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Greentech or cleantech companies are creating innovative solutions to some of the planet’s most pressing problems like climate change, reducing the carbon footprint, and ensuring that future generations have access to basic needs like food, clean water, and energy.
And if we look at the UN’s 2030 agenda for sustainable development, we can easily see that there is a need to discover methods, technologies, and practices that can help us on the road to this sustainable future. But for progress to happen, on one side, we need investors, and on the other, we need innovative companies that will break the status quo.
So, in a climate where change comes from fresh-faced startups - and yet there are so many of them - how can investors know where to invest? How can they find a sustainable startup that’s promising, that uses a certain tech, or fulfills other criteria? Today, we will go over the various ways you can find sustainable mobility startups to invest in. But let’s see why you should invest in the first place.
Why should you invest in sustainable mobility startups?
When it comes to investing, there are the obvious reasons - profit and the growth potential of an early-stage startup. The earlier you get in, the likelier you are to reap the benefits. Of course, investing early also means greater risk. Still, if you decide to invest later on down the road, the entry barrier of a more developed company will also be higher.
But when it comes to sustainable startups, there’s also the prospect that you’re investing in the future. Investors know this, too - 11% of the total startup funding in 2021 in Europe was allocated to Planet Positive, impact-driven companies.
The most growth was visible in clean energy and climate. And in the coming years, sustainability startups are expected to get an even bigger share of the profit. Decarbonization, in particular, continues to be a crucial SDG (sustainable development goal) in 2022, and it will remain in this position until a notable change is made.
This brings us to sustainable mobility startups. As road vehicles account for 75% of all transport carbon emissions, this is an area where innovations in clean energy and decarbonization are both popular and necessary.
Assessing sustainable startups: the vetting process
Unlike public companies, startups aren’t required to provide financial reports to the public, though you may be able to get some information on their funding so far - on our platform, for instance. In any case, this means that it is difficult for investors to figure out what the precise position of a startup is when deciding whether to invest in it.
[Related Article - The Best Tips for Identifying Trends and Opportunities With Valuer]
Luckily, there are other things you can do when vetting sustainable mobility startups in order to find one that’s promising and has the legs to go the distance. So, what should you look out for?
An idea you believe in
If you believe that the technology or solution that a sustainable mobility startup is developing is likely to make a positive impact in the world, you’re onto a good start. It may also be something that you think is new and can change the way things work. According to Elias Stahl, founder of HILOS, a sustainability startup that manufactures eco-friendly shoes:
“People often invest in what they want to see in the world, whether it’s more sustainability or a really cool sneaker company… There’s no better opportunity to see something that you want in the world and to support that.”
A strong team
Although you won’t have direct access to the financials, you do have access to the internet - where you can find plenty of information about the founders. Are they well-established in their field? What sort of industry expertise do they have? Have they launched other successful products or businesses in the past?
You would need to have an open mind when vetting the team. Maybe one member will have lots of experience in the industry - in this case, sustainable mobility - but another will have a strong financial background, which can translate between sectors and remain a valuable asset.
Research the industry
To evaluate whether a particular company’s product is disruptive, you need to know what else is going on in the industry. Is it a new technology or a new method? How will it change the status quo?
To understand a company’s potential, you need to know the surrounding ecosystem. What are the sustainable mobility tech trends, and what’s the competition like? Our platform can help you with this too, and we will show you how shortly.
With all this out of the way, let’s take a look at how you can discover sustainable mobility startups that are worth your resources.
How to search for sustainability startups in mobility
There are several hands-on and hands-off methods to find sustainable mobility startups. You can find companies on your own/using in-house resources, you can outsource the process by hiring an agency, or you can have the best of both worlds.
By this, we mean that you and your team can be in the driver’s seat but let our platform simplify the search process and make every part of it more accessible.
Do your own research
Doing the research yourself through Google and other search engines, talking to industry experts and other investors, etc., is one way you can find sustainability startups - though it will take more of your time. Plus, you’ll need to stay on top of industry trends to be able to evaluate companies according to what’s in demand or likely to be in demand in the future.
A good way to do this is to sign up for email newsletters from tech blogs. They’ll keep you updated on the latest developments in the niche, industry news, and tech trends. All you have to do is open your mailbox.
If you have an R&D team, a part of this task will be delegated to them - although there are ways to make their research easier, and we’ll get to that too.
Doing your own research or having a team do it means manually going through mounds of data to weed out the good from the bad and the not-so-promising. As we already mentioned, you’d need to:
- Research the industry
- Research the technology
- Research the founding team
- Research the competition
- Stay on top of trends
You can always additionally consult an expert in the field who could give you their own take on the flagship product of the sustainability startup you have in mind.
