Green Innovations

Developing renewable and clean technology companies in New York

Friday, June 4, 2010

Global cleantech clusters and investors gather this week

Cleantech clusters and investors from around the world gathered in New York this week for "Investment Opportunities: Where is Cleantech Capital going?" a focused discussion led by Sustainable World Capital and the Consulate General of Switzerland. 

The event was part of a three-city, three-day Five Fund Forum hosted by Sustainable World Capital. SWC is a company focused on connecting profitable sustainable companies with institutional investors worldwide to raise capital and to increase financial market exposure. SWC has a network of more than 200 institutional investors worldwide.
The Clean Tech Center and NY-ACRE, two NYSERDA-funded clean energy incubators based in New York State, were part of the New York meeting with leading U.S. and Swiss fund managers and investors for a focused discussion on global cleantech investment trends.

Featured speakers included Sabine Ulmann, Deputy Consul General Consulate General of Switzerland in New York, Christian Haeuselmann co-founder of Swiss Cleantech, and Shawn Lesser, President of Sustainable World Capital who presented an overview on the Sustainable/Cleantech investment landscape.

Other panelists included, Nina Harjula (Finnish Cleantech Cluster),Jürgen Habichler (Mountain Cleantech AG), Sean Petersen (Good Energies), Federico Schiffrin (Unigestion), Thomas Kristensen (LGT Capital Partners, John A. Moore (Acorn Energy), Joyce Ferris (Blue Hill Partners, Tucker Twitmyer (EnerTech Capital),Bruce Kahn (Deutsche Bank), David Anthony (21 Ventures), Diana Propper (Expansion Capital Partners), and Maria Gotsch (NYC Investment Fund).


As part of the event, Shawn Lesser announced that several of the cleantech cluster organizations he had cited in his recent "Top Ten Cleantech Cluster Organizations in the World" list for the Cleantech Group are organizing to launch a global "cleantech cluster of clusters." Leading the effort will be Christian Haeuselmann of Swiss Cleantech, Linda Hartsock of The Clean Tech Center and Nina Harjula of the Finnish Cleantech Cluster based in Lahti, Finland.  Read this blog for more news as that effort evolves.