the top 25 nordic cleantech start-ups...venture capital investments in nordic cleantech happening in...

32
The top 25 Nordic Cleantech Start-ups | nordiccleantechopen.com

Upload: others

Post on 20-May-2020

3 views

Category:

Documents


2 download

TRANSCRIPT

The top 25 Nordic

Cleantech Start-ups

| nordiccleantechopen.com

nordiccleantechopen.com | 02

03 | nordiccleantechopen.com

| 04 |

| 07 |

| 09 |

| 10 |

| 10 |

| 13 |

| 14 |

| 15 |

| 17 |

| 17 |

| 18 |

| 18 |

| 19 |

| 19 |

| 20 |

| 20 |

| 21 |

| 21 |

| 22 |

| 22 |

| 23 |

| 23 |

| 24 |

| 24 |

| 25 |

| 25 |

| 26 |

| 26 |

| 27 |

| 27 |

| 28 |

| 28 |

| 29 |

| 29 |

| 30 |

Introduction

Interviews

Jon Berg

Andreas Englund

Mikkel Klougart

Helga Valfells

Erik Olsson

Janne Juhola

Hans Christian Bjørne

Companies

AkkuSer

Applied Nano Surfaces

BT Wood

Cortus

Ecospark

Enevo

EnSol

GridManager

Innowind

JustCommonSense

MHG Systems .

Mzymes

Netcycler

Oricane

Pontoon Power

Rehact

ReMake Electric

SEEC

Seaweed Energy Solutions

Sorbwater Technology

Sorubin

Svenska Aerogel

Vigor Wave Energy

WindFlip

ZenRobotics

Finalist sponsors

About the founders

| Contents

Introduction |

Gre

enBu

ildin

gs05

Icela

nd

04

Denm

ark

07

nordiccleantechopen.com | 04

As all contestants will know, to turn nothing

into something can be a challenge.

To make this something happen, you need endorsers - people who in their own role and in their own way help you establish, market and develop an idea into a fully functioning, marketable solution.

Nordic Cleantech Open is in this sense no different from any other start-up and the first edition of this initiative would not be happening where it not for the people that put in hours and money to make it a reality. See them as paying trial customers and you will understand why we want to thank all of the jury members, advisors, founding partners and finalist sponsors for doing their part to make the Nordic Cleantech Open a reality.

80 companies applied to be a part of this years Nordic Cleantech Open. The applicants were divided by country as below.

Applicants per country

We also want to thank all the contestants.

Ultimately it is their entrepreneurial energy turned into products and services that takes us from nothing into something. And, rest assure, it is their solutions that will face some of the environmental challenges that we are all affected by. And last but not least, it is these contestants who will inspire future entrepreneurs to explore the opportunities in the cleantech portion of the market.

We have analysed the applicants a little further as we believe they can help provide an overview of the early stage cleantech landscape in the Nordic countries.

Applicants per cleantech segment

Fin

land

17

No

rway 1

3

Sw

ed

en 37

What this tells us is that energy and energy efficiency are the segments where you will find a majority of the innovations. Almost 60 % of the entries in the competition are within these two fields. The trend is similar for all countries. This is no different from later stages of cleantech development with as a comparison 68% of all venture capital investments in Nordic cleantech happening in energy related segments in the first half of 20101.

Renewable energy is an area that stands out in particular in Norway. Unlike the other Nordic countries, the Norwegian contestants are to a much higher extent within this segment. For the other countries there is no such clear

1. Cleantech Scandinavia Dealflow Report H1

Air,

Wat

er

& W

aste

19

Ener

gy

Effic

ienc

y24

Rene

wab

le

Ener

gy22

Smar

t pow

erG

reen

grid

Ener

gy s

tora

ge03

Tran

spor

tatio

n05

preference for a national segment although there is a slight overrepresentation of Energy efficiency companies in Sweden and Air, Water & Waste companies in Finland.

| Introduction19

91

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

00

02

04

06

08

10

12

14

18

16

20

Founding year

05 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Although a few of the entering companies have been around for some time a majority are less than two years old. This paints a picture of a fairly promising pipeline of start-ups in the cleantech sector and also reflects the focus of this initiative – early stage.

A vast majority if not all of these early stage companies have the world market as their target. Naturally, the first customer may be found within closer distance but most companies realize that they need to fairly quick make it to an international market, most often focusing initially where the policy incentives are the largest.

Team

Most of the competing teams consist of very experienced people. Many of the team members have previous experience from industry, starting up companies and/or running companies. The academic backgrounds of many of the team members are not less impressive.

Policy dependency

Many of the companies are hoping that upcoming policy interventions will benefit the market for their products. It is important to note that with policies, none of the companies are hoping for any type of targeted subsidies. The policies most mentioned is that of strengthened environmental legislation followed by more ambitious targets on Co2 reduction. Only a few of the companies mention policies as a hinder for their products.

