Source: Written by Lindsay McCormick, notes provided by Demi Liu
On Wednesday, July 1, 2020, the CleanTech Alliance hosted day 2 of the first-ever virtual CleanTech Innovation Showcase. The session kicked off with CleanTech Alliance President & CEO Mel Clark introducing Eric Moe from our sponsor UMC, Inc.
Eric spoke briefly about UMC, Inc. before handing it over to the panel’s moderator, Craig Husa from Impact Bioenergy.
Panelists Eric Berman, Julia Davourie, and Leon Wolf participated in an extensive discussion about investing in cleantech and how green investing is being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eric Berman, the president and co-chair of E8, gave his perspective on what angel investors look for in startups and advised entrepreneurs to be cautious and not overestimate the value of their green technology since not everyone is willing to pay a premium for a more expensive but sustainable product.
Julia Davourie from Small World Group spoke about the need for entrepreneurs to set milestones to show continued progress, even if the milestones are small, and to create prototypes so that investors can see and touch your product.
Leon Wolf from VertueLab talked about the potential for more HVAC/air purification technologies in the age of COVID and the benefits of clean technologies being resilient. Leon also advised entrepreneurs to rely on word of mouth to find potential investors and that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the deal flow still hasn’t changed.
After the panel, attendees selected one of three presenting company tracks, each containing three companies.
Track #1 had Russ Weed from Hotstart talking about the capacity of their batteries, Lynn Mueller from SHARC Energy Systems speaking about their wastewater heat recovery technology, and Himanshu Sudan from eCamion discussing their electric battery charging infrastructure.
Track #2 included Noel Puttaansuu from Acumentor, who spoke about his method of reducing emissions from wood-burning stoves, Rita Hansen from Onboard Dynamics, who talked about their technology for driving down emissions in the transportation sector, and Ben Gully from LAVLE, who spoke about their 3DOM battery technology.
Track #3 presenters included Vincent Lam from Matidor, who spoke about their intuitive map-based collaboration platform for field work, Derek Sutherland from CTFusion, who presented about their magnetic confinement DT (deuterium-tritium) fusion technology, and Dragan Tutic from Oneka Technologies who talked about their desalination technology that can be implemented without any land use.
After the presenting company tracks concluded, attendees reconvened and were broken into smaller rooms for virtual networking.
For more information on the CleanTech Innovation Showcase or to register for a future session, click here.