press releases

Venture Network launched to accelerate next wave of investment opportunities

 

  • Ann Arbor, MI --July 17, 2002 -- With some clean technology market segments, such as solar energy,
  • growing at 20% or more, a group of private investors has launched the Cleantech Venture Network to
  • service one of the venture world’s next big stories. Clean technologies range from biodegradable
  • materials to fuel cells to water purification systems.
  •  
  • CLEANTECH’s services include venture forums, investment reports, deal flow inventory and online
  • services to investors and companies. CLEANTECH will introduce promising young companies to
  • investors and introduce investors to quality deal-flow. The intent is to develop a community of money
  • managers, business executives, professional advisors, and other stakeholders active in the clean
  • technology-venturing arena. CLEANTECH’s first investment report will be released in September and first
  • venture forum will be held in Toronto on November 13-14, followed by one in San Francisco.
  •  
  • Clean technology saw investments of $1.4 billion in early and expansion stage companies in the US in
  • 2000 and early data suggests a similar amount in 2001. Certain segments are growing particularly fast: in
  • the US, clean energy related companies received approximately $750 million in 2000, up from $442
  • million in 1999 and less than half that in 1998. Cleantech companies took approx 8% of venture dollars in
  • Canada during the first quarter of 2002, up from virtually nothing the previous year.
  •  
  • According to CLEANTECH Co-founder and Chairman Nicholas Parker: “Alongside the information
  • revolution is an industrial revolution reshaping the design and manufacture of almost everything that we
  • see around us. The revolutionary products being developed today have dramatic improvements over the
  • old because they are lighter, smarter and stronger; cheaper to manufacture and operate; less carbonintensive
  • and more energy efficient; offer greater service utility per unit of material input and enable
  • virtually zero waste and/or emissions. This is a historical trend that is being accelerated by economic and
  • ecological factors. The opportunities for venture investors are significant. The impact of cleantech is
  • ubiquitous: there are large and highly disruptive market opportunities emerging in the multi-billion dollar
  • agricultural, manufacturing and transportation sectors, as well as in the fundamental enabling areas of
  • energy and water”.
  • The Cleantech Venture Network is a market facilitation service accelerating the next wave of innovation.
  •  
  • The Cleantech Venture Network was established in April 2002 and is being publicly launched today.
  •  
  • For additional information, www.cleantechventure.com or
  • Contact: keith@cleantechventure.com
  • Phone: 734-528-2979