The Guardian and Cleantech Group have recently released a list of the top 100 most promising clean technology firms. The list of companies includes firms in energy generation, energy efficiency, energy storage, water and wastewater, recycling and waste, transportation, manufacturing, and agriculture. The 100 companies chosen for the list all had to be unlisted, private, and independent companies.
In order to create the list, hundreds of investors, entrepreneurs, and industry insiders were asked the following question: "Which private cleantech companies show the most commercial promise? Which have the most potential and highest likelihood of achieving high growth and high market impact?" A list of 3500 companies was created based upon the responses.
The Cleantech Group then whittled down the list to the top 100. Experts said that the process of choosing companies for the the top 100 was difficult because "some fields were far more developed than others. Many energy efficiency and water treatment products were already available, while a large proportion of the solar and biofuel companies were, and still are, very much in the development stage." (read about the judges and methodology here)
The list of the top 100 cleantech firms was separated by country and by technology. 55 of the top 100 cleantech firms were headquartered in the United States; 13 came from the U.K.; 10 from Germany; 5 from Israel; and rounding out the top 5, four came from Sweden.
When separated by sector, 37 of the top 100 were in energy generation; 18 in energy efficiency, 11 in water and wastewater; 10 in energy storage; and 9 in energy infrastructure. (see the full lists by sector here and by country here)
Many familiar names were on the list including Solyndra, Tesla, Solazyme, Better Place, Fisker, ZeaChem, Brightsource, ReVolt, Coskata, A123, Gridpoint, Tendril, Mascoma, AltaRock, Enphase, Xunlight, and Sapphire.
The reason that the list ended up being skewed in favor of the U.S. was because companies had to have already received a certain level of traditional venture capital funding. Countries that were more open to traditional venture capital funding showed up more prominantly on the list. "The U.S. is a much more developed venture capital market than Europe or Asia, so it doesn’t surprise me that the majority of companies are coming from the U.S. because that’s where the funding has been in the last year. In the next couple years, you’ll see more of their European counterparts on the list because the funding side is also increasing in Europe."
China did not show up on the list at all, but researchers were sure to acknowledge the importance of Chinese companies in the development of the cleantech space. "While China has no companies on the 2009 list, China’s importance and leadership in this area should not be understated, nor the evident rise in entrepreneurism and company-building in that region."
The list essentially gives an indication of which sectors and regions venture capital is flowing into; it also provides a guide for young startups to study in order to determine what makes some cleantech companies more successful than others by looking into the business strategies of these firms. While the cleantech space can be extremely complicated to look into from a technology perspective, this collection of companies lists the firms that are receiving money from private investors.
There is still a lot of private money sitting on the sidelines, but the flow has begun to pick up a bit. After rebounding in 2Q'09 from the credit crisis, liquidity issues, and a lack of exits, the cleantech space looks to build upon global stimulus packages, emission regulations, and institutional policies. While the cleantech space has rebounded from dismal 4Q'08 and 1Q'09 figures, 2Q'09 numbers are still far below the levels of private investment a year ago. (read about details of the rebound here)
Reuters reports: "The first ever Global Cleantech 100 shines a spotlight on which companies and
which technology areas the global innovation community is currently most
excited about, from a commercial standpoint. Although none of these firms are exactly
household names, their innovations and the business acumen of their leaders
and investors mean that they are likely to have high impact on our future. The
Global Cleantech 100 companies, and many other worthy peer companies, stand to
enable environmental sustainability and generate economic growth".
Global Cleantech 100 homepage; The Guardian.
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