-Peter Van Der Gracht, senior advisor at Alacrity Canada, talks to Sarah Appelbaum of Pangaea Ventures and Kathryn Wortsman of Amplify Capital about investing in the cleantech sector
-investment sweet spots, early-stage and later-stage investing
-the criteria for investing in a Series A round or Seed funding
-an impact fund as essential service fund; focusing on healthcare, cleantech, and education
-deal flow still strong throughout 2020, though adjustments are being made to extend runways
-team makeup and evaluation when looking to invest
-leading rounds or partnering with other syndicate investors, whether it's institutional investors or angel investors
-conducting due diligence during the COVID19 pandemic effectively
-how are returns on investment being measured in cleantech?
-cleantech sales cycles are longer than in other sectors, but customers are also very sticky
-cleantech investors need patience and long-term outlook
-how does regulation impact the complexity of going to market for a cleantech company
-the importance of patents and intellectual property when looking at a potential investment opportunities
-assessing a company against its competitors and leveraging partners and customers as advisors to validate the market
-deals looked at versus deals made; what does the filter look like?
-feedback for entrepreneurs in the cleantech space