Water rises at European cleantech events, VCs take note
The cleantech market is still pretty small potatoes in the European venture capital world, but it’s definitely picking up. More than 20 new funds invest in the sector every month, according to a new study from Venture Business Research. And this week, not one but two, well-attended events showcased startups in the space looking for capital.
Here at Barcelona’s HiT World Innovation Summit, water has been the recurring theme (and not just due to the sticky heat). Notably, it’s an area that American cleantech has yet to focus on substantially. Its traction in Europe today isn’t that impressive either, admittedly. Waste water services make up just 0.5 percent of cleantech investment in Europe, with two-thirds of it going to Israel. But that’s set to change.
“In five years time, you won’t be able to talk about cleantech without talking about water,” says Peter Home Jensen, chief executive of Aquaporin, a Danish water purification company. “So we hope these funds will increase dramatically.” His company, which stands to benefit directly from growth in this area, pioneered a “water membrane technology” that mimcs the way living cells filter water. He says that with so many cleantech companies — from solar arrays to electric car firms — dependent on water for manufacturing and operations, bettering water systems will be vital to the whole sector’s success.
Water scarcity in most parts of the world is already giving rise to greater demand for water treatment and groundwater monitoring technology. Much of the infrastructure companies and the public have relied on to deliver and filter water is antiquated and decaying, especially in Europe. This means good business for a crop of new companies that non-invasively detect and repair leaks in complex systems, says Victor Scutaru, director of energy, environment, electronics and materials investments at BDC Capital.
Predictably, the target customers for many of these companies are public utilities — not usually thought of as cutting-edge or especially tech-savvy, particularly in their investments. In fact, most utilities are notoriously slow adopters. For this reason, Scutaru says startups should rein in their ambitions and focus all their efforts on launching their products with just one utility to start. “Try to partner up with the most innovative and pilot your technology with them,” he advises. “Then you have a showcase for others.”
Birgit Manzoni, who runs business development for Luxembourg water treatment startup Epuramat, has another idea: Re-calibrate products to fit smaller budgets for easier wins. In Epuramat’s case, the company generally hones in on large industrial sewage and waste water projects (it just landed a deal with a plant in California, for example). But it also offers the innovative Box4Water device, an all-in-one water treatment system that takes up the space of a typical shipping container. It’s already been successfully deployed in France and Luxembourg, and will be shown off at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.
