Tomologic wins this years Nordic Cleantech Open

By Olof | Published: April 25, 2012

The finals were held at Aalto Venture Garage in connection with the Nordic Cleantech venture event of the year, Cleantech Venture Day in Finland. More than 50 international investors and 270 participants were present at the finals. The ten very best of this years almost 100 Nordic Cleantech Open applicants presented from stage. The winners were selected with the help of audience votes.

The winner of this years Nordic Cleantech Open is the amazing metal cutting optimizer service company Tomologic, is a Stockholm based company that offers a scalable online optimization service for sheet metal cutting. The process reduces scrap from raw material in this energy intensive industry up to 50%. It was a combination of Tomologics smart technology and go-to-market strategy that swinged, which earned them the number one spot.Read an intewiev with Josefin and Magnus from Tomologic here. (in Swedish)

Magnus and Josefin from Tomologic right after the competition

Magnus Norberg Ohlsson, CEO of Tomologic presenting his case from stage at the Nordic Cleantech open final

In second place came ash handling company Ultranat a Finnish company that turns waste to value. Ultranat makes use of ashes from bio-fuel power plants and turns ash into valuable nutrition and fertilizers. The only thing left is purified silicates that can be used for technical construction and special industrial applications. After the Ultranat End-of-Waste process, waste taxes on the ash are no more applicable. Read an interview with Hans from Ultranat here (in Swedish)

Hans Weckman CEO of Ultranat presenting his case from stage at the Nordic Cleantech Open Finals

For the third place two companies were inseparable when it came to scores. We just decided we had to award them both they are Black Silicon Solar and MetGen.

Black Silicon Solar develops a nanotechnology process for improving silicon solar cells in a cost-efficient way. Focusing on cost reduction rather than improving efficiency, Black Silicon Solar has developed an alternative texturing process that reduce production cost, production time, use of toxic chemicals and use of silicon.

MetGen is developing and producing oxidase enzymes called Laccases. These enzymes can achieve a 15%-20% reduction of the energy consumption for wood pre-treatment in pulp and paper mills as well as other industrial processes.

All the Nordic Cleantech Open finalists and the organizing team at stage at the finals in Aalto Venture Garage

Read more about the finals in the press release!

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Final Event Sold Out!

By Olof | Published: April 17, 2012

The Nordic Cleantech Open final event at Aalto Venture Garage on the 25th of April is now sold out! There are still a few spots open at the Cleantech Venture Day on the 26th for those eager to meet the finalists. Register now for the Cleantech Cleantech Venture Day, the Cleantech Event of the year (even without the Nordic Cleantech Open Final)

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Nordic Cleantech in Navarra

By Olof | Published: March 21, 2012

Here is a report on the Nordic Cleantech Showcase in Pamplona generously organized and sponsored by Spanish venture capital company/regional development organisation Sodena (yes they are both of those in one!), who had put together a great program for the participating companies.

7/3 2012

We visited Sodenas office where we were given an introduction to the regional government of Navarras strategies for further improvement of the quality of life of its inhabitants. An essential part of these strategic plans is a very offensive focus on cleantech investments, both in terms of roll-out and in terms of venture capital. Sodena is one of the tools for achieving the strategic goals and an array of policy incentives are also in place to further boost cleantech developments. Sodena as an organisation is not only the official business promotion organisation of Navarra but also a VC investor. As such they do not only consider cash returns but also the impact on the strategic goals of the region.
Before lunch we went by bus trough what must truly be renewable energy heaven. Every other mountaintop has windmills spread out over them and on literally every other corner you will see blades waiting to be assembled or solar panels waiting to be installed. Next up was CENERs (the National Renewable Energy Centre) main office and laboratory in Sarriguren. At this facility research, testing and validation within some of the main cleantech focus areas is done; PVs, solar thermal, bio energy and energy in buildings.

Next stop was the Wind Turbine Test Laboratory in Sanguesa. In this facility Cener is able to test the strength and durability of the rotor blades of a wind turbine in full scale. This lab is if not the, than clearly among the, world leading in testing of entire wind technologies. This means among other things, to be able to simply whip entire blades trough air at high speed. A somewhat scary sight… Adding to this there are 6 nearby accredited field test sites where you can do tests, validation and research on all parts and aspects of wind turbines in full scale.

Also located at the Wind Turbine Test Laboratory is an experimental version of a micro grid.

Next stop was the 2nd Generation Biofuels National Research Center in Aoiz. This brand new facility is a pilot scale test factory for wood gasification.

