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.

Using real-life examples in the solar and energy efficiency space in South East Asia, this presentation highlighted key factors which make business attractive to impact and venture capital investors.

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.

Renewables will dominate new investments in power for the next 25 years. An estimated $2 trillion is expected to be infused in equity in wind & solar by 2050. This presentation gives an investor's perspective on mapping the opportunities in sustainable energy, current risks in the energy ecosystem, and how clean energy entrepreneurs can navigate the "valleys of death". The presentation also discussed some case studies from successful startups.

In providing equity investments to social enterprises with sound business models such as Hippocampus Leaning Centers (HLC), ADB’s experience has shown that there is a need to intensify communication approaches to sustain the delicate balance between commercial sustainability and affordability, and provide quality education to increase learning outcomes. This report discusses in detail how HLC was able to identify its communication needs and address the communication challenges to increase enrollment, recruit suitable teacher candidates, and get the support of the community.

Hippocampus Learning Centers (HLC) is a company that pioneered an affordable supplementary education offering kindergarten and after-school programs for rural kids 3 to 11 years of age in India’s State of Karnataka. Using the pooled experiences of its Founder, Board of Directors, and staff in early child education and knowledge of the education sector and market, it identified the tactical and strategic communication challenges of setting up and sustaining private primary centers in rural India.