Cycle Group is a boutique management company operating venture capital funds focused on sustainable deeptech investments. Co-founders Clelia Beck and Dan Choon say early international partnerships will be critical for avoiding emissions lock-ins in energy grid infrastructures being rolled out in emerging markets.
Partner of the European Innovation Council, Cycle Group is comprised of a multidisciplinary team with unique STEM backgrounds, the financial experts of which have previously run 18 VC and renewable infrastructure funds.
Among them is Clelia Beck, partner at Cycle Group, who spent 10 years in Hong Kong and China in the garment manufacturing and fashion space, with companies like Paganini Milano and Dyan as part of her serial entrepreneurial portfolio.
“The connection is that with our fund, we invest in European deeptech, energy-related technologies and semiconductors, and then internationalise them, especially into Asia, and that’s where my expertise comes in,” Beck explains. In addition to being responsible for fundraising and operations, she helps Cycle Group’s portfolio companies with their internationalisation efforts, mainly into Asia.
Dan Choon calls himself “the geek of the team” and has experience “helping investors on the M&A side to assess deals, I was part of a venture fund, then decided to set up this fund, with the conviction that there’s more to be done in energy technologies, especially in niche, difficult, hard-to-access fields, where there’s not a lot of risk-taking in Europe.”
As the Cycle Group co-founders say, “We are systematically looking for innovators who can accelerate technologies and thus shift fields beyond current limitations.” And they’re convinced international partnership for sustainable development (UN SDG17) will be key.
“We normally go late into the emerging markets in Asia, but there’s a lot of growth potential, and I think many European startups don’t have the access to the networks there.”
Dan Choon, co-founder of Cycle Group.
In the portfolio
Among the companies in the Cycle Group portfolio is Nuventura, a pioneer in developing SF6-free technology in the form of switchgears. According to UK-based National Grid Group, SF6, or sulphur hexafluoride, “is much more potent than CO2. Today, wider understanding of the potency of this gas—and the need to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in order to tackle climate change—is causing a rethink of its use.” The greenhouse gas is created predominantly in the electricity business, and Nuventura’s vision is to change that.
Another interesting company in the Cycle Group portfolio is Element 3-5, which is aiming for a “semiconductor revolution”, making semiconductors “much more efficient, cost-effective, flexible and sustainable,” per their website. The company, based near Aachen, Germany, focuses on “next-level epitaxy” which can result in up to 90% energy savings and up to 700% more productivity.
“We normally go late into the emerging markets in Asia, but there’s a lot of growth potential, and I think many European startups don’t have the access to the networks there,” tells Dan Choon, co-founder of Cycle Group.
“The grid is being extended in emerging markets at this very moment,” Choon adds. “If you look at India, Southeast Asia, etc., and the investment underway for new city developments… the lock-in emissions in the grid can be avoided, and that impact will have a lasting effect on industrial emissions over the next 20 years.”
