Published in The National
A SCOTS investment firm is showcasing more than two dozen cleantech businesses set to win approval with the COP26 climate conference audience in Glasgow.
Greenbackers Investment Capital provides pre-screened, curated investment deals for funds looking to deploy capital into innovative, early-stage cleantech ventures, which are also known as earthtech and oceantech.
The company is run by Robert Hokin and his team, who see their mission as giving a platform to the most promising emerging cleantech businesses in front of thousands of delegates at the Glasgow summit in November.
Ahead of COP26, Greenbackers has launched its “26-for-COP-26” SuperPitch, an ambitious program aiming to attract funding for 26 of the most promising net zero start-ups between the launch of the initiative and November.
There will be a live, streamed showcase event during Cop26 on November 9 at the Technology Innovation Centre at Strathclyde University.
Hokin said: “We fired the starting gun on May 20 this year during a webinar broadcast globally to over 2200 investors, corporates and other stakeholders. It was amazing!
The event featured keynote speeches from our high-level partners, Scottish Minister Ivan McKee, and we announced the final 26 selected ventures.
“Technology businesses seeking funding, but who missed the submission deadline can still apply for our regular program of support or join us on November 9.”
Chicago-born Hokin initially spun out Greenbackers from Ecoconnect, a non-profit London-based summit he chaired to “assemble the UK audience for net-zero”.
It has evolved significantly as it taps into the ever-growing appetite of global investment funds looking to spot the next big thing in environmental science and technology.
The pandemic forced the firm to change how it operates, but Hokin is pleased with the results: “We are a highly collaborative organisation, and we seek to form mutually productive partnerships with others from the cleantech eco-system globally.
Before Covid 19 struck we held regular, quarterly match-making sessions in London for investors, typically, venture funds, corporate investors and private offices – connecting them with clean, green technology ventures seeking funding.
“We hosted up to 60 serious investment funds each session, but since March 2020, when we had to react quickly to the pandemic, we moved our sessions online to a new online platform for pitches.
“Now we have had as many as 300 funds from all over the world signing up for these sessions where green tech entrepreneurs get to showcase their innovative technologies.”
