Developing Partnerships for Sustainable Cleantech Financing in Southeast Asia

The ‘missing middle’ or ‘valley of death’ is a common cause of cleantech startup stall, needing to access debt and equity in the $20,000 to $500,000 range while typically lacking mature internal capacity, skills, financial literacy and access to traditional investment. This presentation will discuss learnings from the development of an Uberis Capital impact investment fund aiming to tackle this challenge. This fund works in partnership with Sevea to provide operational and strategical support to investees to reduce the “early stage” risk and foster sustained growth.

NEPRA : Rising from the Ashes

Within three months of raising its seed round of capital, cleantech startup Nepra encountered the 'cliff of death' following a fire that reduced its facilities to ashes. What followed was a story of resilience and determination by their promoter team and investors as they rebuilt the enterprise from scratch not only for survival but also to significantly accelerate and scale the business.

Lathika Chandra Mouli

Lathika is an electrical engineer who has worked with a range of start-ups and companies on energy innovation projects. Her key areas of focus include infrastructure development for sustainable urbanization and digital innovations in energy. She has overlooked the acquisition and management of projects focusing on decentralized autonomous energy exchanges such as peer-to-peer energy trading in the Philippines, EV charging stations in Thailand, and virtual net metering in India and Thailand.

Jia Yu

Dr. Jia YU is responsible for the application of New Structural Economics to international investment practice. Her research fields focus on the PRC's “Go Global” empirical studies, Industrial Park and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) diagnosis, the PRC's overseas investment and the interaction of the manufacturing, energy and mining sector as well as their roles in the process of industrialization for Belt & Road countries.

E N Venkat

E.N. Venkat is a Partner at Aavishkaar Venture Management Services (AVMS) and leads its first regional fund – the Aavishkaar Frontier Fund (AFF). Founded in 2002, the Aavishkaar - Intellecap Group now manages assets of over one billion dollars, thru a mix of fund and balance sheet vehicles. Venkat has over 30 years of experience in the Financial Services and Corporate sector in different parts of Asia.

Daniel Hersson

Daniel manages a multi-year program to support cleantech startups, accelerators and venture capital investors across Asia-Pacific. He has more than 18 years’ experience in the global energy and cleantech industry. Daniel is a recognized specialist in venture capital, strategy, startups, and innovation. Previously, he was Director of Strategy at BP Ventures, a leading global cleantech and energy-focused corporate venture capital fund. Daniel is also co-founder and venture partner at Infuse Ventures, India’s first early-stage cleantech venture capital fund.

Jungwook Lim

Formerly a career journalist, Lim served as the head of web portal operator Lycos and global business in Daum Communications, which later merged with Kakao.

“Lim’s vast experience and network in the Korean startup ecosystem will be able to generate vigor to our portfolio companies,” TBT CEO Lee Ram said in a statement.