The selection process

The top 25 that are highlighted in this publication have been selected by a jury of 32 individuals (see http://www.nordiccleantechopen.com/jury/for full list), who have been instructed to evaluate their growth potential based on three things: the innovation, the market opportunity and the team of the companies. Each jury member has to a large extent evaluated applications according to his or her expertise and preferences. For instance, a jury member from the Energy Agency has looked mainly at companies in energy generation and energy efficiency. Each contestant has been reviewed and received feed-back from 6-8 jury members. This adds up to 1650 individual gradings! Summing up all these grades the top 25 companies were selected. We believe that with so many high quality companies applying quite a lot of great companies never made it to the top list. We do however believe that the selection reflects a fair judgement of the applications, based on the information supplied to us by applicants.

This report also contains short interviews with selected actors across the Nordics that we believe has some unique insights to share when it comes to early stage cleantech dealflow.

We are proud to present this list of potential high growth companies. Without further introduction we give you the top 25 early stage Nordic cleantech companies.

Depending on who you are - enjoy, invest or buy! On behalf of the founding and organizing team,

Alexander LidgrenManaging Director Nordic Cleantech Open

Applicants per cleantech segment and country

Denm

ark

Fin

land

Icela

nd

No

rway

Sw

ed

en 00

05

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Interviews | nordiccleantechopen.com | 06

| Interviews07 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Jon BergPartner at Sarsia Seed

Sarsia Seed is a Norwegian Seed Capital Fund investing in Norwegian early phase technology companies within the energy/cleantech and biotechnology/life science sectors.

Q: What do you see as the main challenges for Norwegian cleantech companies to grow internationally?

Jon: We feel that the quality of the technology in the dealflow within Cleantech in Norway is very high. The value created by the technologies is high and the industrialization culture is strong. However the ability to execute a business model internationally and attract international capital is not as strong. Too many companies underestimate the skill sets necessary to establish and grow internationally.

Q: What type of and how many cleantech companies do you get approached by? Is the trend increasing or decreasing?

Jon: Dealflow is growing. We do a detailed analysis of 30-40 companies per year in the cleantech segment of which approximately 50% are within renewables. The remaining is within energy efficiency and water purification.

Q: How do you view the Norwegian and Nordic investment climate for cleantech companies at early stages?

Jon: Currently the climate is good. We have been able to find international co-investors in several of the cleantech companies in our portfolio. The companies that are successful have in common that the value created for the customer is clear and easily quantified. They are also in the industrial segment. Companies with technologies for consumer goods and large and costly prototypes for power generation have more difficulties.

Q: The Norwegian applicants to the Nordic Cleantech Open are to a great majority within the renewable energy segment. Do you think that this is typical for the Norwegian cleantech scene and do you know how come? Jon: Norway has a long coastline with rough environmental conditions (wind & wave) and a large offshore and maritime industry sector. This spurs two types of cleantech innovations. The first are innovations in tidal, wave and

wind power that build on the offshore & maritime industry clusters. From an early stage venture investor point of view, business model, cost of prototype and time to market are important aspects to consider. Sarsia Seed has invested in WindSim within this segment. WindSim is using computer modeling technology with origins in offshore to model power production from wind farms. The other types of cleantech innovations are novel technologies making the oil/gas and maritime industries more efficient and environmentally friendly. These companies often have more transparent business models and a shorter time to market. Sorbwater is a company in the Sarsia Seed portfolio with origins in offshore oil, now used onshore to reduce the environmental footprint of oil sand & shale gas production.

Interviews | nordiccleantechopen.com | 08

| Interviews09 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Andreas EnglundProject coordinator Innovatum technology park

Andreas has been exposed to the cleantech innovation pipeline for ten years, in Swedish environmental start-up contest ”Miljöinnovation”, following up and analyzing the growth trajectories of participating companies. Andreas is currently putting final touches on a handbook for cleantech innovation.

Q: What is the most common barrier in the growth of a Swedish cleantech start-up?

Andreas: For the book we recently did 112 interviews with innovators and the most common barrier is clearly customer related. Customers not being willing to take the risk that a new product or service means to them, difficulties to understand the value proposition and simply not prioritizing the challenges that the product promises to solve. In these cases it may not help even if you promise a 3 month pay-off…

Q: What could be solutions to this?

Andreas: If we want to speed up development we need to find ways to make it easier for customers to try new cleantech solutions. If customers are not incentivised to step over the threshold of some of these solutions we may end up with a lot of the capital that has now found the sector being under-utilized, since customer traction is a necessity for a majority of the available growth capital.

Q: After ten years of following entrants to the cleantech competition MiljöInnovation, could you point to any success-factors among the companies that have had success?

Andreas: Those who work actively with getting a professional and relevant board and utilise their expertise well and those who get customers involved at an early stage tend to be more successful. Biomaterials company Organoclick is a very good example of this. From an entrepreneurial perspective it seems to be a success-factor if you have worked within the industry and have good knowledge of your target market. Green logistics company Delego is a perfect example of this, where the people behind knew the industry very well and could develop a product and business model perfectly suited to the transport companies. On the other hand, some very innovative ideas have come out of entrepreneurs who switch field completely…

Q: Finally, how do you view the pipeline of new cleantech ideas?