8/3 2012

Our hosts Sodena had set up a number of meetings with local companies and organizations for each participating company. We were very impressed both with the numbers and the quality of the meetings that were set up. Professional translators had been assigned to the meetings where needed.

The Navarra region took us in with open arms, and gave us a good idea of what to expect if you want to do business there – a thriving cleantech innovation environment in a region that is economically very sound despite current financial turmoil. Navarra has seen companies such as Gamesa and Acciona take off during its renewable energy boom. Notably, Sodena was an early investor in both. Needless to say, these where to great success stories, that have led to an appetite for more investments in this space. Let’s hope the next ones will come out of the Nordics!

The official group photo

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top 10 selected

By Olof | Published: March 14, 2012

The top 10 Nordic Cleantech Open companies that will present at the final event in Aalto Venture Garage on the 25th of April are now selected. We made some short descriptions on what they do:

Aquiloz
Norway
www.aquiloz.com
If you think weather is just a conversation topic for old people you are wrong. For wind park owners correct predictions on future wind/production is essential. Aquiloz software does this using state of the art computational fluid dynamics – CFD models. Also in the software package are risk assessment and decision support tools.

Black Silicon Solar
Denmark
www.blacksiliconsolar.com
Imagine coming up with a substance that makes production of silicon solar cells cheaper, faster and less messy, and at the same time increases efficiency of the panels. Well, Black Silicon Solar did just that and we congratulate them on a great innovation.

MetGen
Finland
www.metgen.com
MetGen is developing and producing oxidase enzymes called Laccases. We don’t really understand what that is but we do listen carefully when they tell us that these enzymes can achieve a 15%-20% reduction of the energy consumption for wood pre-treatment in pulp and paper mills, as only one of many promising applications.

Numcore
Finland
www.numcore.com
-Having a frothing problem?
-Who you gonna call?
Numcore creates a 3D-image of the flotation cell and accurately measures stiffness and thickness of the froth via conductivity measurements. This enables automatic control of froth properties leading to a significant increase in recovery.

Pegasor
Finland
www.pegasor.com
Pegasor makes a sensor for continuous measurements of fine particles in air. Pegasor is the only one currently producing such a sensor. This is an excellent position as the sensor will be required by law in all new vehicles, both in EU and the US, within two years. This will open a market for Pegasor of 10-15 million sensors each year.

ReformTech Heating Technologies
Sweden
www.reformtech.se
ReformTech manufactures burners but without the flames. Catalytic combustion makes ReformTech’s heaters flexible in respect to fuels, very effective and free of any dangerous emissions. And what is it good for? Any application where heat is needed and size and mobility matters, for example, engine and compartment heating, mobile home heating and battery pre-heating.

Tomologic
Sweden
www.tomologic.com
When making gingerbread for Christmas you realize that there is a lot of dough left after you cut out the cakes. It matters little as you can just roll out the dough again. Cutting metal is the same but different. The same as there is a lot of waste and different as all the waist goes to scrap. Tomologic’s ingenious solution reduces this scrap buy up to 50%.

Ultranat
Finland
www.ultranat.com
Turning waste to value is the ultimate cleantech dream and this is really what Ultranat does. Ultranat makes use of ashes from bio-fuel power plants and turns this ash into valuable nutrition and fertilizers. The only thing left is purified silicates that can be used for several industry applications.

Vasasensor
Sweden
www.vasasensor.com
Knowing what is really going on is key to be able to optimize. Vasasensor makes a sensor that is able to register important parameters during the dewatering stage of paper production. The really remarkable thing is that the sensor is able to do this continuously while the machine runs at full speed.

Zemission
Sweden
www.zemission.se
Heating the interior of an electric or hybrid car is a problem. Using traditional electric heating depletes the battery and reduces the driving range of up to 50%. Zemission has a solution that has it all; efficiency, flexibility in respect to fuels and silent performance. The only thing this solution lacks is emissions. There virtually are none.

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Outotech buys top 25 company Numcore

By Olof | Published: March 13, 2012

Word just reached us that the mineral and metals processing technology company Outotec has bought all shares in the Nordic Cleantech Open top 25 company Numcore. Read more in the press release. We congratulate both companies to the deal that we think sends a clear message to all cleantech investors:

Invest in the top 25 companies now and hurry up before they get acquired!

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Enevo, first on top 25 to announce investment

By Olof | Published: February 9, 2012

Enevo most certainly became the first company of the top 25 to announce an investment. They actually announced the investment of 200 000 € at the same day that the top 25 list was released. We congratulate Enevo on this and wish them all the best. We are certain that there will be several more investments in the top 25 companies in the year to come.

