It was no picnic to get everyone trough the security gates at the far end of Pater Noster Sqare, but it was worth the wait. Once in, participants to the more than sold out Nordic Cleantech Showcase were met by the overwhelming feeling of actually being the centre of attention at one of the world oldest financial trading houses.

The square that hosts the London Stock Exchange is full of cafes. Fittingly so, since the exchange was started by a small group of like minded businessmen who up till then used coffee houses to meet and trade shares in companies. Now home to some of the largest, most successful and dynamic companies in the world it was a very suitable place to present 9 selected expansion and 9 selected start-up opportunities from the Nordic cleantech sector.

Participants got straight into things with the selected Nordic Cleantech Open finalists lining the walls with their solutions. These companies, who all have disruptive innovations and target big markets, where introduced to some of the biggest investors on the European cleantech scene as well as a few American guests. We got a lot of feedback from investors on these companies and it is clearly very attractive business cases, suitable for more than a few of the participating investors

The Nordic Cleantech Open companies by their stands.

Presentations on stage by 9 selected expansion stage companies followed. These were actors past commercialisation, now looking to expand their operations.

We concluded the day with Cleantech Scandinavia presenting the current state of the Nordic cleantech venture market, as 2010 figures point to a good year of deals, and seed investments taking off for the first time since 2007, but now at higher amounts