Andreas: The volume of new ideas has decreased somewhat, coupled with the recession most likely, but Cancun was a step in the right direction and I see a number of things that are likely to be a future driver for cleantech growth, Phosphorus and the effects of REACH being two of them.

Interviews |

Q: How do you view the Icelandic investment climate for early stage cleantech as compared to the rest of the Nordics?

Helga: Exiting companies can be a challenge, after all we are on the fringe of the Nordics and the Nordic countries are on the fringe of Europe. Plugging into the things like the Nordic Cleantech Open is very valuable because it reminds everyone that we are a part of the Nordics, which I think is very beneficial, especially in the cleantech field where the Nordic reputation is very strong.

nordiccleantechopen.com | 10

Mikkel KlougartHead of section at

Fornyelsefonden

Fornyelsefonden was established in 2010 and manages about 100 MEUR to support Danish companies within cleantech and the welfare area as well as supporting projects in less favoured geographical areas.

Q: You have been around since June and act in the seed stage where there is usually a big need for money. How many applications have you received?

Mikkel: If we accept a bit broader definition of the cleantech concept, 135 cleantech companies have approached us. About half of these apply within our innovation program and about half within the market maturation program where we support companies that are trying to get over the market barriers to launch their cleantech solutions.

Q: What are the typical types of companies applying?

Mikkel: About 90% of them are SME’s. We see a lot within water. Material recycling and different solutions within the construction industry are also common.

Q: How do you view the Danish investment climate for companies at this stage (early stage cleantech)?

Mikkel: The large number of relevant applications that we have received could of course be an indication that money is lacking in this stage.

Helga ValfellsInvestment Manager, New

Business Venture Fund (NBVF)

The NBVF is a venture capital fund that invests in, and actively supports Icelandic start-ups with significant growth potential.

Q: What do you see as the main challenges for Icelandic cleantech companies to grow internationally?

Helga: Icelandic start-ups actually tend to be born global. We know that we need to go international to find big enough markets and that is good. We also have people with know-how of energy utilisation. Funding, in particular from international actors is however lacking and it would speed up internationalisation if we managed to attract more of it. The skill-set is also sometimes a challenge. The first hires are not always suited to expand a company globally and population limits the talent pool in Iceland. Companies need to be open to bringing in non-Icelandic staff to expand internationally.

Q: What type of cleantech companies do you get approached by?

Helga: One area is linked to our geothermal energy, things like utilising waste heat from geothermal power for green houses or green server parks. Another area is energy management and efficiency where we see innovative ideas emerging; a typical example is ReMake Electric.

Q: Is the trend increasing or decreasing?

Helga: Definitely increasing.

| Interviews11 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Interviews | nordiccleantechopen.com | 12

| Interviews13 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Erik OlssonBusiness developer, Swedish Energy Agency

Erik is with the department within the Swedish Energy Agency that supports new clean energy and energy efficiency start-ups.

Q: You view some 100 investment opportunities each year. What is the typical company you see?

Erik: We fund some ten companies out of these 100 each year but we really do not see a lot of bad companies, on the contrary, the quality of the opportunities we see has clearly been increasing over time. However, quite a few are basically bread and butter businesses meaning that they can be a sound business but not a potential high growth case, which is what we look for. Notable also, is that we get quite a few companies that are not located in the big metropolitan areas where there is high quality research or a well set up start-up support system.

Q: You are mandated to take somewhat higher risk than private investors and have built up quite a cleantech portfolio over the years, what is the current status of these companies?

Erik: Generally, development has been positive. If we look historically, some 25% have failed to get to market successfully, and some 25% have successfully taken their solution to market, and are currently well positioned to go international. Good examples are biomass moisture measurement company Mantex, and gas heat exchanger company Airec. The remaining 50% are currently in-between and could go either way. However, among these are some really high growth potential companies such as Transic and Chromogenics.

Q: Finally, how do you view the pipeline of cleantech ideas, increasing or decreasing?

Erik: I would say the flow is rather constant but the availability of co-funding has been scarce during 2009 (we need someone to invest together with us before we can support a company). A lot of companies where able to get trial customers despite the recession, in fact quite a few customers where even more eager to find energy efficiency solutions as times where hard within the economy, but it has taken some of them more than a year to secure co-funding. This climate seems to now finally be changing to the better.

Interviews | nordiccleantechopen.com | 14

Janne JuholaManager at Veraventure

Veraventure is a public early-stage venture capital company, with Finland as geographical target. Veraventure has made 10 investments in the cleantech space.

Q: First and foremost, Finnish cleantech dealflow in the seed phase, what’s the outlook?

Janne: Cleantech dealflow is fairly steady I would say, but this year we see a potential increase in the bioenergy segment. Feed-in tariffs are being implemented during spring and summer and customers as well as private investors are now looking for solutions in this field.

Q: What do you see as challenges for Finnish cleantech start-ups to expand internationally?

