This is our second video from Lahti (see the first here) where we visited at the Clean Tech Venture Day. I talked to Rene Savelsberg, Managing Director and CEO of SET Venture Partners. Rene is responsible for managing the € 50m Sustainable Energy Technology (”SET”) Fund based in Amsterdam with a pan-European investment focus.
We discussed which markets to enter, whether to focus on the home market or go big from day one. Rene went on to explain the pros and cons of each option. We also touched upon the role of entrepreneurs, scientists and PhDs, and how these different skill sets play out in a growth company.
Last week we visited Lahti at Clean Tech Venture Day. I talked to Rene Savelsberg, Managing Director and CEO of SET Venture Partners. Rene is responsible for managing € 50m Sustainable Energy Technology (“SET”) Fund based in Amsterdam with a pan-European investment focus.
In the first video we discussed about SET Venture Partners’ investment focus, how their deal flow looks like and where it comes from. Lastly we touched on the current state of the Nordic and the Dutch clean tech enviroment and where its progressing.
In the second video we discussed what one should consider when dealing with VCs and taking VC money. Rene also gave his take on what are the break through areas in clean tech in 2010.
Somewhat surprisingly, one of the most efficient wind turbines on the market is coming from Finland. A good reason for us to shed some light on WinWinD and their excellent products. Jari Varjotie, the COO of WinWinD, took some time out of his schedule to answer my questions.
WinWinD was established in 2000 in the city of Oulu in Finland. The founder, Jouko Tiuraniemi, has a long career in the field of energy. In 1995 Tiuraniemi started to think about a new, highly efficient wind turbine, as he realized that the key to success was not to try to compete on their terms with the Germans and Danes who were dominating the market, but to create a turbine that would be technically superior. WinWinD chose the Multibrid technology as basis for the WWD turbine, and going forward with the Multibrid low speed technology was the first strategically important decision for the company. In 2001 the WWD-1 wind turbine pilot project was completed. The WWD-3, a 3 Megawatt turbine, followed in 2004.
Governments are becoming more actively involved and the state backed interventions to meet EU 20-20-20 target are definitively needed. EU targets are technically available, but the current technology is still highly priced. Finland finally proposed two weeks ago a feed-in tariff for wind power of EUR 83.5/MWh. The guaranteed price for wind power is to be introduced in early 2010 for a period of 12 years. Governments target is to increase the production of wind power to 6 TWh, i.e. by almost 30 times by the year 2020 (current production level approximately 0.2 TWh). Implementing the wind feed-in tariffs in early 1980-1990’s countries like Denmark, Germany and Spain boosted a growth of the global wind power players like Vestas, Enercon and Gamesa. Finland has somehow a missed a train as financing the wind farms is becoming more to preserve of project finance and VC’s are now focusing more on advancements on power and turbine technologies.
The search has ended and we are happy to announce our Editor for our clean tech section. We received numerous high quality applications (Thank you everybody who applied!) and chose the one we thought was the best fit for ArcticStartup.
We welcome Päivi Kangasmäki to our team to be heading our reporting on the world of clean technology startup in the Northern Europe. We feel very fortunate to have her join our ranks.
Päivi is currently working as a Business Development Manager in Cleantech sector at Lahti Science and Business Park, where her current work is to build up and to boost the Finnish cleantech companies in their early stages.
She worked for financial industry for over 12 years. Her experience covers treasury and asset management, and both venture capital and equity market. Her entrepreneurship background includes developing of angel and venture backed brokerage house in Finland.
ArcticStartup is evolving as any healthy venture needs to. After talking to a lot of our readers we are ready to expand our editorial scope towards covering more of what all of us here are so passionate about, not just one industry but startups in general.
We chose the direction that we’re most excited about apart from the area that we already cover. We’re going for cleantech (or greentech depending on what you want to call it)! Irrispective of what you call it, we are now looking for a writer to join our ranks here at ArcticStartup and be a full fledged member of our editorial team.
Not just any blogger though. We are looking for the same passion that drive us each and every day. Naturally, we expect you to know the area of expertise and have something to show for it, be it a job, a resume, magazine articles, a blog, an event you organized, you name it. We are not particularly interested what you’ve done or what you do, as long as you’re passionate about cleantech and everything around it, and want to share what’s happening in the cleantech startup industry in the Northern Europe with our readers.
Some of you might have justified fear what happens to the current editorial that revolves around internet, mobile software startups and growth entrepreneurship. It gets stronger, that’s what! Each week we get a deeper and better view into the Northern European internet and mobile startup industry and each day we are more excited about it. We keep blogging and pushing the scene stronger than ever, now we just have the Northern Europen cleantech startup industry growing with us.
Long story short, If you understand cleantech, are passionate about cleantech startups and would like to share your insight with the world, write to us at info[at]arcticstartup.com. There’s 30 000+ page views a month and 130+ countries following after all, so you’re set for a wide readership. If you’re not sure whether you qualify, write to us anyway. If in doubt whether you know enough about the startup industry in cleantech, write to us anyway. Only thing we absolutely require is passion.
Somewhat surprisingly, one of the most efficient wind turbines on the market is coming from Finland. A good reason for us to shed some light on 
Governments are becoming more actively involved and the state backed interventions to meet 
The search has ended and we are happy to announce our Editor for our clean tech section. We received numerous high quality applications (Thank you everybody who applied!) and chose the one we thought was the best fit for ArcticStartup.
Biovakka Suomi Oy 
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