News, Events & Resources

Greenbackers Climate Tech Tour: Destination Dubai – Achieving Net Zero (in a carbon dominated economy)

16 February 2022

REGISTER HERE

Post-COP26, there is renewed and optimistic focus on the Middle East to show leadership on tackling issues of climate change with the official announcement from the United Nations that the UAE will host the COP28 international climate conference in 2023.

While most states in the Mid-East have committed to ambitious climate targets, it will be important for these pledges to be put into action over the next few years with clear objectives, strategic planning, and targeted investments.

Although there is momentum as the Gulf States transition from their historical reliance on hydrocarbons to becoming more balanced and sustainable economies, their successful move to a Net Zero future will be judged on realistic outcomes. This program will be showcasing showcasing cutting-edge technology solutions and discussing the region’s potential to adopt and implement them.

Greenbackers Climate Tech Tour: Destination Dubai – Achieving Net Zero in a carbon dominated regional economy

Panellists:

Session chaired by Andrew Smith, Executive Director at Greenbackers Investment Capital

Ravi Suri, Senior Managing Director (Investments), A.P. Møller Capital. Bio: Ravi currently works with AP MØLLER Capital, an infrastructure fund, as a Senior Managing Director. Previously he was with KPMG as their Global Head of Infrastructure Finance and before that with Standard Chartered as their Global Head of Project and Export Finance. Prior to that he was with GE, ABN AMRO, Bank Standard Chartered Bank and KPMG in global leadership positions. He is an alumnus of North Western University where he did his master’s in chemical engineering and at Harvard Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, where he completed his executive education programmes. Ravi has extensive experience in the sustainability finance arena including circular economy and March to Net Zero initiatives and financings. https://apmollercapital.com

Ahmed Samir Elbermbali, Managing Director, Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC). Bio: The MENA Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting clean energy and clean technologies and solutions. CEBC provides a platform to further dialogue between the public and private sectors to develop much needed policy and regulation to help drive the implementation of clean energy across the MENA region. Ahmed joined CEBC in 2018 and the youngest Managing Director to hold this position in the history of CEBC.  Ahmed holds MBA in Sustainable Mobility management from the Technical University of Berlin.  https://www.cebcmena.com

Joe Carter, Vice President Business Development, Middle East Projects at Wood Plc. Bio: Wood is a global leader in consulting and engineering across energy and the built environment, helping to unlock solutions to some of the world’s most critical challenges. They provide consulting, projects and operations solutions in more than 60 countries, employing around 40,000 people. [Full bio to be supplied) https://www.woodplc.com

Agenda:

10:30 Pre-start networking and registration
11:00 Greenbackers intro – setting up the event, agenda, aims and follow on
11:05 Themed Session No 1:  Climate tech ventures present their cutting-edge climate technology solutions LIVE & IN PERSON
Running Order: Katrick Technologies, Logan Energy, PLUSZERO LTD, Precision Impulse, R3 IoT, RedStack, Topolytics, Trade In Space.
11:45 Panel Session
12:00 Keynote address (note: the Online VIDEOs can be paused to allow for the Minister’s address)
12:10 Themed Session No 2:  Climate tech ventures present their cutting-edge climate technology solutions VIA VIDEO
Running Order: C Power Alba, Celtic Renewables, Hydrogen Systems Australia, Kleanbus, Subsea Micropiles.
12:30 Greenbackers close with invitation to remain and network with the ventures and presenters and Greenbackers/Scottish Government attendees

Presenting Cimate Technology Companies (in alphabetical order)

