Green Entrepreneurship in Asia: Opportunities to Drive Innovation and Build Low Carbon & Green Economies
Date: Oct 24, 2022
Time: 14:00 to 15:30 (KST/GMT+9)
Overview:
Green entrepreneurs are a dynamic force of innovation that drive us in building low carbon and green economies. Reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 will require an immense effort to invent, refine, customize, deploy, and commercialize technologies (or their related solutions) intended to accelerate decarbonization and circular economy across key sectors, while embracing climate vulnerable populations. According to the International Energy Agency, almost half of the reductions following the scenarios of net zero emissions by 2050 should come from technologies that are currently at the demonstration or prototype phase. Net-zero 2050 targets have created a new avenue for entrepreneurs to emerge with tech innovations and/or new business solutions. SMEs and start-ups driven by green entrepreneurs should play a critical role aligned with commitments from leading global corporations’ to implement net zero across their supply chain, including direct, indirect, and value-chain wide emissions.
The investment landscape for these entrepreneurs has therefore been attracting growing investor interest – securing both climate/social impact and commercial returns from the emerging asset class. BloombergNEF reported that accelerators, angel investors, seed funds, venture capitalists, and private equity firms poured $7.9 billion into climate-tech startups in December 2021 totaling to over $54 billion for the year, seeing a more than 210% increase year-on-year from $17 billion in 2020. However, most of these investments were made to advanced countries with the US as the most dominant geography raising $56.6 billion from Q2 2020 to Q1 2021, nearly 65% of all funding according to a PwC analysis. Despite this growth and the many innovative ideas targeted to resolve local challenges, entrepreneurs in developing countries still face a plethora of challenges at every stage, from setting up an enterprise and accessing finance, to technology transfer and connections into wider global value chains.
This session intends to explore the current green / clean-tech start-up investment landscape in Asia interacting with the key industry players, including incubator, accelerator, impact fund, venture capital, and start-ups, as well as public sector institutions supporting the green investment ecosystem. The session provides an opportunity to discuss innovative examples in the region committed to addressing local environmental and social challenges via green business solutions.
Event Agenda:
Moderator: Juhern Kim (GGGI)
| Program |
|---|
| Welcome Remarks: H.E. Ban Ki-moon, President of the Assembly and Chair of the Council, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) |
| Opening Remarks: Dr. Frank Rijsberman, Director-General, GGGI |
| Setting the Scene: Moderator |
| Part 1: Climate / Green Start-ups Investment Potentials in Asia: Trends, Ecosystem and Financing – What are the latest trends for start-up investments in the sustainability space in Asia? – What are the successful benchmarks? · What is further required to create enabling conditions to accelerate NetZero 2050 transition? – From early-stage investors’ point of view, what are the important criteria when making investment decisions? What are the diverse experiences in countries, and how do you assess the potentials in the Asian Market? What sectors are being highlighted in your own region of operation? Presentation: – Mr. Youngwoo Kim, Senior Consultant, MYSC – Mr. Italo Gani, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Impactto – Mr. Carlo Delantar, Partner, Gobi Partners – Mr. Gibs Song, Managing Partner, Vietnam Silicon Valley |
| Q&A |
| Part 2: Green Entrepreneurs in Asia: How to Scale Impact? – What is a desirable role for intermediaries, such as grant provider, incubator/accelerator, development bank, climate foundations, accelerator, among others? What are some identified bottlenecks that stunt the growth and development of the green start-up ecosystem, particularly in developing Asian countries? – Who are green entrepreneurs providing immediate solutions to the developing countries? What are the key challenges being addressed via various business solutions? What has been the impact made on the communities in the developing countries so far? How to scale up your technology and/or business solutions in neighbouring countries? Presentation: – Mr. Stanley Ng, Director SEA, New Energy Nexus – Ms. Eugina Kim, Manager, Climate Business Team, Korea Development Bank – Mr. David Cutler, CEO and Co-Founder, Fortuna Cools – Mr. Keyyoung Lee, CFO, INGINE – Ms. Vriko Yu, CEO, archiREEF – Mr. Jovie Gil Montajes, CEO and Founder, Light of Hope PH |
| Q&A and Closing |