Being Self-Sustainable With Tuulivoimala.com
Many cleantech companies are large scale companies who aim to work with the utilities, who require millions in investments for R&D, production facilities, and rolling out their product. Quickly one forgets about the smaller players, and one of those smaller players is Tuulivoimala, who develops and markets wind and solar power solutions to private customers, and who are quite successful with their venture.
Windside - A Different Kind Of Wind Turbine
The common picture we have of wind turbines are the ones which stand on tubular towers and have three rotor blades, varying in different sizes. The design is very much similar to the windmills of old, which were used to pump water and grind grain. However, Risto Joutsiniemi had already developed another kind of wind turbine over two decades ago - the Windside vertical wind turbine. Its a unique product which has many advantages in comparison to the horizontal wind turbine, most notably that they are able to operate at very low wind speeds and in extreme temperatures.
How To Build A Successful Financing Strategy: From Seed Funding To A €120m Round?
Finnish wind turbine manufacturer WinWind raised €120 million in September 2008. Lassi Noponen, Chairman of WinWind at that time, agreed to share his experience building a successful investment strategy from the initial seed round to a successful exit.
During the early 90's, Lassi worked for Neste Plc in various legal,technology and M&A positions and (with an MBA from London Business School)as VP and Group Controller at Neste. In the late 90's he left Neste for investment banking and joined Evli Corporate Finance as a partner.
The story starts in the early 2000's, when Lassi was co-founder and CEO at Proventia, a cleantech venture fund. Proventia made the first investment (of € 1 million) in WinWind's first round. Later on, Lassi negotiated the later rounds with the Finnish pension fund Varma and Finnish Industry Investment. In 2006, Lassi managed the rounds with the Indian Siva Ventures as the Chairman of WinWind. Finally, he managed a €120 million round with Masdar of Abu Dhabi in 2008.
WinWinD Pushing Hard In Wind Turbines
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.