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The top 25

By Olof | Published: February 5, 2012

We are very happy today to be ready to publicly announce the top 25 best Nordic Cleantech Startups. Below is a list of all the companies with very short descriptions of what they do. For a, still short, but longer description of the companies plus a inteviews and analyses please download the top 25 report. Enough written, here they are:

Aquiloz
Norway
www.aquiloz.com
Aquiloz is developing the next generation of wind power prediction and trading information system. The Aquiloz system use computational fluid dynamics – CFD models combined with both production forecasting, risk assessment and decision support tools. The system will deploy plug-ins and adaptors in order to be integrated with the customers existing systems.

Asema Electronics
Finland
www.asema.com
Asema Electronics manufactures consumer terminals and wireless controllers. Asema E electricity saver is a touchscreen display that offers an integrated Home Area Network gateway, home automation, per appliance power measurement, tariff driven home appliance control, and smart meter integration in one device.

Black Silicon Solar
Denmark
www.blacksiliconsolar.com
Black Silicon Solar develops a nanotechnology process for improving silicon solar cells in a cost-efficient way. Focusing on cost reduction rather than improving efficiency Black Silicon Solar has developed an alternative texturing process that reduce production cost, production time, use of toxic chemicals and use of silicon.

Carbatt
Norway
www.carbatt.no
Carbatt offer a solution to power electric vehicles based on a new unique nano-cell solid-state battery. The battery delivers energy densities above 30 times that of lithium batteries. This makes the electric vehicle not just competitive but superior to any combustion engine driven vehicle both in performance, range and cost.

Cellfab
Sweden
cellfab.se
Cell-reinforcement is a new, unique reinforcement method for concrete, asphalt and other materials. The Cell-reinforcement produced by Cellfab uses 75% less steel than traditional reinforcement. Cell-reinforcement also strengthens the structure and has better pressure- and crack distribution. The method can reduce labour costs with more than 50%.

CentriClean Systems
Sweden
www.centriclean.eu
CentriClean Systems offers its innovative technology, PowerSwirl® for industrial air filtration, based on a development of the traditional cyclone technology. A high separation efficiency over a wide flow range means that the technique can be used where conventional cyclones have not previously been used, eg for flue gas cleaning.

Danish Power Systems
Denmark
daposy.com
The fuel cells from Danish Power Systems deliver efficient, clean and renewable energy. Danish Power Systems develops the critical component, the membrane electrode assembly, which facilitates the electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Danish Power Systems is able to control very complicated parameters to achieve desired qualities as one of very few companies in the world.

Ekobalans Fenix
Sweden
www.ekobalans.se
Ekobalans offers sustainable solutions in the handling of nutrient rich residues such as sewage sludge, biogas digestate, manure and bio energy ashes. The nutrients in the residues are extracted by Ekobalans in a patented process and refined into high quality recycled alternatives to artificial fertilizers that do not carry a ballast of heavy metals and harmful organic substances.

Ekolite
Finland
www.ekolite.fi
Ekolite converts “Waste to Value” when making composite materials from biomass and industrial wastes. The manufacturing technology is very resource efficient. Ekolite will commercialize new modified biofuel ash based geopolymers for infrastructures and new natural fiber composites for thermal, acoustic and fire insulating materials.

Enercomp
Finland
www.enercomp.fi
Enercomp’s solution reduces energy consumption of industrial pumping and fan systems. Information is gathered from the pumps by a wireless sensor system. Based on this a survey of the pump systems is established and the system can be optimized. The system covers all motor applications and the savings are easy and immediate.

Enevo
Finland
www.enevo.com
Enevo offers a solution that gives waste management companies 20-40% savings in waste collection costs by optimizing their collection intervals, routes and equipment utilization. This is accomplished by using proprietary smart wireless fill level sensors and powerful online analytics software.

Lunavation
Sweden
www.lunavation.com
With the use of the new super material graphene, Lunavation has succeeded in producing a new type of lighting. The lighting component could be printed in a roll-to-roll process using a solution based and fully recyclable mixture of polymers. The technology is somewhat similar to OLED’s but could be printed over large surfaces, in ambient conditions.

MetGen
Finland
www.metgen.fi
MetGen is developing and producing oxidase enzymes called Laccases. MetGens Laccases can be used in a number of industrial processes. One example of use are wood pre-treatment in pulp and paper mills where Laccases give a 15%-20% reduction of the energy consumption.