C Power Alba: Online via video. Reenst Leseman, CEO presenting, based Charlottesville USA and Aberdeen. C Power brings the cloud to the sea. An easy-to-deploy and operate autonomous offshore power system (AOPS) uses ocean energy to turn the ocean into a power and data-enriched environment. It is like a combination of an unmanned charging station, data server and internet connection, but out in the ocean. C-Power is a Scottish Subsidiary of a US business and already in receipt of a SMART Scotland award from Scottish Enterprise for a feasibility study, which as been completed and is being finalised for SE now. This work has demonstrated additional opportunities in Scotland and further funding in Scotland is being sought. The work has led to contracts of +£1m for Scottish businesses from C Power Alba.
Raising $4m-6m, with lead investor in place to build out team, partnerships and channels; deliver first 2 products to market, repeatable sales, and profitability.
Celtic Renewables: Online via video. Mark Simmers, CEO presenting, based Edinburgh:  the first company to produce biofuel from the by-products of the scotch whisky industry. It has been estimated that annually the whisky industry produces 1.6 billion litres of pot ale and 500,000 tonnes of draff which has historically been used for animal feed. Construction of their flagship biorefinery is complete and will be capable of producing 1m litres of sustainable biochemicals annually. Now in advanced conversations with multinational companies to build future plants.
Raising: £50m to continue develop and construction of biorefineries.
Hydrogen Systems Australia: Online via video. TBD presenting. HSA is a motivated team of highly experienced and dynamic professionals with the purpose of developing and deploying environmentally vital, zero emission, Green Hydrogen-based renewable energy systems. As hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and provides our planet with infinite potential in the energy space, they plan to help shape our sustainable energy future with the supply of leading-edge, renewable Green Hydrogen technologies. Market-ready product is under six months away.
Raising $7.5m for field testing, go to market and scaling.
Katrick Technologies: Attending in Person. Karthik Velayutham, Founder/Co-CEO & Vijay Madlani, Co-CEO presenting, based Glasgow. Katrick is a leading innovator in the zero-carbon market, designing products which significantly contribute to decarbonisation at a lower cost to the end-user than the current carbon-based incumbents.
Raising £5m-10m to cover costs for 1-2 years and to go cashflow positive in 2023.
Kleanbus: Online via video. TBD presenting. Kleanbus have developed a retrofit programme which allows fleet operators to electrify diesel public transport in the quickest, most financially viable and environmentally friendly way. Greenbackers is currently introducing them to a number of Scottish Bus operators for trials as well as Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP) for support.
Raising £1.5m for Product development, pilot programmes, commercialisation and production and IP Development with Breakeven forecast in Q3 2023.
Logan Energy: Attending In-Person. Bill Ireland, CEO, based Wallyford: Logan Energy has over 25 years’ experience and a proven track record in delivering projects and solutions in renewable hydrogen sector. They specialize in the delivery of integrated engineering solutions incorporating hydrogen technologies for production through to re-fueling, offering a full turnkey service from project inception & feasibility, design development, manufacturing, installation and operation and maintenance. They have designed, built and installed hydrogen production & re-fueling stations and are currently constructing further stations for buses, vans, passenger vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles and are setting up a gas compressor company specifically for the hydrogen sector but including NG and bio-gas. Using the know-how from individuals of other companies to establish a new manufacturing business in Scotland.
Raising c£1m investment for setting up manufacturing facilities, purchase of equipment and design costs over 12-months.
PLUSZERO LTD: attending In-Person, David Amos, Managing Director, based Edinburgh. A Green Hydrogen focused clean power solutions provider and we aim to become a major player in the global clean energy sector. They currently produce Green hydrogen in the Western Isles and combine this with hydrogen fueled portable generators to provide a carbon and pollution free clean power alternatives to diesel generators. They completed a successful series of high-profile clean demonstrations in 2021 at Edinburgh International Festival and COP 26. One of 3 co’s that featured as case studies in the SG’s Hydrogen Action Plan and are in the process of raising funding to support a significant upscaling of their Green Hydrogen production facility in the Western Isles and clean power solutions offer. Initial focus is on supporting the decarbonization of outdoor events sector in the UK but seeking opportunities in other markets, incl UAE.
