Sixteen UK cleantech companies will have the chance to pitch to Silicon Valley investors after earning a spot on an entrepreneurial trade mission to San Francisco.
The fifth annual Clean and Cool Mission, which is supported by the Technology Strategy Board, The Long Run Ventures and the Co-sponsorship Agency, is backed by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and other private sector sponsors.
As part of the week-long entrepreneurial trade mission, the 16 companies (including the likes of Moixa Technology and Aeristech) will meet with investors, customers and supply chain partners with the aim of opening up a business division in the US.
The event coincides with the Cleantech Group’s Global Forum, being held in San Francisco, and has a history of securing growth capital for chosen companies.
Since the first year of the mission in 2008, $180 million (£115 million) has been raised in private finance by participating companies, and more than 20 per cent now have a US subsidiary.
Simon Daniel, founder and CEO of Moixa, says that it is great to be part of a top UK energy cluster, on a spring hunt for venture funding and partnerships that can be found roaming Silicon Valley.
Daniel, who also writes a regular column for GrowthBusiness, adds, ‘Britain has the ideas and the technology but cleantech needs US money and market scale to achieve growth.’
Greg Barker, minister for climate change, comments, ‘It’s a credit to the renewed groundswell in ambition and the confidence for growth among young and enterprising small businesses that so many applied for a place on this Clean and Cool Mission.’
The cleantech companies represented include those in transport, agriculture, food, renewable energy, water and energy storage.
UKTI’s chief executive Nick Baird says that the 16 companies represent the ‘best of British’.
‘This is an exciting and important mission, and we look forward to helping them build their understanding to achieve success in the lucrative US low carbon market, develop partnerships with American companies, and attract the attention of the US venture capital community,’ Baird adds.
Full list of participating companies:
- Aeristech
- Cella Energy
- Energy Deck
- Green Structures
- G-Volution
- Highview Power Storage
- Moixa Technology
- Naked Energy
- Oxford Photovoltaics
- RE Hydrogen
- SAVortex
- SEaB Energy
- Seawater Greenhouse
- VerdErg Renewable Energy
- Whitefox Technologies
- Zeta Controls
