On the 17th November, Clean Growth Fund held its third ‘Portfolio Day’ at its London office. Founders and management from across the fund’s eight portfolio companies came together for a day of networking and best practise sharing. These important days are held twice a year and give our portfolio companies the chance to interact with other Founders to connect and share knowledge.
The day focused on Internationalisation & Business Development and began with an introduction from the fund’s Managing Partner, Beverley Gower-Jones. Beverley compared the day’s theme to the early explorers of the world – many were ill equipped for the journey and failed but over time, having learned from the mistakes of previous explorers, successful expeditions began to emerge. The Portfolio Day was exactly this – a day to hear from experienced peers who have internationalised and expanded businesses abroad and the crucial learnings that they can now pass on.
Following Beverley’s intro, Carbon Limiting Technologies’, Christopher Tchen, led a talk on developing value propositions and how to carry out market segmentation for our portfolio companies who are considering expanding abroad. Clean Growth Fund works closely with Carbon Limiting Technologies who consult with and support our portfolio companies on an ongoing basis once investment has taken place.
Our highly regarded guest speaker for the day was Gillian Harrison, CEO at Whitefox Technologies, where she has spent 15 years driving Whitefox to the international force that it is today. Whitefox creates solutions for process plants that enable them to produce ethanol and other chemicals with less energy and water consumption. Gillian shared the fascinating journey that she and the team at Whitefox embarked upon to commercialise their membrane technology into USA, including her extensive tips for researching the US market and how Whitefox worked to find their early adopter customer who was willing to be the first to trial their technology. Gillian’s invaluable knowledge didn’t go unnoticed in the room as she was inundated with questions during the Q&A time.
“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore, for a very long time”
Ande Gide
The day’s talks ended with Carbon Limiting Technologies’, Paul Turner, sharing his extensive and invaluable experience of expanding businesses into the Asian markets. The portfolio companies discussed which risks to weigh up when considering internationalisation, barriers to entry and contemplating partnerships and collaborations to potentially accelerate expansion.
Finally, the group moved onto a local pub to finish the day with networking, drinks and food. The day was well received by our portfolio companies who found it extremely beneficial.
- Sunswap: “Really valuable event. Thank you to all the CGF team for organising. Can’t wait till the next one.”
- Above: “A fantastic day! Thank you Clean Growth Fund!”
- Indra: “Thank you so much Clean Growth Fund for a fantastic, insightful worskshop yesterday. Great to also connect with fellow clean tech businesses”
We very much look forward to hosting our next Portfolio Day in 2023, hopefully, with some brand new portfolio companies on-board!
