Australian seed investor Playford Capital told investors at last week’s CleverGreen conference to focus on investment fundamentals and disregard the hype and excitement of the clean technology sector.

The recent, inaugural CleverGreen Conference & Showcase highlighted technologies which support increased productivity or profitability while also reducing resource consumption or pollution.

Playford Capital CEO, Amanda Heyworth told a special investors session at the event that there were good reasons to expect the level of cleantech investments to grow.

“This part of the market is relatively under-developed,” Amanda says. “Just eight of the 178 companies currently in Australian venture capital portfolios are classified as cleantech - that’s less than 5%.

“Positive environmental factors include the Government’s moves to put a price on carbon and water and the increasingly recognised need to reduce our reliance on oil. At the same time, there is both corporate and consumer demand for an efficiency payback and to do the right thing.

“However, while it is easy to be romantic about the prospects of companies in this sector, the deal needs to stack up just like any other deal - with the right mix of product, people and market.”

Amanda says SA’s strengths in technologies such as materials science, water and waste management, and optimisation are now being coupled with signal processing, sensor and control system capabilities out of the defence sector.

“This convergence can lead to solutions that may improve renewable energy infrastructure and present opportunities for technology-based companies in the clean technology sector,” she says.

“We are beginning to see more IP-based companies focus on market opportunities where SA has a comparative advantage.”

Amanda says the key to every successful investment was a successful exit.

“Discuss exit targets and expectations right from the start, so you get everyone on the same page,” she says.