There are new innovations and ideas generated each day in
the cleantech / green sectors, many innovations do not offer new
solutions and are just hypes, while others provide revolutionary
breakthroughs. ResearchWhite Paper asked 100 venture capital
investors about what types of sub-sectors they are interested in;
here are the 10 sub-sectors they have identified.

1. Energy Efficiency
Technologies - This is still ranked highly in their list,
energy efficiency (technologies, process and applications), that’s
because these applications can be applied immediately to existing
infrastructure, and able to generate cash flow much quicker than
reinventing a new technology. It’s about improvement, not about
revolution, for instance, car companies have invested into new
energy efficient motors or batteries instead of trying on new type
of engine.

2. Recycling
technologies - There are contracts available from
governments worldwide to improve their recycling process. There are
a lot of interests are coming from US, China, Japan, Taiwan,
Singapore regarding recycling technologies to address their garbage
problems. There have been quite a number of companies successfully
developing new technologies for recycling, including companies that
convert solid waste into energy, or recycle materials into
packaging materials or building materials. Venture Capital &
Private Equity investors as well as government and utilities
companies have been supporting these companies, and strategic
investors including building & construction companies and large
engineering companies.

3. Green Building
Materials - This is a sector that has been overlooked by
the media. It is actually a very important industry, green building
materials such as green cement can replace the traditional cement;
which is one of the biggest pollutants invented by mankind. Green
building materials can also save significant amount of water for
curing.Private equity firms in Europe, Middle East and China are
also investing into building materials that require less water have
made investments; which are suitable for their markets due to
scarcity of water in these regions.

4. Water Resources
Conservation - As one of our members rightly pointed out,
it’s not just about new technologies, but the evolution of green
industries is also about environmental conservation. Countries like
Canada, Australia and Israel are particularly active in investing
in water resources technologies. These include diagnosis, water
treatment and irrigation systems. In Asia, Singapore, Taiwan and
Japan have also placed water management technologies as one of
their key industries to develop, Singapore has achieved remarkable
success in this field and the industry was heavily invested by the
Government and also its private sectors including venture capital
funds.

5. Home Products - One
sector that is quite interesting is the home products. These
products can be easily replaced, and easily understood and accepted
by the customers. In addition, a lot of these products also receive
rebates as part of their incentives to encourage environmental
products.This creates new opportunities for manufacturers, and
investors have also backed products such as low water toilets,
better windows, energy efficient furnace or air conditioning units
as well as domestic use solar panels and water heaters.

6. Geothermal Energy -
Some of the fund managers have also mentioned geothermal as the
next area for developments. It is a proven technology and resources
have been identified, and compared to nuclear energy, geothermal
energy is far less controversial, and relatively easier to develop.
Investors in geothermal energy can be from different sources of
investors including venture capital, private equity, utilities
companies and mining & resources companies.

7. Applications and Technologies
to improve solar & wind energy - A number of
investments made last quarter were relating to energy storage
technologies specifically designed to boost efficiency for solar
and wind energy infrastructure. For example, we had helped 2
companies in Europe; that had developed technologies to improve
efficiency for wind farms as an example, also better batteries for
solar power plants. Investors into energy storage technologies
including venture capital

8. Cleantech Marketing Companies
and Websites - Cleantech & green industries are not
just restricted in the technology and energy sectors. As we have
seen recently, a number of social media websites that are dedicated
to green industries. Some of these websites and marketing companies
have been expanding at very rapid rate, there are now cleantech
specialized public relations companies in the United States, they
create campaigns for cleantech and green companies, or to reach the
LOHAs communities, which are often more affluent communities with
higher disposable incomes. In addition, investors have backed Green
media companies such as cleantech news sites, cleantech investment
websites or business matching sites. Investors including both
cleantech and Internet venture capital investors.

9. Green Services &
Investment Funds - Companies that are dedicating their
services such as PR, marketing and capital raising can also expect
interests. We have noticed venture capital firms have backed a
number of corporate advisors and funds that are dedicated to green
industries. Green financing is another area worth noting which has
seen a substantial growth due to investors’ appetite in these
opportunities. For example, green private equity firms also back
some Green ETFs as fund of funds, either to invest in private
companies or to invest in public listed companies. Social
Responsible Investments was an area of interest back in 2006 &
2007, and this may come back again in future as more companies are
available for investment managers to choose now.

10. Environmental
Services - As the result of increasing awareness and
regulatory requirements, environmental services sector is another
popular area for investments. These companies are considered
relatively safer for investments as they are without the technology
development risk, but also able to grow without significant capital
expenditure.

So, as you can see, the industry is not just about technology or
energy innovations, but they can also expand into services and IT
as well. Many venture capital & private equity funds are also
expanding their investment mandate; for example, Google, Intel and
other technology venture capital investors are now investing into
cleantech projects.

Please check out our website href=”http://researchwhitepaper.com/”
target=”_blank”>http://researchwhitepaper.com for our Global
Green Investors Guide and USA Environmental Services Companies
Guide