Janne: Some of the companies in the cleantech space, typically within wind, solar, and wave tend to need quite a lot of money in the R&D phase and might need international capital even before they are market proven. This is of course a challenge. On the other hand, I would say that nowadays, if you have a good case and have your first customers, international investors are actually quite keen to invest.

Q: What is your view of the early stage cleantech investment climate in Finland?

We have too few private VC’s in the early stage. We often need to find business angels as co-investors but the market would be boosted by more private VC’s.

| Interviews15 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Hans Christian BjørneInnovation Advisor, Nordic Innovation Centre

(NICe).

NICe is an institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers facilitating sustainable growth in the Nordic economies.

Q: What do you see as the main challenges for Nordic cleantech companies to grow internationally? Hans Christian: It is rather easy to start up a company. Growth and internationalization is difficult to achieve. It requires extensive market knowledge, competence and capital. Innovation is about new value creation, not new product development. Many early stage companies tend to be too focused on their products and technologies and less focused on their market and business model. We need to see a shift of mindset: Think like investors and create clear value propositions for your customers and your investors. Avoid to fall in the trap of developing and investing lots into new technologies for which there is no clear market need. Make your company unique not only by technology, but also by strategic market positioning and revenue models. Secondly, start out with a global outlook and especially understand that countries like China and India etc. invest a lot in Cleantech too, and have the advantage of the fastest developing markets and lower cost structures.

Q: How do you view the Nordic markets in terms of co-operation and harmonization. Does it make sense for companies to seek their first export companies in another Nordic country? Hans Christian: Generally speaking, throughout history companies start going abroad to their neighbouring countries. And in spite of globalization, the biggest export markets for any country is still your neighbouring country. This also holds true for the Nordic countries. Keep in mind; the Nordic region combined is the world’s tenth largest economy. So, yes it still makes good sense to seek first export markets in another Nordic country, but that shouldn’t rule out looking further abroad. In some cases, it may make sense to go directly to a market outside of the Nordic region, but this will usually require you to establish a local presence in this market and strategic partnerships.

Q: You are also involved in promoting the Nordic seed capital market and recently met up with some of the leading German seed investors. What is the state of the Nordic seed investment climate if you compare these markets?

Hans Christian: The Nordic and European seed and venture capital markets are suffering from poor returns and a decline of risk-taking capital. Private and institutional investors have become more risk averse over the last years, particularly in the wake of the financial crisis. Many European and Nordic investors have pulled out of the seed and venture markets entirely and focus on later stage deals. Private investors still in this space have a hard time raising new funds and are faced with increasing pressures to deliver solid returns. The pull-out of private investors from early stage investing is more than a capital problem; it is also a competence problem. Private investors often possess relevant networks and business experience, which is of great importance to any start-up and growth company. At the Nordic and European level, we work hard to develop a borderless region which encourages cross-border cooperation and investments which attracts competent international capital from neighbouring countries and international markets.

Companies | nordiccleantechopen.com | 16

| Interviews17 | nordiccleantechopen.com

AkkuSer is a recycling company that turns used batteries into usable materials. The company handles Ni-Mh, Li-ion, Ni-Cd, and lead accumulators and alkaline batteries. Ni-Mh and Li-ion accumulators are processed by using the company’s patented Dry-Technology®. This technology raises the recovery of materials from batteries and accumulators to over 90%. Valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt and iron are recovered and can be sold. At the same time the method makes handling of the batteries’ reactive materials safe. The method has a remarkably low energy consumption as no heating is used. AkkuSer is also developing a method for alkaline batteries which is more environmentally friendly than currently available technology. Close to 100% recycling and reuse can be achieved. AkkuSer has capability to process electric vehicle batteries such as Ni-Mh and recycling of other EV batteries are being researched.

AkkuSerFinland

Cleantech segment:

Air, Water & Waste – ways to cut pollution

Development stage:

Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:

Jarmo Pudas, [email protected]

Web site

www.akkuser.fi

Applied Nano Surfaces offers a patented low friction coating method to manufacturers of mechanical components. The primary applications are combustion engines, bearings and compressors where the Applied Nano Surfaces technology has a great potential to significantly enhance the performance and reduce waste of energy. The innovation is a coating for mechanical components with a low friction nano-composite containing tungsten disulfide (WS2), a solid lubricant known to have very low coefficient of friction. The technology can easily be implemented in existing production processes reducing the need for new expensive machinery.

Applied Nano Surfaces Sweden

Cleantech segment:

devices

Development stage: Real scale / customer ready

Contact person: Mattias [email protected]

Web site

www.appliednanosurfaces.com

Companies | nordiccleantechopen.com | 18

BT Wood’s mission is to provide the world with environmentally friendly solutions that increase the lifespan of wooden products and enhance their performance. BT Wood® has developed wood preservation products for industrial preservation, surface protection, termite protection, disinfection and flame-retardants. These products have the potential to revolutionize the wood preservative industry where market leaders still rely heavily on harmful toxic chemicals. The competitive advantage of BT Wood® products is their environmental friendliness, versatility, effectiveness and safety of use.

