While stopping climate change becomes increasingly more urgent, there is a rising tide of smart people around the world working to create clever new technologies to solve climate change and other environmental problems.
Clean-tech is the growing, incredibly exciting area of the business world dedicated to products and services that help people make smart choices when it comes to the environment. Think electric cars, sources of clean energy like solar panels, or alternatives to harmful materials like plastic.
To make lasting change, all these solutions and more will need to be implemented on a grand scale. We all need to do more – much more.
So what’s the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in empowering Kiwis to make better environmental decisions?
Millions invested in R&D
Increasing numbers of New Zealand entrepreneurs are coming up with smart solutions to the challenges our planet is facing, from carbon emissions to plastic waste and beyond.
According to Callaghan Innovation data, the number of Kiwi clean-tech businesses – high-tech businesses creating products to help solve climate change and other environmental problems – has nearly doubled in the past six years, from 47 businesses in 2015 to 86 in 2021.
However, we know the true number of Kiwi clean-tech businesses is in the hundreds, operating across key sectors to mitigate their climate impacts – such as energy, agriculture, and construction.
Clean-tech is good for the climate, of course, but also represents a new opportunity for the New Zealand economy.
Our own analysis of the clean-tech sector last year found we worked with almost 300 clean-tech startups during the 2020 financial year. In that same period, 98 of those clean-tech innovators alone generated $330m in revenue, supported 1,860 jobs and invested $95m in R&D.
They’re raising cash – lots of it
New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, alongside New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s investment team, are aware of over 50 clean-tech businesses that have successfully raised capital or are in capital-raising mode, with over $100 million of investments into the sector in the last 24 months.
Osho, a clean-tech company based in Auckland, is one such company looking to ‘design out’ old, inefficient ways of supplying electricity to homes. Late last year they closed New Zealand's largest-ever seed funding round (at the time) of $12 million.
Osho (currently preparing to go to market) is designing a more efficient way to provide homes with electricity, making them smarter, safer, and more efficient. Osho's initial product will play a critical role in supporting Kiwis to actively contribute to radically accelerating the clean-energy revolution
Eko360, a clean-tech/agritech business, has just closed a $5m capital raise round too. They develop solutions that help farmers reduce their environmental footprint from fertilisers.
The team at Eko360 pride themselves on providing a highly effective solution to farmers, who are under increasing pressure to change the way they work under new regulations. The idea here is not to ‘disrupt’ how farms operate, but to offer an easy choice to the time-poor farming community.
Phil Anderson.
Partnering to keep momentum moving
Clean-tech is gaining momentum in New Zealand, and it’s encouraging to see that investment in this space is on the rise, as are the number of Kiwi clean-tech businesses being launched. So, what is being done to support them?
Last year, we set up the NZ CleanTech Mission Partnership with NZGCP, Auckland UniServices, Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI), Auckland Unlimited, Kiwinet and Ara Ake each signing on as partners.
The partnership aims to build collaboration across clean-tech innovators, investors and government. We’re trying to create the best possible ecosystem for clean-tech in New Zealand, to seize on the significant economic and environmental opportunities that clean-tech offers.
So, with all that said, if you’ve ever had a flash of brilliance about how to solve climate change challenges big or small, now's the time to pursue it. Opportunities are afoot for Kiwis looking to launch clean-tech startups.
The reality is, we need these technology-based solutions now, more than ever before.
Phil Anderson is Callaghan Innovation's clean-tech business innovation adviser.
This content was supplied free to NBR.
