The Switch has been selected as one of the 30 finalists of the 2012 Global Cleantech Later Stage Award organised by the Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA). Along with Eniram and Forchem, two other Finnish companies, The Switch leads a list of more than 4,500 cleantech companies.
The competition has been created by the GCCA to identify and reward the most promising late-stage cleantech companies from around the world. This year, 4,500 European, North American and Asian companies were screened. Most of the 30 Semi-Finalists are from the USA. Still a second-place tie goes to Finland and Belgium, both of which have three companies in this last stage of the competition.
“The competition has increased in both quantity and quality. We are very proud of the fact that Finland is one of the top countries on the Global Top 30 list,” says GCCA’s Finnish member of the Executive Committee of Development Nina Harjula Lahti Science and Business Park. “For Finland, the competition is very important because it is followed by the entire industry in addition to the media and venture capitalists. One clear objective for us is to get more international investments for the Finnish cleantech sector as a result of the competition.”
Global Cleantech Later Stage Awards are granted in ten categories, each with three nominated companies at this stage. Finland’s three finalist companies are: Forchem (biofuels category), The Switch (wind category) and Eniram (transport category). The winning companies in the 10 categories will be announced at the Savannah International Clean Energy Conference, to be held in the US on November 12.
A number of leading venture financiers and entrepreneurs from around the world will be visiting the finalist companies over the next three months, and will select the winners in each category that represent the best expertise in clean technology. The winning companies will receive publicity in the international investment market to support their business.
“From the very start of The Switch, we have focused on wind energy and renewable energy. As the Finnish market is very small, internationalism has always been our lifeblood. Currently, we operate in all key wind power industry markets, including China, India, Korea, Germany, Denmark, Spain and the US,” says The Switch CFO Dag Sandås.
