Money
Issue No. 52 - April/May 2010
Playford: Cleantech is a good fit for SA
Australian seed investor Playford Capital told investors at February’s CleverGreen conference to focus on investment fundamentals despite the hype and excitement of the clean technology sector.
Playford Capital CEO Amanda Heyworth told a special investors session at the CleverGreen event there were good reasons to expect the level of ‘cleantech’ investments to grow.
“This part of the market is relatively underdeveloped,” she said. “Just eight of the 178 companies currently in Australian venture capital portfolios are classified as cleantech – that’s less than 5%.
“Positive environmental factors include (government) moves to put a price on carbon and water and the increasingly recognised need to reduce our reliance on oil. At the same time, there is both corporate and consumer demand for an efficiency payback and to ‘do the right thing’.
“However, while it is easy to be romantic about the prospects of companies in this sector, the deal needs to stack up just like any other deal – with the right mix of people, market and product.
“The key to every successful investment is a successful exit. Discuss exit targets and expectations right from the start, so you get everyone on the same page.”
Playford Capital is an Adelaide-based, early stage investor in innovative technology companies expected to deliver a strong return from seed funding. As well as funding promising companies through the early-stage capital gap, Playford assists with product planning, market entry and channel management. Playford also has a strong record of attracting co-investment into its portfolio companies.
Amanda says SA’s long-standing strengths in technologies such as materials science, water and waste management, and optimisation are now being coupled with signal processing, sensor and control system capabilities from the defence sector.
“This convergence can lead to solutions that may improve renewable energy in...
