Link to Article By: Steve Hendershot
The Clean Energy Trust exists to nurture the new generation of clean-tech companies that the trust believes are about to surge forward in Chicago.
The trust is far less certain about which companies will stand out, or even the sort of clean technologies they will pursue. So its strategy is to promote a business ecosystem that will make it easier for all companies in the sector to succeed.
“The trust is fertilizer that we can spread around the field so that things grow faster, bigger, denser and with more success than would otherwise happen,” says Michael Polsky, one of the Clean Energy Trust’s founders and also the CEO of Chicago wind-power firm Invenergy LLC. His message for aspiring clean-energy entrepreneurs: “Just get started. Do things. Then a lot of other things will come out of (those efforts) well beyond what you predicted.”
That advice comes from experience. Mr. Polsky didn’t found Invenergy as a renewable-energy company—it became one in 2003 after he sensed the opportunity in wind power. He wants the non-profit trust to have the same flexibility.
So the trust works with all kinds of clean-tech entrepreneurs, helping them refine their strategies, earn more federal grants and connect with private investors, researchers, larger corporations and utilities. Founded last year, its efforts are focused in Chicago and Illinois, but eventually its scope will include the entire Midwest.
“It’s about stitching together a support system for entrepreneurs, scientists and investors, connecting all these interested parties so they get more of a return on the time they are spending in this area,” says Amy Francetic, the trust’s executive director and a former entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
Her first project was the Clean Energy Challenge, a competition in March that drew 72 clean-tech businesses as contestants and awarded $130,000 in prizes. It also attracted a nationwide audience of investors and established the trust as the centerpiece of Chicago’s clean-tech community.
‘ It’s about stitching together a support system for entrepreneurs.’
— Amy Francetic
Ms. Francetic “filled a void,” says Bridget Calendo, director of operations and outreach at the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University. “Before, there was no one coordinating everyone’s effort. Now, when someone has a great idea or when an investor wants a great idea, this is where they’ll look.
It’s a good time to get the attention of clean-energy investors, and venture-capital firms are pouring more money into the sector but being choosy about the deals they make. VCs invested $2.57 billion in clean-tech companies in the first three months of 2010, the best quarter since the recession hit in 2008, according to San Francisco consultancy Cleantech Group LLC. The same report found that the number of investments was the lowest since 2009, meaning that investors are placing larger bets on fewer companies.
Area clean-energy and clean-tech firms know they face stiff competition from the coasts for venture-capital dollars but say that the Clean Energy Trust has helped to funnel investors’ attention toward Chicago.
“In Silicon Valley, it’s far easier (for entrepreneurs to gain) access to capital. Here it’s harder, and it’s a matter of getting the (investors’) attention,” says Tim Stojka, CEO of Agentis Energy Inc., an Elmhurst-based energy-efficiency firm that was a finalist in the Clean Energy Challenge. The trust “has been a catalyst for this community and a real opportunity for investors, entrepreneurs and research groups to get together.
© 2011 by Crain Communications Inc.
