in content lists or on the content page.Media release 16.3.2006
Sitra’s Environmental Programme is launching a project to survey the development of venture-capital investments and investment operations in Finnish environmental sector enterprises. The project will moreover survey the development and follow-up of the investment operations in the entire sector in Europe. The project will be implemented by Etlatieto Ltd. and the survey will be completed in September this year. The survey compares the data gathered in Finland with respective data from Europe and North America.
Europe is lagging behind in the follow-up of the development of environmental business when compared to North America. It is difficult to get an overall view of the development of the sector.
“Now that the sector is on the threshold of a major change, the development of the business and the markets should be followed particularly carefully and new growth opportunities grasped as they are presented,” says Jukka Noponen, the Programme Director of the Environmental Programme.
The venture-capital investment in clean technologies in the cleantech sector is on the increase worldwide. At the moment, the development of investment operations is followed adequately in North America. There the development points to rapid growth of the entire environmental business sector. In the last quarter of 2005, venture-capital investors invested $502 million in environmental technology enterprises. There was an increase of 18 per cent compared to the previous quarter and almost 60 per cent from the corresponding quarter in 2004. The overall investments in enterprises in the cleantech sector in 2005 amounted to $1.6 billion, which is 34.9 per cent more than in 2004. The strong growth trend has continued in North America for the past 18 months. In addition, the share of environmental business in the North American investment markets has increased proportionately. Approximately 10 per cent of all venture-capital investments are already directed at clean technologies.
“The view of the environmental sector is still fragmented in Finland. There are a great many small enterprises in the sector and only a few large leading-edge enterprises and even fewer medium-sized businesses that could function as a unifying force in the sector. In order to get an overall picture of the situation, Sitra has launched an additional cluster survey of enterprises in the sector. We are moreover making venture-capital investments in the enterprises to speed up the development of the sector,” says Noponen.
The overall picture of the sector’s development will be presented at an international event to be held in Lahti on 5-6 June 2006. Cleantech Forum Lahti will present an overview on the funding of clean technology enterprises in the Nordic countries and the Baltic Sea region. The event brings together environmental technology enterprises and investors. Cleantech Forum Lahti introduces market trends, predicts future technologies and presents investors’ viewpoints. Among the speakers at the seminar are Sauli Niinistö, Vice-Chairman of the European Investment Bank, Nicholas Parker, the Chairman of the American Cleantech Capital Group LLC, and European environmental technology investors.
Further information:
Programme Director Jukka Noponen
tel. +358 9 6189 9430 or +358 40 587 4323