A Guide to Strategic Partnerships and Fundraising in the Cleantech Industry: Recapping the 2019 Navigate Webinar Series

The cleantech industry is quickly expanding, opening up windows of opportunity across various sectors. For most startups, however, entering a new space and transforming an idea into a thriving business is nuanced and challenging.

The Navigate Webinar Series and new Navigate Podcast provide listeners with cleantech insider tips directly from industry experts, covering topics like industry trends, investment tactics and opportunities, where to find and how to sustain corporate partnerships, and answers to common entrepreneur questions. In 2019, we brought together four panels and five case studies including Walmart, Energy Impact Partners, NYSERDA, Enel, Equinor, Enertiv, and VIA, among others. Here’s a brief recap of the main questions discussed in each session.

Finding the Right Strategic Partner - Webinar #1: 

  • In what stage of development should startups start reaching out to corporates?
  • How long can it take for a startup to get from initial engagement to project kickoff?
  • How do large corporates and early-stage startups deal with co-branding? What sort of challenges are there?

Fighting Climate Change Together – Webinar #2: 

  • What do corporates look for in a potential partner?
  • How can a startup pitch their technology successfully to achieve a corporate deal? What challenges do corporates face when working with cleantech startups? And vice-versa!

Connecting the Dots Between Investors and Corporate Strategies – Webinar #3: 

  • Capital or Revenue: what should come first in a corporate partnership?
  • What risks are involved in a corporate partnership? How do you avoid them?
  • How do startups connect with organizations that say they don’t need new innovation?

Investing in Cleantech Is a Sustainable Business – Webinar #4 *: 

  • What is causing more capital to come back into cleantech recently?
  • What gaps in the cleantech ecosystem still need addressing?
  • What are the most important milestones that an investor wants to see accomplished before considering investing?

Get all these questions (and more) answered in our 2019 Navigate Webinar Series, now available on YouTube and as a podcast.

And don't forget our 2020 Navigate Webinar Series is starting this April! Click here to sign up for updates about our upcoming series.

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Delilah Fairclough-Stewart

Delilah is NECEC's Navigate Intern.