CAMBRIDGE CLEANTECH 2023 VENTURE DAY- REVIEW

Kirree Gooberman, Head of Business Development, at Business Isle of Man and Dave Parkes, Engineering Manager, at Swagelok Isle of Man, attended the Cambridge Cleantech Venture Day on 10^th and 11^th October 2023, in London. Read below for a review and observations from Dave on his experience at the event and specifically on the UK interest on Hydrogen as a fuel to deliver a cleaner future.

The October 2023 Cambridge Cleantech event was certainly an eye opener.

The 'cleantech' event demonstrated very clearly the breadth of activities that can fall under that taxonomy, and attending events such as this highlights the potential benefits for Isle of Man companies to extend both their network of contacts and their understanding of opportunities to be explored.

The event was split into two days: The first provided roundtable discussion on the future prospects of hydrogen as a fuel to deliver a cleaner future. This technology and market are of interest to existing Isle of Man companies. The second day, hosted by KPMG, was set up to allow startup businesses to present their visions with potential investors who may wish to discuss stepping up to support these businesses. The nascent businesses ranged from an innovative method of extracting dissolved metals from wastewater to software to support low volume fashion “prototyping” with stops for spiralled wooden packaging and many others in between.

Personally, two particular points from the event struck me: firstly, that the UK is working hard to develop hydrogen infrastructure, with the initial goal of supporting heavy industry above focus upon hydrogen as a fuel for transport. Secondly, while the event only allowed for 16 startup businesses to present, with such a huge range of potential businesses pitching for funding, justifiably considered to be cleantech, there will certainly be many more out there – and some that may find the Isle of Man an attractive place to site their business. The upcoming IoM Innovation challenges, one of which is dedicated to cleantech, may present the ideal vehicle to enable this.

Clearly, the cleantech sector has great potential and, there seems, both a growing appetite in the UK to fund small businesses and firm commitment to invest to establish national and continental infrastructure for Hydrogen transmission and its availability for heavy industry.

If you have a Cleantech business or want to find out more about how the Isle of Man can support you, get in touch at contact-business@gov.im