their financial risk to zero, there
was really the strength of the is still a risk for the decision maker to try a new product. Because
competition and it was done of this it is very difficult to get companies to try new technology.
in a very relaxed format. This is This is a clear barrier for us to get the product to market and also
not usually the case. to innovations in general.
Can you name any obstacles What’s your focus for the future?
or enablers in regards to the We have an early product that we can present and learn from.
development of your business? We will develop it further. The real product development actually
Our existing owners have been starts now. This year, customers started calling us which is a
enablers in that they pull other positive development. We have to keep working on what we
investors, which facilitate our offer and develop new business models to find the best solutions.
fundraising. We have found
our investors in the network Any advise for new clean tech companies?
that we have built during the Bring in people who are better than you are in all areas. For
10 years we have been in example, bring in a product developer who is really experienced.
operation. Through our owners You may think it is expensive but bring in an experienced
and through our networks we developer on a few hours and a less experienced developer on
receive the money we need to more hours. This way, the experienced developer can coach the
continue. It is really important less experienced developer. The result is that you will have a
to have owners that are long- person who is experienced and someone who can grow with the
term investors that can put company.
nordiccleantechopen.com | 10
Interviews |
Hilmir Jonsson, Remake Electric
How have the business developed since Nordic
Cleantech Open?
We have since finished our first generation of
both hardware and software products. We have
now got five resellers, mostly in Scandinavia but
also in Europe. We are working on our network of
resellers and on our development of marketable
products. Now we are working on the next
generation of products. We are collaborating
closely with customers such as retail markets,
data centres, production companies, hotels and
airports. We are developing some features and
some aspects of the hardware to fit different
needs of theses specific markets. The revenue
of ReMake Electric has grown with around 70 %
annually.
Can you name any obstacles or enablers in
regards of the development of your business?
The enabler is of course the growing demand of
energy efficiency. This is very important today.
Companies want to reduce their energy usage
and this has been our market opportunity. We
have a sustainable solution; it is a fixed solution
that can grow with the customer. We have
also invested a lot in IP and patents, which has
enabled our success.
One of the obstacles that were identified initially
was that the product were developed in a closed
environment (Microsoft) and we quickly realised
that this was a bad decision so we switched to an
open environment (Linux) were the focus was to
build the product to be flexible and compatible
with other systems available on the market.
What’s your focus for the future?
We will continue to build up our network,
focusing on both value added resellers and
consultancy agencies.
Any advise for new cleantech companies?
It is very important to develop their product close
to the customer, interact with the customers as
much as possible initially. Try then to turn the
relationship around so that they end up investing
in you. Go very early to customers, with even
just a prototype. Be very specific about how your
product can solve the customer’s needs. Even
though we didn’t have the full solution finished,
customers started to buy products from us and
this became a very good source of funding.