Positive Trends in Nordic Cleantech

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Cleantech Scandinavia, an investor membership network organisation covering Nordic and Baltic countries, released its annual report “Nordic Cleantech Dealflow 2010”, summarising and analysing private equity investments and public grants in the clean technology sector in the Nordic countries that took place in 2010. Cleantech Scandinavia is doing research on this topic gathering statistics since 2007, and having collected four full years of data presents a comparative overview of cleantech sector development in the Nordic region. Overall, 2010 fulfilled the optimistic expectations and resulted in an overall of over EUR 0,5 billion poured into the sector (EUR 505,7 million), highest of all recorded years. Growth compared to 2009 was moderate: plus 10% in total amount of funding and plus 16% in the number of deals, however a number of positive trends create an optimistic growth environment in the sector. - Five new VC funds and one public funding agency with cleantech included into investment focus were established during 2010, three of them dedicated to seed stage companies in the Nordics; - Seed funding was on the rise for the first time in three years: public funding directed to seed stage companies tripled and private financing increased by 80% compared to 2009. This changes the trend of the previous year when investors were looking for safer investments in later stage companies, and creates a more sustainable investment ecosystem where more early stage companies get access to necessary growth funding; - All countries except Sweden showed growth, Denmark and Finland stand out showing the highest growth in private equity of all Nordics. Denmark registered the largest investment of the year, a EUR 115 million new capital from Siemens to an offshore windpower installation provider A2SEA; - Internationalisation of the investment market in the Nordics continued especially among larger investments: 5 out of the top 6 private equity deals in 2010 involved participation of foreign capital. Foreign investors include BP, Vantage Point Venture Partners, Rockport Capital Partners, Wellington Partners, Climate Change Capital, as well as Japanese and Chinese companies. Among specific technology areas which attracted the most investor attention in 2010 were solar and wind energy, electric vehicles, biofuels and biogas, as well as a group of technologies that are clearly on the rise and that can broadly be classified as cleantech enablers, such as manufacturers of sensors, transistors and transformers, developers of monitoring systems and specific software solutions, all targeting the growing cleantech industry as their main customer. “Cleantech remains a buzz word, but the positive dynamics of 2010 shows that this investment space is here to stay. The cleantech sector in the Nordic countries has become an established investment category for venture capital. We see new funds being established and we observe a growing interest from institutional investors and LPs, including large international players” – says Magnus Agerström, Managing Director of Cleantech Scandinavia. The year 2011 has to develop this dynamics and bring about several successful exits in the industry in order to support and increase investment activity level, and we are already seeing positive examples of both. For more information please visit www.cleantechscandinavia.com or contact: Magnus Agerström, Founder and Managing Director, magnus@cleantechscandinavia.com, +46 40 602 76 00 Alexander Lidgren, Founder and Chairman, bigge@cleantechscandinavia.com, +46 73 660 10 07.