Australia's first Clean Energy Seed Fund, with an initial $20 million in its coffers, has been launched to find and invest in emerging start-up ideas that for developing clean energy solutions.
Artesian Venture Partners announced the launch of the fund which includes a $10 million investment from the Australian government's $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund.
The Clean Energy Seed Fund fund – with the goal of investing $1 billion over 10 years in eligible innovative clean energy projects – was launched on Friday by the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg
Initially, the fund will invest in between 30 and 50 start-ups over the next five years to help combat climate change and deploy clean energy technologies.
{loadposition peter}The fund, the first of its kind in the Australian clean energy space, will focus on unearthing and financing emerging innovations and startups in clean energy.
The $10 million cornerstone commitment is the first project to be financed through the new Clean Energy Innovation Fund, which draws on finance and skills from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Funds available through the Clean Energy Seed Fund will be invested in clean energy start-ups in partnership with established clean energy accelerators, as well as being invested in ventures sourced from the broader Australian startup ecosystem, including other incubators, university programmes and angel groups.
The fund is seeking registration with Innovation Australia as an early stage venture capital partnership (ESVCLP) to provide investors with tax-free returns and will be compliant with the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) programme.
The seed fund is targeting additional private sector equity investment of up to $10 million to complement the $10 million cornerstone commitment.
As well as targeting high returns for investors, the Clean Energy Seed Fund has a number of key strategic goals which include:
• Providing opportunities for partners in the seed fund to make larger, later stage investments;
• Increasing the supply of clean energy startups in Australia by investing and collaborating with a range of accelerators, incubators, universities, angel groups, VC firms and corporates; and
• Providing ‘pull-model’ VC support to solve specific problems in the clean energy sector, encouraging greater investment and participation in the early stage clean tech sector and co-investment from a wide range of investors, including high net worth individuals, angel investors, venture capital firms, corporates and institutions.
Artesian managing partner Jeremy Colless says the Clean Energy Seed Fund will target scalable, high growth potential start-ups, “fuelling innovation and creating opportunities in the development of clean technology”.
“It will look across sectors such as the Internet-of-Things, energy storage, biofuels, alternative energy generation (solar, wave, geothermal, wind), metering and control, green building and biomaterials, transport technologies, water and waste.”