The Precision Play: Innovation Creates Lasting Advantages
One of the most significant stories around cleantech is what Goldman Sachs calls “innovation inequality.” In green industries, native technologies like solar panels and wind turbines are getting 7% cheaper each year, while in high-emission industries green technologies — like green steel and sustainable aviation fuels — are getting 5% more expensive. This trend points to mature green sectors benefiting from scale and learning curves and dirty industries facing increasing complexity when trying to decarbonize. It’s the natural path toward lasting competitive advantages.
Solar panels are an example of this compounding effect: Costs have fallen 85% over the past decade with companies like Tandem PV achieving 28% efficiency through new silicon combinations. These leaders benefit from manufacturing scale, learning curves, and ecosystem development that create hard-to-beat advantages over competitors. Meanwhile, green hydrogen remains 2-3 times more expensive than gray hydrogen, with costs staying flat rather than declining despite massive investment.
Form Energy’s $1.2 billion raise shows this transition perfectly: Their iron-air batteries now attract infrastructure-scale financing because they’ve proven 100+ hour storage ability at one-tenth lithium-ion costs. Infrastructure debt is replacing risky equity.
Mature green technologies are seeing faster cost drops and infrastructure-scale debt financing, while emerging ones face rising development costs and tight equity funding. Swiss investors should see this divergence as the sector’s move from early adoption to mainstream infrastructure. That’s exactly where Swiss engineering excellence can create lasting competitive advantages.
Instaurer la confiance : Ce qui sépare les gagnants des prétendants
For both investors looking for quality opportunities and entrepreneurs building cleantech companies, understanding what creates lasting trust is critical. Three companies show the key factors that separate real opportunities from speculative plays.
Climeworks shows transparent leadership: The Zurich-based company provides regular updates, acknowledges challenges like their 22% staff cuts due to policy uncertainty, and maintains clear reporting on capture performance metrics. Their progress from Generation 1 to Generation 3 technology shows systematic improvement rather than breakthrough claims, while partnerships with UBS and Partners Group signal institutional validation.
Form Energy shows operational excellence: Founded by MIT professor Yet-Ming Chiang with proven battery innovation history, the company has consistently hit technical milestones over seven years. Their completed manufacturing facility is hard proof of their transition from lab to industrial scale, while utility partnerships provide commercial validation independent of venture capital hype.
Tandem PV demonstrates strategic leadership quality: CEO Scott Wharton grew Logitech’s video business from $62 million to $1 billion, while CTO Colin Bailie authored key perovskite research at Stanford. Their systematic approach to testing durability through third-party validation contrasts sharply with companies making efficiency claims without commercial proof.
For entrepreneurs, these examples highlight what investors actually look for: proven leadership teams with industrial experience, transparent reporting practices, and systematic approaches to scaling over breakthrough technology claims alone. For investors, these trust signals become increasingly important as the sector shifts from pure technology development to commercial execution.
La lentille suisse : Avantages pour les constructeurs et les bailleurs de fonds
Switzerland’s cleantech ecosystem showed exceptional strength in 2024, achieving record deal activity while global funding dropped. With 28 funding rounds representing the sector’s highest-ever activity level, Swiss cleantech outperformed broader venture trends that fell 8.5% year-over-year.
For entrepreneurs, Switzerland offers three key advantages:
Regulatory stability provides a crucial competitive edge: The Climate and Innovation Act establishes binding net-zero goals by 2050 with CHF 200 million in renewable heating incentives, while the Federal Act on Secure Electricity Supply requires rapid renewable scaling. This policy stability contrasts sharply with U.S. political uncertainty around climate legislation.
Market access multiplies opportunities: The EU’s Clean Industrial Deal, launching February 2025, targets Europe’s €38 trillion private capital pool for cleantech deployment. Swiss companies benefit from this massive market access while maintaining operational excellence that European partners value highly. Cross-border opportunities include co-investment with the European Investment Bank’s €500 million program.
Local success stories prove the model: Neustark raised CHF 61 million for CO₂ storage technology, targeting 1 million tons of carbon removal by 2030 through partnerships with Swiss International Air Lines and Holcim. LIBREC achieved 90%+ battery component recovery rates through closed-loop recycling, while H55 secured CHF 65 million for electric aviation solutions.
For investors, the Swiss approach emphasizes commercial validation over breakthrough technology development, creating better risk-adjusted returns as the sector matures. Swiss precision manufacturing capabilities align perfectly with industrial applications requiring operational excellence rather than commodity scale.
However, both builders and backers must acknowledge economic realities: Western solar manufacturing requires 115% tariffs for competitiveness, while Chinese companies filed 10 times more environmental patents than U.S. companies. Smart strategy acknowledges these realities rather than betting against economic fundamentals.
La connexion CapiWell
The cleantech sector’s move from early-stage speculation to infrastructure-grade opportunities creates both challenges and rewards. Investors who adapt their approach to emphasize operational excellence and commercial validation will find significant returns in this transition, while entrepreneurs who focus on systematic execution over breakthrough claims alone will attract the capital needed to scale. The great financing shift represents cleantech’s evolution into a mature category – those who recognize this transformation first will capture the best opportunities. For sophisticated participants on both sides, CapiWell provides access to such opportunities, pre-vetted through a transparent evaluation framework.
