For a more environmentally friendly future, Boundary Holding invests in clean technology.

RajatKhareVipassana February 13, 2023

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Clean technology, in short cleantech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts. Through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Clean technology includes a broad range of technology related to recycling, renewable energy, information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, grey water, and more. Environmental finance is a method by which new clean technology projects can obtain financing through the generation of carbon credits. A project that is developed with concern for climate change mitigation is also known as a carbon project.

Clean Edge, a clean technology research firm, describes clean technology “a diverse range of products, services, and processes. That harness renewable materials and energy sources, dramatically reduce the use of natural resources, and cut or eliminate emissions and wastes.” Clean Edge notes that, “Clean technologies are competitive with, if not superior to, their conventional counterparts. Many also offer significant additional benefits, notably their ability to improve the lives of those in both developed and developing countries.”

Investments in clean technology have grown considerably since coming into the spotlight around 2000. According to the United Nations Environment Program, wind, solar, and biofuel companies received a record $148 billion in new funding in 2007 as rising oil prices and climate change policies encouraged investment in renewable energy. $50 billion of that funding went to wind power. Overall, investment in clean-energy and energy-efficiency industries rose 60 percent from 2006 to 2007. In 2009, Clean Edge forecasted that the three main clean technology sectors, solar photovoltaics, wind power, and biofuels, would have revenues of $325.1 billion by 2018

According to an MIT Energy Initiative Working Paper published in July 2016, about a half of over $25 billion funding provided by venture capital to cleantech from 2006 to 2011 was never recovered. The report cited cleantech’s dismal risk/return profiles and the inability of companies developing new materials, chemistries, or processes to achieve manufacturing scale as contributing factors to its flop.

Clean technology has also emerged as an essential topic among businesses and companies. It can reduce pollutants and dirty fuels for every company, regardless of which industry they are in, and using clean technology has become a competitive advantage. Through building their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals, they participate in using clean technology and other means by promoting Sustainability. Fortune Global 500 firms spend around $20 billion a year on CSR activities in 2018.

Cleantech products or services are those that improve operational performance, productivity, or efficiency while reducing costs, inputs, energy consumption, waste, or environmental pollution. Its origin is the increased consumer, regulatory, and industry interest in clean forms of energy generation. Specifically, perhaps, the rise in awareness of global warming, climate change, and the impact on the natural environment from the burning of fossil fuels.

When the United Nations set the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015. The year 2030 still seemed a long way off. Today the question arises as to whether the goals by 2030 can still be achieved at all. Because the SDGs should serve as a guide for business models and their effects on society, but their implementation fails.

One example is waste management: today, more than 90 percent of solid waste in low-income countries is still dumped or incinerated. According to a World Bank report, two billion tons of solid waste are produced worldwide every year. This amount will increase to three billion tons in the next 30 years. No more than a third of this is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.

One of the main contributors to this pollution is the plastic waste dumped straight into our oceans. In 2016 alone, the world produced a staggering 242 million tons of plastic waste. Boundary Holding has taken on these fundamental challenges . The European deep tech investment firm invests in technologies designed to enable the fourth industrial revolution. One focus is investing in cleantech companies to pursue the 2030 Agenda of the SDGs.

For example, the company Trashcon , which has successfully automated waste separation, was supported. It manages to recognize metal parts and remove them separately from wet and dry waste. The wet waste is collected and composted with a separation efficiency of more than 85 percent. The remaining dry waste is processed into granulate, from which pressed boards are made. The recycled material can also be used as a substitute for other materials. Thereby avoiding the additional greenhouse gases in their production.

RanMarine Technology specializes in the development of industrial autonomous surface vehicles (ASV) for ports and other marine and water environments. The company’s current marine drone, WasteShark, is a state-of-the-art ASV. It helps clean up plastic waste and biomass on the water’s surface. Built-in sensors provide real-time water quality data: temperature, pH, conductivity, DO.ORP, depth and turbidity. With a swim time of ten hours, a range of five kilometers, a cleaning capacity of 500 kilograms of dirt per day and a lifespan of 15 years, it proves to be versatile and sustainable.

Fighting climate change and achieving the SDGs by 2030 will only be possible if private companies invest in sustainability. Boundary Holding’s figures and development show that investments in cleantech companies can be very profitable. It is now all the more important to convince other companies to follow Boundary Holding’s example.

Founded by Rajat Khare, Boundary Holding is a European deep tech investment firm. It invests in technologies enabling 4th industrial revolution. It has invested in Artificial Intelligence companies that integrate revolutionary technologies around IoT, Drones, Robotics , Big Data, health , environment and safety. Boundary Holding identifies unique technology companies which have just started commercialization and have a disruptive business and can grow quickly. It narrows down on firms that have converted unconventional ideas into a reality. And have the potential to grab upcoming market opportunities.

The focus is to invest in pre series A, series A and pre series B stages and enable companies via actual business understanding and connections to grow their revenues by expansion in different markets. They are not a pure financial fund but since they invest own prop money, they work closely with founders. Being entrepreneurs themselves to help expand business , onboard right team and investors( only if needed) and fighting competitors.

Rajat Khare is the founder of Boundary Holding, a Luxembourg based prop investment firm. Rajat has also been cited as a case study for his success as an Ed-Tech entrepreneur in the course of Entrepreneurship run by Professor Patrick Turner in INSEAD Business School.