Cleantech Israel business network fills niche

Analyst: Newest trend is energy efficiency, not production.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
cleantech 88 (photo credit: )
cleantech 88
(photo credit: )
If you happened to be looking for a cleantech professional on Thursday morning, there was a good chance they were at the Agnes café in Ramat Hasharon and not at their desks. Over 130 entrepreneurs, investors, government officials, academics and even some journalists attended the sixth meetup of the Israel Cleantech business network. They came for an informal shmooze session and to hear visiting guest lecturer Richard Youngman, managing director of Cleantech Group Europe. The goal of Israel Cleantech is "to enable entrepreneurs, investors, academics, government officials and service providers to meet and exchange ideas about Israel's renewable energy, water, and environmental sectors." According to Youngman, "in 2002 the cleantech industry was the second largest market for venture capital investing worldwide. From 2003-2008 $17 billion have been invested, $6b. in 2007 alone, and we think that 2008 will be even larger." Israel's share of the market has mainly been seen in water and solar, he said. While not representative of that much money, fully half of all European water technology deals were with Israel last year, he said. With energy generation a long-term game - bio-fuels and solar power plants do not emerge overnight - the name of the game has become resource efficiency, Youngman analyzed. "In the second quarter of 2008 investment in energy efficiency overtook energy generation investment in Europe. We think it's the start of a longer term trend. $83 million were raised, greater than the previous three quarters combined," Youngman told the gathered group. Youngman contended that the trend was being driven by three causes. One, the high price of oil was driving up everyone's energy bills, which caused people to become interested in energy efficiency. Second, renewable energy is a long-term process. Efficiency is what we can do now, he said. Finally, government legislation in Europe was mandating efficiency, everything from retrofitting buildings for efficiency to the electric company putting out pointers for its clients on how to conserve electricity. Because of the focus on efficiency, monitoring and control software was rapidly entering the market, Youngman said. In addition, investors in cleantech were a diverse group, he said, from those specifically interested in cleantech to those older and established companies who were interested in cutting exorbitant energy bills and conforming with recent legislation. Youngman's talk was received well and he got a sincere round of applause from the crowd. A few follow-up questions indicated that his listeners had been thinking about how his ideas applied to their particular companies or situation. Member feedback on the group's Meetup site from the event was largely positive, though a few people thought Youngman's presentation was less than stirring. Nevertheless, even those people found the networking worthwhile. The Israel Cleantech meetups are the brainchild of Jonathan Shapira and Gene Dolgin. Begun just six months ago, the group already has 555 members and has held six events. Shapira and Dolgin launched the initiative while working at Israel Cleantech Ventures, although the group is not owned by the VC firm. Dolgin is an analyst there and Shapira was an intern. Shapira will begin working in October as a Boston-based corporate associate at Goodwin Procter LLP, a US law firm. He has already founded the Boston Israel Cleantech Alliance. "I was writing a blog on the cleantech industry and it sort of came out of the blog. We saw there were limited opportunities for entrepreneurs, investors and academics to interact informally," Shapira told The Jerusalem Post by phone Friday. Shapira stressed that the venture was "not a commercial endeavor, nor is it a lobby group advocating policy vis a vis the government," he told the Post. It is independent of any fund or company, he added, and belongs to the industry itself. Clearly, the industry has been pleased with their creation. From 45 people in attendance at the first meetup in March, there were over 130 at the one on Thursday morning. The networking has already begun to pay off as well, according to Shapira. One company found an investor at the second meeting and the group's Web site has become a locator beacon for interested parties from abroad. Expanding all the time, the Web site now boasts industry job postings, links and resources. "It is now seen as a resource for people coming from abroad [looking to invest]," Shapira explained. He was modest, however, about his role preferring to give credit to the industry's innate attractiveness. "The credit goes to industry. All we are doing is creating a way for people from outside to come in and find them. The hard part is creating the technology, this is just the last step," he said. As another member wrote - the network has become the place to make contacts. "It seems to have become a central discussion and acquaintance group in the field of cleantech. The benefits of meeting entrepreneurs, investors and service providers - all at the same place and time and all related to cleantech is large. The participants are exactly the people one would want to meet," Ophir Tal, an ecologist turned lawyer, wrote on the site in late July.