Geographical Insights

Paris is on Track to Become the European Capital of Cleantech – are Foreign Investors Ready?

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
European cleantech has been thriving in the past five years. In this period, investment into start-ups has more than doubled to $5.2 billion deployed over 566 deals in 2018, representing 28% of global cleantech deals. For the first time in years, France was one of the top two EU destinations for investment, places typically held by the UK, Germany and Israel. As it benefits from a wave of innovation and capital, a friendly government and looming Brexit, France could claim... Read More »

Whisper it Quietly, but European Cleantech Is Capturing Discerning Global Attention

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
European cleantech is in rude health. But if you're looking at the global news flow and its inevitable attention on the biggest ticket items and the hottest (over-hyped?) segments of the global industrial portfolio, you might conclude not so much is happening in Europe. You’d be wrong. In its typically understated way, the European innovation ecosystem is quietly thriving, dealflow is strong, technological excellence is to the fore, available funds for investment are increasing and there has been a strong... Read More »

Food Safety: From Problems to Opportunities

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
Anyone growing, selling or eating food in the US could not have missed what seems like a growing number of recent pathogen outbreaks. There have been two outbreaks of E. coli in romaine lettuce. A cyclosporiasis outbreak was linked back to a McDonald’s restaurant. A badly timed salmonella outbreak affected Thanksgiving turkey products while another salmonella outbreak in ground beef led to the largest food recall in US history as over 12 million pounds were recalled before Christmas. However, despite... Read More »

China and Cleantech in 2019: The Innovation Ecosystem and Paths to Market Entrance

Leo Zhang
Posted on by Leo Zhang
Our recent Next-Gen Energy & Cross-Border Innovation Summit in Nanjing looked at cleantech investment trends, market dynamics and commercialization opportunities in China. This was our ninth event in China and a focal point of our efforts to guide and connect western innovation companies to Chinese partners and customers. Here, you’ll find insights into power, energy and mobility, as well as pointers on market entrance from the summit. China's cleantech lay of the land China’s market potential is perhaps the biggest... Read More »

Echoes From the Past: Companies and Themes to Pay Attention to Beyond the APAC 25

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
Maybe you have been following us closely enough to notice that we have been making a stronger push into the B2B future of industrial innovation ecosystem in Asia over the last year? This initial push will culminate with AsiaConnect week, in which we will host our 1st Cleantech Forum Asia in Singapore on November 13-14, 2018, followed by our invite only Next-Gen Energy & Cross-Border Innovation Summit in Nanjing, China on November 15-16, 2018. Maybe you noticed that, two weeks ago,... Read More »

Just two of us? Or is anyone else noticing the innovation and venturing news coming from Southeast Asia, of late?

Richard Youngman
Posted on by Richard Youngman
We are a firm believer in the idea that innovation, year on year, is going global, measured by where innovative solutions are emerging from, where demand for them resides, and who is providing the capital for the next-generation of new businesses, transitioning us toward a very different 21st century. Recent years have seen a venture capital industry boom in China, we have seen Slush in Finland becoming one of the biggest tech/innovation conferences in the world (20K people, >2,000 startups,... Read More »

European Utilities Support UN Development Goals

Louis Brasington
Posted on by Louis Brasington
Last month, the United National delegates came together in New York, assessing the progress for their Sustainable Development Goals. The focus this year was on how nations can provide access to affordable and reliable energy, water, and safe and resilient cities. The meeting marked three years since the UN committed to reaching universal access to affordable and clean energy by 2030. Large energy corporates have been actively involved in the push across the globe, deploying decentralized energy systems through partnering... Read More »

Power to the People: Remote Microgrids Across Southeast Asia

Louis Brasington
Posted on by Louis Brasington
Across the world around 1.3 billion people still have no access to electricity, and 87% of these people live in rural areas where extension of the grid is impracticable. Microgrids can help to provide electrification, as well as stability and resiliency to these areas, ultimately helping to pull a large portion of society out of energy poverty. [caption id="attachment_18557" align="alignright" width="395"] Active partners of the REIDS microgrid project.[/caption] One of the regions that has transformed in the past years is... Read More »

Blockchain in Energy & Industry Raises $1 Billion – and Heads into Challenging Times

Jules Besnainou
Posted on by Jules Besnainou
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of keynoting the second edition of EventHorizon (EH), the largest conference on blockchain in the energy space. The bar for this event was set impossibly high after the last edition paved the way for a year of extraordinary developments in the space. The EH team delivered an even more impressive production, turning an old Berlin power station into a futuristic spaceship, and spoiling us with shows of lights, violins and acrobatics – not... Read More »

A Trillion Dollar Prize – Who will be the winners and losers in the new mobility paradigm?

Josh Gilbert
Posted on by Josh Gilbert
Business models in the transportation sector have stayed largely consistent over the past century, but today we are seeing a paradigm shift that is challenging the established order. Incumbents, both the old guard of auto OEMs and the nouveau riche TNCs, are facing a confluence of new systemic models and technologies challenging their core offerings. One of the key drivers of these systemic changes are autonomous and self-driving technologies. The brains of a vehicle, in the form of either radar or... Read More »