Ultimately, new products enabled by BT Wood have the potential to increase the use of wood in construction industry worldwide.

BT Wood Finland

Cleantech segment:

Green Building - new kinds of buildings or

materials

Development stage:Real scale / customer ready

Contact person: Juha [email protected]

Web site

www.btwood.com

Cortus have developed the WoodRoll gasification technology. This technology is very promising as it offers a thermal efficiency of 80%, flexibility to use a variety of biofuels, no fossil CO2 emission and a clean synthesis gas in one integrated process. This provides the lowest operating and investment costs on the market. The target market for the technology is energy intensive process and power industries. With a business model where industries are offered low investment costs in return for long term contracts and potential savings in energy costs of 20-40% it is not surprising that Cortus has already signed a deal to provide a large process industry with a full scale demonstration plant.

Cortus Sweden

Cleantech segment:

Renewable Energy - Replacements for fossil

fuels

Development stage:

Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:

Rolf Ljunggren

[email protected]

Web site

www.cortus.se

| Companies19 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Ecospark has a technology with the potential to revolutionize the lighting industry. The product is a new type of LED chips based on a zinc oxide (ZnO) and nanowire technology. The manufacturing method uses a low temperature wet chemical process that cuts costs drastically and enables production on substrates such as glass and polymers. The technology enables Ecosparks LEDs to be more energy efficient than the existing LEDs and at the same time provide an excellent light spectrum, something that existing technology cannot achieve. At the same time production costs of the LED chips are projected to be 8 to 10 times lower than today’s.

EcosparkSweden

Cleantech segment:

Energy Efficiency - more efficient methods and devices

Development stage: Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:

Hans Lindberg, [email protected]

Web site

www.ecospark.se

Enevo’s solution is a consumer friendly energy management service that enables people to become more aware of their energy consumption and offers them an easy way to save energy. The service is built around a smart energy monitoring and control system that consists of a network of wirelessly connected power outlets, switches, dimmers and smart sensors, a wirelessly connected control, a measurement gateway and an online web service that provides users with easy access to manage their system. All hardware components in the system are designed to be easily retrofitted to existing homes. The intention is to reach a mass market by offering consumers an easily understandable, affordable and complete energy management service, that upgrade their homes to the next generation in energy efficiency, comfort and safety.

Enevo Finland

Cleantech segment:

Energy Efficiency - more efficient methods and devices

Development stage:

Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:

Fredrik Kekäläinen [email protected]

Web site

www.enevo.com

Companies | nordiccleantechopen.com | 20

EnSol is developing a unique photovoltaic cell technology. The product is a metal-based technology utilising the phenomenal optical absorption of metal nanoparticles. The cell is thermally driven, differing from that of competing technology, which relies on the “band gap” physics of semiconductors. This means the ultimate theoretical efficiency of the cell is 93% as opposed to 30-40% for conventional cells. Manufacturing is based on current industrial coating processes that will allow large scale, low cost production. The product contains, in contrast to many competing technologies, only non-toxic, non-hazardous materials. EnSol will offer a high efficiency photovoltaic cell able to produce electricity below “grid parity” cost.

EnSol Norway

Cleantech Segment:Renewable Energy - replacements for fossil fuels

Development stage: Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person: Phil M. Denby, [email protected]

Web site

www.ensol.no

The GridManager solution is an all-in-one package of energy efficiency and smart grid. It enables individual intervention, online monitoring and automatic management of your electricity use. The customer can save money by utilizing different energy retailer price tariffs during the day, and take advantage of incentive programs by making some of their consumption available for grid balancing. The GridManager energy saving solution incorporates modular zigbee/z-wave enabled monitoring sensors, a wireless network agent, and a user-friendly interactive web portal. Through the web portal electricity consumption profiles can be easily analyzed and controlled.

GridManager Denmark

Cleantech segment:

Smart Power, Green Grid, Energy Storage -

better ways of carrying electricity or storing it

Development stage:

Real scale / customer ready

Contact person: Mogens [email protected]

Web site

www.gridmanager.dk

| Companies21 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Innowind is offering a “game change” in the wind industry. The product is an innovative windmill rotor system that utilizes both horizontal and vertical kinetic energy. The concept reduces the diameter on a windmill with 2/3rd while keeping the energy output. For offshore wind farms the solution can reduce the total cost with 30%. Firstly, based on the possibility to have multiple units installed on one fixed or floating offshore installation, secondly due to the reduced space requirement it will create reduction of installation and cable cost. It will also have easier maintenance, easier access, less noise, less visual impact and less installation activity. Most of these benefits will also be true for onshore installations.

