The top 10 cleantech start-ups in the Nordics selected!

Lund, 14 March 2012

Press release

The top 10 cleantech start-ups in the Nordics selected!

The companies have been selected through a thorough process starting with almost 100 applications. First a jury of over 60 representatives from multinational corporations and venture capital have graded the companies on their growth potential, based on innovation, team and market. Then representatives from the 25 best companies have met and worked together with selected mentors from the jury in order to strengthen their cases even more. Based on presentations to these mentors, as well as jury grades of their application, they now move on to compete for the gold, silver and bronze medals at the final event at Aalto Venture Garage in Helsinki.

The final event is co-arranged with the Cleantech Venture Day in Lahti 25-27 April. This is the leading cleantech event in the Nordics and last year’s event attracted over 250 participants including 50+ investors, 80 cleantech companies and dozens of corporations and decision makers. 

Here are short descriptions of the 10 Nordic Cleantech Open finalists: 

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.

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. 

MetGen, Finland
www.metgen.fi
MetGen is developing and producing oxidase enzymes called Laccases. MetGen’s 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. 

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.

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. 

ReformTech, Sweden
www.reformtech.se
The flame free catalytic combustion in ReformTech’s 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
Vasasensor’s 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. 

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.

-ENDS-

About Nordic Cleantech Open

The Nordic Cleantech Open is a business competition aiming to identify, upgrade and display the top 25 early stage clean tech companies in the Nordic region each year. The competition runs for its second consecutive year. This year 97 companies applied and the quality among the applicants have been very high.

Among the jury members and mentors are representatives from business development and venture arms of companies such as 3M, Skanska, Veolia Environment, and Siemens as well as venture capital funds from the Nordics as well as China, USA, UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland.

Website

For more information about the competition and the companies visit
http://www.nordiccleantechopen.com

Alexander Lidgren, +46736601007
bigge@nordiccleantechopen.com