None of the seven clean-tech companies that went to Silicon Valley a year ago in search of venture capital have signed any deals with investors, which may explain why one of the sponsors – Deloitte – has lately been recommending investment alternatives to fund growth, like joint ventures and mergers.
In mid-April last year, Gowlings law firm and Deloitte sponsored a trip to the Cleantech Showcase in Silicon Valley. The trip followed a local clean-tech bootcamp, in which seven local startups were given a crash course in wooing venture capitalists.
Dallas Kachan, who led the trip, said some of the companies that went to Silicon Valley last year are working with potential investors, but that no deals have closed yet.
Mantra Energy Alternatives, a subsidiary of Mantra Venture Group Ltd. (OTCBB:MVTG), was one of the seven participants.
The company, which has developed a process for turning carbon dioxide into a compound that has commercial uses, is looking to raise $4.5 million to build a demonstration project at the Lafarge cement plant in Richmond.
“We haven’t raised money from that specific trip, but we have raised a considerable amount to date [through alternative deals],” Mantra CEO Larry Kristof told BIV. “From that trip though, we met with a company called Sterling Communications, which is one of the top clean-tech public relation firms. They took us on as a client.”
As Canadian clean-tech entrepreneurs are quickly learning, venture capital investment is getting harder to find, and there have been few successful clean-tech IPOs in the last year. At an April 27 workshop sponsored by Deloitte, clean-tech companies were told joint partnerships, mergers and acquisitions offer better opportunities for growing a clean-tech company. •
Business in Vancouver’s Tech Retake revisits coverage of local technology companies and entrepreneurs the newspaper profiled a year ago to gauge the progress of company business plans.