Innowind Norway

Cleantech segment:

Renewable Energy - replacements for fossil fuels

Development stage:

Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:

Kjetil Egeland [email protected]

Web site

www.innowind.no

JustCommonSense has a unique technology for organic mechanical weed control in growing crops. It is basically a weed cutter, which combs through the growing crop and cuts the weeds but spares the crop. The first target group is organic grain farmers as organic farming has a major problem with weed control. Especially thistle is a big threat to organic grain crops. Today, there are no effective organic methods that are able to fight thistle. The machine is light, mounted on wheels and does not dig into the ground. It requires little energy to use and it causes no nutrient removal. It is efficient as it can run in up to 20 km / h. The width can be up to 12 meters which means that large areas can be covered in a short time. The weed cutter also decreases the need for energy-demanding weed control tillage that can otherwise cause nutrient losses.

JustCommonSense Sweden

Cleantech segment:

Air, Water & Waste - ways to cut pollution

Development stage:

reached to date Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:

Jonas [email protected]

Web site

www.jcs-innovation.se

Companies | nordiccleantechopen.com | 22

MHG´s business idea is an innovative global bio-energy and feedstock enterprise resource-planning service. The solution works as a cloud service via mobile devices helping biomass as well as bio-liquids producers, operators, and buyers to monitor the quality and quantity of different feedstock required for energy production. MHG’s solution also works for international feedstock tracking, certification, real-time monitoring, and carbon-footprint estimation services. This innovative system allows energy producers to manage resources from field to delivery end-point with optimal transparency and efficiency, avoid fundamental operational and process problems, and to lower their overall costs while significantly increasing profits.

MHG Systems Finland

Cleantech segment:

Renewable Energy - replacements for fossil fuels

Development stage reached to date:

Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:

Seppo Huurinainen [email protected]

Web site

www.mhgsystems.com/

Mzymes offers a sustainable solution for bioremediation of contaminated soils. Contaminations can be oil, PAH, dioxins and other organic matters. The innovative technology is based on using fungi in bioremediation under controlled conditions. This technology is currently used as an ex-situ method, and is also being developed for in-situ applications. The method is able to degrade persistent contaminants more rapidly and efficiently than using composting methods. It is also easy to use and offers high purification efficiency. The costs are much lower compared to waste incineration. This technology has high potential for many industrial companies responsible for contaminated soils, e.g. soil treatment centres, closed gasoline stations, landfill sites and industrial companies with different contaminated industrial areas, for example saw mills.

MzymesFinland

Cleantech segment:

Air, Water & Waste - ways to cut pollution

Development stage reached to date: Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:

Olli Mä[email protected]

Web site

www.mzymes.fi/msite/

| Companies23 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Netcycler is an online swap service for second hand goods. The service is based on trade rings in which there can be up to five parties involved. Trade rings enhance the probability of a successful trade by several hundred times. The formation of trade rings happens automatically and without increasing the complexity for the user. Netcyclers parameterisation of product categories enables exact definition of user wishes and offers, making the finding of interesting products easy. An integrated shipping service brings convenience and facilitates long-distance trades. In March 2010, Netcycler was launched in Finland and it is currently being launched in Germany and the UK. Putting a figure on the number of current Netcycler online users proved a hopeless task as it kept increasing drastically while we prepared this publication! Netcycler makes trading second hand goods easy, social and fun.

Netcycler Finland

Cleantech segment: Air, Water & Waste - ways to cut pollution

Development stage reached to date:Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:Jussi Koskinen

[email protected]

Web site

www.netcycler.com

The Internet today uses more than 5% of the total electric power production in the world. By providing faster, simpler, cheaper and more environmentally friendly software solutions for data communications and database applications, Oricane minimizes Internet’s overall energy consumption. The power consumption can be reduced by over 95% for data communications and for database applications the solutions are 70% faster and use 70% less memory, compared to industry standard. Oricane’s unique software solutions guarantee constant high speed and low storage cost. It does not matter how large the input is, as a matter of fact, as the input grows, the speed increases! Using Oricane’s unique software solutions results in cheaper, simpler, faster and more environmentally friendly systems.

Oricane Sweden

Cleantech segment:

devices

Development stage reached to date:Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:

Web site

www.oricane.com

Companies | nordiccleantechopen.com | 24

Pontoon Power offers a concept for a relatively large-scale production of electric energy from ocean waves: The Pontoon Power Converter. It is a floating wave power station suitable for operation in the open ocean. The concept distinguishes itdelf from other known solutions by the mobile load carrying structure to which the working pontoons are connected as well as the way the whole structure is ballasted and anchored. Another innovative feature of this wave power station is its form of hurricane protection: The vulnerable parts of it can be submerged and be kept at a safe depth when the sea is rough and might otherwise damage the construction. The technology can according to estimates be found equally profitable as, or even more profitable than, energy produced by wind turbines.

Pontoon PowerNorway

Cleantech segment:

Renewable Energy - replacements for fossil fuels

Development stage reached to date:Business idea/ Business plan

Contact person: Jens [email protected]

Web site

www.pontoon.no

Rehact has developed a new type of ventilation/heat exchanger unit, the RVU, to be used in buildings. The RVU creates synergies with existing technology thereby enabling a higher level of reused energy but also better utilization of local energy sources such as solar collectors. The complete heat, ventilation and air-condition system reduces the need of external energy by up to 85%. It also creates a better indoor comfort level and improves the construction process. Other products address only one part of the problem - heating, cooling or ventilation This system creates synergies between these functions in a completely new way. Creating synergies also means that we can use the same equipment for several functions thereby reducing installation cost.

