“It’s different this time.”
For investors, those words have caused a lot of black eyes over the years. But they do point to a fundamental truth in the investment world:
Timing is everything!
So today, let me tell you why the timing might finally be right for one specific sector.
And then I’ll show you three ways to tap into this opportunity for the biggest potential profits.
The Last Time Around…
A few years after the dot-com meltdown, venture capital (VC) firms like Kleiner Perkins, DFJ, and Khosla Ventures made some big bets on an emerging sector: cleantech.
That explains why annual funding for this sector soared from about $300 million in 1996, to $1.7 billion in 2006.
But then several marquee cleantech companies like Solyndra and Fisker went belly up. And VCs got so burned that they stopped investing in this sector almost entirely.
But Brook Porter, a former cleantech investor with Kleiner Perkins, believes he knows why things didn’t work out back then. As he said recently, the “technologies weren’t quite ready.”
In other words, the timing wasn’t right.
So, is it different now? Let’s take a look.
This Time Around
First of all, to recognize the elephant in the room, not everyone “believes” in climate change.
But regardless of your beliefs, the viewpoint that something needs to be done to protect our planet has certainly gone mainstream.
And this viewpoint is reflected in the enormous dollars flowing into the sector today. To show you what I mean, check out this chart, courtesy of PitchBook:
As you can see, venture funding into the sector is on a rocket ship, soaring from about $1 billion per year in 2010, to more than $7 billion last year. And 2021 is on track to set a new record.
Let’s look at some of the main reasons behind this shift:
- Dramatic advances in the building blocks of cleantech have brought down costs dramatically. So startups today can innovate with far less capital.
- Cleantech today encompasses not just battery tech and renewables, but food, transportation, and many other exciting sub-sectors.
- The success of electric car company Tesla — which has soared from about $3 to as high as $900 in about a decade — might be contributing here, too.
- The political winds are at our back, with a big part of President Biden’s new infrastructure plan focusing on reducing greenhouse emissions.
- With so many cleantech startups attracting capital and attention, there’s bound to be some big “winners” to keep this sector hot for years.
So, are you ready to dive into the sector, too?
Three Cleantech Startups You Can Invest in Today
Here are three startups raising funding from investors like you:
- Airthium makes batteries that can store 100x more energy than traditional competitors. It’s earned multiple awards, and counts Y Combinator as one of its early investors.
- LPPFusion has achieved the highest confined temperature of any fusion experimental device in history — over 2 billion degrees. That’s sufficient for hydrogen-boron fusion, which can be used to create safe, clean, unlimited, decentralized energy.
- Named one of America’s “Most fundable companies,” Flower Turbines manufactures small wind turbines. This company has been awarded several patents, and has completed DreamIt Ventures’ first Urbantech Accelerator.
Proceed Cautiously
Keep in mind — I’m not recommending that you run out and invest in those startups. Before you consider investing, you need to do your research.
And like Wayne and I always tell you, when you invest in startups, you can’t just invest in one — you need to build a diversified portfolio of many of them.
That’s how you reduce your risk and increase your chances of hitting a home run.
But bottom line: we finally believe the timing for cleantech is right!
Happy Investing
Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with any of the startups we write about. We’re an independent provider of education and research on startups and alternative investments.
Best Regards,
Founder
Crowdability.com