Hire an agency
You can also hire a consultancy agency to do some of the legwork for you. A consultancy firm will do market research and provide you with actionable insights on what sustainable mobility startups you can invest in and what you can expect from the market.
You can also hire a consultancy agency to do some of the legwork for you. A consultancy firm will do market research and provide you with actionable insights on where you can invest and what you can expect.
Still, the problem here, as with doing your research in-house, is that resources are limited. To be able to sift through massive databases and find the right sustainable mobility startup that has potential, the right technology, and good infrastructure, you need the help of a powerful engine.
Use the Valuer platform
Our AI-powered platform can help you discover sustainable mobility startups with little work on your part. We combine a strong AI-driven engine with a human team to provide you with numerous services that supply and supplant data. This isn’t just limited to startups but also industry trends, technology deep dives, etc.
The various features are easy to use and can significantly reduce the time that you or your R&D team would normally spend researching. So, let’s take a look at how our platform can help you find sustainable startups.
Search for look-alikes
One way to find startups that you may want to invest in or collaborate with are through our platform's look-alikes feature. Here, you can type in the name of any well-established and successful company into the search, and the platform will generate a list of similar startups.
For instance, let’s say you’re looking for electric vehicle manufacturers. Using this feature, we looked for companies similar to “Tesla” and found the following look-alikes:
This feature is also useful in helping you analyze the competition. If you’re already considering investing in a certain sustainable mobility startup, you can use look-alikes to see what your competitors are doing.
Discover industries
To know what idea is worth investing in, you need to stay on top of the trends in a given industry. Our industries feature allows you to stay on top of these trends and read up on industries and sub-industries. You can also find companies that fall into the categories you select.
For instance, the Transportation category in the industries feature contains the following sub-industries: Air Transportation, Autonomous Vehicles, Ridesharing, Delivery Service, Fleet Management, Marine Transportation, Public Transportation, Railroad Transportation, Space Travel, Logistics, Micro-mobility, Electric Vehicles.
You can select any sub-industry, get a quick review of what it entails, and a list of startups that fall under it. You can also select multiple sub-industries, and our cluster map will allow you to understand them visually through color-coding and spatial distribution.
For instance, we selected two sub-industries - “micro-mobility” and “public transportation” - and got the following startups:
Besides these three sustainable mobility startups, the list contained over 43 other companies and startups. And the database keeps updating and growing as new sustainable mobility players enter the ecosystem.
Find technologies
Our technologies function keeps track of the latest and most promising tech trends. You can look for technologies, then see what sectors they’re used in, and find sustainable mobility startups that develop or utilize them. For instance, we selected autonomous driving, and we got a summary of the technology, related industries, and sub-industries, as well as a list of companies using this technology, such as:
Search for specifics using AI
Our engine, powered by AI, your plain, human text-based search and returns a results list of companies that use it. So we used the discover companies using specific technologies feature and wrote: “searching for mobile apps or platforms that enhance micro-mobility in urban areas for commuters.”
The results here included:
These are only some of the top results we chose from our search, but the platform generated over a 100 more companies fitting our description’s parameters that you can browse through.
Request custom reports
To make everything simpler and combine the efforts of human and machine, you can also request custom reports, both on companies and technologies. You can submit a research request and receive a full report on a company, or you can submit a tech deep-dive request and get in-depth information on a particular technology, including which companies use it.
[Download our free report - Innovating Sustainability: Mobility]
In fact, our team recently completed a report on sustainable mobility, where they talked about what’s popular in the industry - technologies and sub-industries - as well as what sustainable mobility startups stand out.
Save your favorites
As you search for sustainable mobility startups, you’re bound to come across multiple options that interest you. You can use the radars feature to save these mobility startups in lists that you can come back to and share with others.
Sustainable startups are the future
Successful people know that there’s no such thing as an instant return on investment, and they also know that when you invest in something today, you’re actually investing in the future. The greatest returns on investment come when someone with a visionary mindset identifies how a certain technology will be important in the years to come and joins the action early on.
There’s no doubt that the best sustainability startups will be crucial in the future. SDGs, climate summits, the Paris Agreement, food shortages, poverty, energy crises - averting disasters and making change for the better all require a strong focus on sustainable and regenerative development. That’s why in the years to come, the number of sustainable startups will continue to grow, and so will investment into the sector.
Valuer can be utilized as a powerful tool to find the best sustainable mobility startups to invest in today so that you can contribute to the impact-driven technology that will make our planet a better place to live in.