REHACT Sweden

Cleantech segment:

Green Building - new kinds of buildings or materials

Development stage reached to date: Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:Svante [email protected]

Web site

www.rehact.com

| Companies25 | nordiccleantechopen.com

ReMake Electric has developed an energy management system that offers detailed information about electrical load and consumption. The products are retrofitted onto exciting circuit breakers. They show real-time electricity load on the front face of the circuit providing instant access to the state of every circuit breaker. This gives consumers and professionals advanced methods to avoid overload and prevent blackouts simply by monitoring circuit breakers. The products are also linked to a CPU transferring data from each circuit breaker into our web-based software. This gives consumers detailed information that enables energy savings, increases operational safety and allows monitoring via text message or email. ReMakes solution brings people the information needed to be able to save energy.

ReMake Electric Iceland

Cleantech segment:

Energy Efficiency - more efficient methods and devices

Development stage reached to date: Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person: Hilmir Ingi Jó[email protected]

Web site

www.remake-electric.com

SEEC offers smart geothermal energy storage. Summer heat is stored in the soil for retrieval in winter. Winter cold is stored in the soil for retrieval in summer. Operating costs, energy consumption and emission of green house gases are significantly reduced by storing energy instead of producing it. Full-scale installations have shown energy consumption being reduced by 70-90%. SEECs use a design where boreholes are laid out in an array of concentric circles. At the beginning of summer, boreholes in the centre of the array are turned on heating a small volume of soil. When this soil is heated outer boreholes in the circle are turned on. In this manner, an increasing volume of warm soil is accumulating as more hot summer days pass. By the end of summer, the system stores a tremendous amount of heat.

Scandinavian Energy Efficiency Co, SEECSweden

Cleantech segment:Energy Efficiency - more efficient methods and devices.

Development stage reached to date: Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:Andreas [email protected]

Web site

www.seec.se

Companies | nordiccleantechopen.com | 26

SES has patented the first ever, modern structure to enable mass seaweed cultivation on an industrial scale in the world’s oceans. Inspired by biomimicry, the Seaweed Carrier is a sheet-like structure that basically copies a very large seaweed plant. It moves freely back and forth through the sea from a single mooring on the ocean floor. The Seaweed Carrier will allow seaweed cultivation in deeper and more exposed waters, opening the way for large scale production. The carrier can withstand rough water, has few moving parts, low cost, allows for easy deployment and harvesting and there is no risk of mammal entanglement.

Seaweed Energy SolutionsNorway

Cleantech segment:

Renewable Energy - replacements for fossil fuels

Development stage reached to date:

Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:

Pål A. [email protected]

Web site

www.seaweedenergysolutions.com

Sorbwater has developed Sorbfloc, a highly specialised flocculent, to remove particles from wastewater. It is a seaweed based, totally green and highly effective flocculent that removes all particles from wastewater through chemical bonding. By rapid flotation and sedimentation, the resulting aggregated particles are separated. This results in zero discharge of oil and other harmful components to the environment. The product can be used for slop water from offshore oil-rigs, produced water from producing oil wells and treatment of process water for shale gas applications for recycling of water. Removing oil and other contaminants from wastewater of such activities is very costly. Sorbwaters technology enables cost reductions in the range of 60-75%.

Sorbwater Technology Norway

Cleantech segment:

Air, Water & Waste - ways to cut pollution

Development stage reached to date:

Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:

Torgeir Nærø, [email protected]

Web site

www.sorbwater.com

| Companies27 | nordiccleantechopen.com

Sorubin operates in the field of energy effective aeration and oxygenation. Water aeration is an energy intensive process and today EU assigns ~2.8% of its total energy supply to aeration of wastewater! Sorubin addresses the need of water aeration via its novel and high energy saving technology. The innovative aspect of Sorubin’s technology is mainly its large energy efficiency. The technology offers a decrease of energy costs related to aeration of up to 90% as well as low maintenance requirements. Costumer’s pay-back time is approximated to 2-3 years. The equipment can be easily retrofitted to existing plants. Water aeration is used in areas such as wastewater and landfill leachate treatment, fish farming, algae farming, bio-fuel production, drinking water aeration and restoration of lakes and rivers.

Sorubin Sweden

Cleantech segment: Energy Efficiency - more efficient methods and devices

Development stage reached to date:

Real scale / customer ready

Contact person:

Stefan Sandströ[email protected]

Web site

www.sorubin.se

Svenska Aerogel offers aerogel that can be utilized in a wide variety of uses such as filtration of air and water and insulation. The material in itself has several interesting properties: Large inner surface, low density and porous structure. Aerogels have very good insulation properties and does not burn. Svenska Aerogel has developed a process that makes it possible to produce aerogels at a significantly lower cost than existing. The technology offers attractive opportunities for a number of high volume producing industries. In addition to low cost Svenska Aerogel has the ability to change the chemical and physical properties of the material to achieve different desired product characteristics. Another advantage is that the process and products are environmentally friendly and recyclable.