Raising £4M for building fleet of hydrogen fueled generator sets.
Precision Impulse, Attending In-Person. Will Davie, CEO, based Aberdeen. Leaders have accepted that CCS has to be part of the solution as it is the only net negative technology and even solar, wind and green hydrogen need CCS to achieve net zero.  Anything that involves steel or cement and the mining and refining of special minerals (nickel, cobalt, lithium etc.) requires CO2 emissions storage. The world will have to construct CO2 stores and be reassured of their efficacy.  The Precision Impulse technology to gather data to visualise the integrity of a CO2 store is a small part of the solution, but hopefully it motivates support for all companies involved in CCS and that includes companies working on hydrogen which we believe is important to make all energy sources transportable, storable and fungible. 
Raising £2M over 2 years for product refinement, build and demonstration.
R3 IoT, Attending In-Person, Allan Cannon, CEO, based Glasgow R3IoT combines cutting edge satellite communications technology with the best of IoT to offer unique end-to-end data services to the 90% of the planet that lacks traditional communications infrastructure. They provide resilient data services coupled with pioneering analytics to produce decision-ready insights that inform, automate and advance operations all over the world. R3 IoT technology can be integrated and deployed in a wide range of industries and sub-sectors: Aquaculture, Energy, Environmental Monitoring, Rural Health and Utilities. R3-IoT raised £3.1M seed investment in 2021.
Raising over £10m Series A investment in late 2022/early 2023 to grow the business.    
REDstack:  Attending in Person. Pieter Hack, Chairman presenting, based Zevenbergen, Netherlands REDstack supplies process design and membrane stacks, for generating power out of contacting flows of fresh water and salt water; where the river flows into the sea. Powerplants based on this technology can generate 100s of MW. As the power is available 364/24/7, costs of storage are eliminated and grid stability is supported. This process also supports ElectroDialysis (ED) for desalination of various types of salt and brackish water streams.
Raising €17.0 million, comprising € 8 million during the period Q4 2021-2022, and € 9 million between 2023 and 2024. After 2024, when a stable positive EBITDA is expected, other financing constructions will be explored.
Subsea Micropiles: Online via video. TBD presenting- Registered in Ireland but has a wholly owned subsidiary in Banchory, Aberdeen, established to serve the offshore floating wind market off the Scottish Coast.  A transformative approach to engineered offshore anchors that enables the growth of offshore wind. Recent advances in underwater robotics now opens the vast market for offshore piling & anchoring to low-cost micropiling, with savings as much as 50% compared with conventional solutions.
Raising £4.3m tocommission of a revenue generating drilling system to enable commercial sales of services.
Topolytics, Attending In-Person, Michael Groves, CEO, based Edinburgh Topolytics is a data aggregation and analytics business that is making the world’s waste visible, verifiable and valuable.  Their mission is to be the leading waste and resources analytics business for organisations that generate waste through their operations and products, the industry that is moving and processing this material, investors and government (local, regional or national).  Through building transparency and trust across local, national and international waste systems, Topolytics generates actionable insights and value creation for all players across the waste and materials supply chain. Their platform WasteMap® applies mapping and machine learning to overcome inaccuracies hindering resource recovery globally.
Raising £2.5m to grow the business.
Trade in Space, Attending In-Person, Managing Director, based Glasgow The future of global trade depends on transactionable insight: Trade in Space integrate remote sensing data into supply-chain management systems, and blockchain applications. In 2020 they completed a world first satellite-brokered direct trade between coffee producers in Colombia, and roasters in the UK. They recorded transaction details and supply chain events on their distributed ledger. Since then, we’ve surveyed tens of thousands of farms around the world, moving beyond ‘actionable intelligence’; they turn satellite insights into ‘transactionable  insights‘.
Raising £2M – £3M, to begin working in other supply chains to grow the business. They have currently focused on coffee, but other supply chain opportunities include cocoa and tropical fruits.
REGISTER HERE