NeoZeo
Sweden
www.neo-zeo.com
Based on inventions in the preparation of volume-efficient and durable adsorbents for gas separation, NeoZeo is offering novel solutions to tap the largest unexplored potential for producing raw biogas; the farms. NeoZeo will build biogas-upgrading modules suitable for small and mid-sized flows of raw biogas produced at farms, the oil wells of the future!

Norsetek
Norway
www.norsetek.no
Using Norseteks innovative concept wind turbine rotors can be built significantly lighter and larger than today. The method can save up to 40% of the rotor weight, and lower the fabrication costs significantly. The rotor blades are also sectioned near the middle! This enables easy transport of even larger wind turbines on small roads and by sea!

Numcore
Finland
www.numcore.com
Numcore has developed a solution that increases the recovery in froth flotation processes. The solution enables automatic control of froth properties leading to a significant increase in recovery. It creates a 3D-image of the flotation cell and accurately measures stiffness and thickness of the froth via conductivity measurements.

Orexplore
Sweden
orexplore.com
Orexplore is developing a portable, easy-to-use and extremely accurate equipment for analysing the composition of non-organic materials. It can for example detect hazardous heavy metals. The measurement is based on an innovative method combining two x-ray detection principles, fluorescence and transmission detection. The detection accuracy is unprecedented for an instrument in this category.

Pegasor
Finland
www.pegasor.fi
The innovation of Pegasor is a sensor for continuous fine particle concentration monitoring. Pegasor already has a market presence in the automotive industry. This market will grow rapidly in the next few years as well as the market for indoor air, outdoor air and stack emission monitoring that Pegasor will also commercialize solutions for.

Re-Turn
Norway
re-turn.no
Re-Turn develops solvent-free coatings and gel coats in PUR and epoxy, reinforced with carbon nano-tubes. Applications are found in offshore, shipbuilding and wind energy. The carbon nano-tubes add strength and provide a lower surface roughness that translates into easier cleaning, less use of chemicals and lowering of the friction in water and air.

Reformtech
Sweden
www.reformtech.se
The flame free catalytic combustion in ReformTechs unique catalytic heaters provides several advantages such as high fuel efficiency without any dangerous emissions. Among other advantages with this exciting technology is, the possibility to use different fuels, a directionally controllable heat radiation, low costs and robust performance.

Tomologic
Sweden
www.tomologic.com
Tomologic offers a scalable optimization service online that benefits customers through cost savings without the need of any user interaction and initial investments. Tomologic has developed a technology that optimize sheet metal cutting. The process reduces scrap from raw material in this energy intensive industry up to 50%.

Ultranat
Finland
www.ultranat.fi
Ultranat has developed and protected a unique method for processing ash. The method enables ash from biomass fuel power plants to be processed into valuable products. The micronutrients are separated and used for fertilizers and animal feed. The remaining parts, i.e. the body part of ash, consists of purified silicate fractions, which have several applications.

Vasasensor
Sweden
www.vasasensor.com
Vasasensors thin sensor units enable optimization of production processes during full speed. This is a solution for the needs of the paper industry to better control dewatering in the press section of the paper machines. Only 1% more efficient dewatering in the press leads to 4 % increased production or 4% less steam consumption.

ZEG Power
Norway
www.zegpower.com
With an efficiency of about 80-90% and integrated CO2 capture the ZEG-technology represents a truly revolutionary energy technology concept. The ZEG-technology produces both electricity and hydrogen with integrated CO2 capture less expensive than today. In addition there are no other emissions, and the technology is flexible with respect to fuels.

Zemission
Sweden
www.zemission.se
Zemission’s product is a multi-fuel, zero emission burner system for heating systems in Electric and Hybrid vehicles. Due to the absence of heat from a combustion engine, heating the interior of these is a problem. Electrical heating reduces the driving range of up to 50%. The Zemission burner is outstanding for this application. It does not reduce the range, it is silent, and it is Zero Emission.

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top 25 will be reviled…

By Olof | Published: February 2, 2012

On Monday the 6 of February. Stay put because it is a great collection of companies representing the very best from the Nordic Cleantech startup scene.

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Results are comming in…

By Olof | Published: January 9, 2012

The jury gradings are now almost all in and the work to adjust scores and sort out the final top 25 list will begin tomorrow Tuesday. All the competing companies will be notified of the results as soon as the final list is finished.

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Applicants divided per segment

By Olof | Published: December 21, 2011

Applicants to the Nordic Cleantech Open represent the entire span of diversity within the cleantech field. Since last year the number of applicants from each segment have increased. The largest increase was in the transport segment (up 80%).

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