Svenska Aerogel Sweden

Cleantech segment:

Green Building - new kinds of buildings or materials

Development stage reached to date:

Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:

Susanne [email protected]

Web site

www.aerogel.se

Companies | nordiccleantechopen.com | 28

The Vigor Wave Energy Converter is built on a unique, proprietary, patented principle that has big potential to produce a large amount of renewable energy out of ocean waves. The main component is a big hose floating on the water’s surface, following the movements of the waves. Letting in seawater and air into the hose creates batches that “surf” inside the hose. These batches create high pressure and at the end of the hose the pressurized water is led through a turbine. The flexible design working with the waves, withstands hard weather and using only seawater and air as absorbing components contributes to low maintenance costs. Scaling up the system by connecting several hoses to one common turbine gives a good operating economy. The Vigor Wave Energy Converter will be an attractive solution for power companies who want to produce large amounts of renewable energy, with small environmental impact, at low cost.

Vigor Wave Energy Sweden

Cleantech segment:Renewable Energy - replacements for fossil fuels

Development stage reached to date: Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person: Christian Stübner [email protected]

Web site

www.vigorwaveenergy.com

WindFlip is a specialized barge that transport and install floating wind turbines. The design of the barge enables high transit speed and a larger operational window. The turbines are transported horizontal on the barge which again is tilted 90 degrees, raising the turbine to upright position. The clever launching operation enables turbines to be fully assembled onshore and installation to be performed without any offshore cranes. Because of this, large savings in installation and manufacturing costs are possible compared to current launching methods. The barge can operate independently of shallow waters, which open markets for floating wind worldwide. WindFlip is enabling floating wind.

WindFlip Norway

Cleantech segment: Transportation - greener cars, buses, trucks or planes

Development stage reached to date:Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:Ane [email protected]

Web site

www.windflip.com

| Companies

| Finalist sponsors

29 | nordiccleantechopen.com

ZenRobotics manufactures a robotic waste sorting system. Built with off the shelf industrial robotics components, the system utilizes biomimetic artificial intelligence to separate raw materials in construction and demolition waste. Waste processing companies currently have no advanced means to recycle construction and demolition waste. At present, the alternatives are either paying high gate fees for incineration or land-filling waste or sorting it manually using human labour. The latter alternative causes legal and PR problems, as laubor and safety conditions for employees are not satisfying. Using ZenRobotics sorter construction and demolition waste can be turned into useful products and sold at a profit without endangering the health of workers.

ZenRobotics Finland

Cleantech segment:Air, Water & Waste - ways to cut pollution

Development stage reached to date:Laboratory scale technology testing

Contact person:Jaakko Särelä[email protected]

Web site

www.zenrobotics.com

Founders | nordiccleantechopen.com | 30

About the founders

Cleantech Scandinavia

Cleantech Scandinavia is an internationally renowned resource for Nordic cleantech dealflow, business intelligence and networking. Since 2007, we supply cleantech market intelligence, events and investment opportunities to a majority of the international actors investing in Nordic cleantech.

We cover annually all investments, mergers&aquisitions and fund establishments in the Nordic cleantech sector, both public and private, analyzing well over 500 deals since we started our operations. To provide further insights into the sector we have made reports on pipeline cleantech companies in all Nordic business incubators, cleantech patents in the Nordic countries as well as overviews of later stage companies in Sweden and Finland.

We have hosted 9 events bringing together companies with investors and bringing in leading experts and desicionmakers.

Close to 100 cleantech companies have pitched at our events. A recent follow up showed that 72% of these companies have attracted funding afterwards.

Innovit Iceland

Innovit is a nonprofit initiative which purpose is to encourage entrepreneurship amongst university students and young professionals in Iceland. This is accomplished through various projects which include the largest startup competition in Iceland, Global Entrepreneurship Week, and Nordic Cleantech Open.

Venture Cup

Venture Cup works to inspire university students and researchers to develop their ideas into successful companies. Venture Cups purpose is two-fold; to inspire and motivate entrepreneurship among students, and to turn academic knowledge into viable high-growth businesses.

Venture Cup focus on entrepreneurship as a practical discipline and we expose our participants to a great network of experienced entrepreneurs and business people, who provide valuable advice on a volunteer basis because they share our interest in finding and supporting Denmark’s leading start-ups.Through our entrepreneurship competitions, a total of 650,000 kr. in cash prizes is awarded to the best ideas every year.

Venture Cup is supported by the Danish universities, and we partner with a broad range of companies; among them some of Denmark’s most successful, such as Novo, Grundfos. Ernst & Young and Awapatent.

Venture Cup was originally started by McKinsey & Company, and exists today as non-profit entities in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. It is the largest business plan competition in the world.

Founding partners

Clean Tech_Anzeige_engl_DinA4.indd 1 21.10.10 10:30

nordiccleantechopen.com | 32

Suscito Communications Agency, www.suscito.se