Cleantech Showcase Brings Nordic Energy to Palo Alto

Jonas Eliasson rode to the front of the room in what resembled a man-powered Stairmaster machine on wheels.

After perfecting the prototype for three years, the Danish entrepreneur was now ready to present the Me-Mover to a panel of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. They gathered for the Nordic Cleantech Showcase at Cooley LLP in Palo Alto, where Eliasson and 10 other presenters had five minutes to pitch their environmentally-savvy, often quirky products.

“It’s low-impact training that folds in two to three seconds,” said Eliasson of the self-powered machine, which moves based on making a standing stepping motion. On Friday, he maneuvered it through the Google and Stanford campuses to garner more interest.

Most of the presenters -- who also hailed from Estonia, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden -- were selected from a jury of 60 investors at the Nordic Cleantech Open, taking place throughout the week in San Jose. They comprise a region that is known for its strong environmental protection and innovation, said Alexander Lidgren, the chairman of Cleantech Scandinavia.

Some of the companies pitched technologically advanced products designed to trim emissions. Finland’s Ekolite creates composite materials such as textiles and liquid biofuels from biomass and industrial waste, described CEO Vesa Rommi.

Three wind companies talked about summarized how they are more energy efficient than existing models. Kjetil Egeland, CEO of the Norwegian Innowind, pitched windmills that save six times a much energy, in part through the tire-like shape of the rotor blade.

Others had products based on personal actions to reduce individual carbon footprints. Finland’s Netcycler allows users to get rid of their products through swapping them.

“It turns your stuff into liquid currency,” said CEO Juha Koponen of the site, which is also active in Germany and the UK. He soon hopes to launch it in the U.S., he said.

Yoga Systems, based in Tallinn, Estonia, allows people to monitor the temperature of buildings through a cloud system via a mobile phone, computer or TV, said CEO Priit Vimberg.

The event was organized by Innovation Center Denmark in Palo Alto, who believed the three Danish companies would have a larger audience under the Nordic brand, said Alex Portilla, the Cleantech Advisor and Project Manager. Even if the companies didn’t walk away with deals from VCs that very night, he said, they had a prime opportunity to hone their product pitches and to network.

About 80 people from near and afar packed into the audience, many technology professionals who mingled over appetizers after the event.

Andrus Viirg, the director of Enterprise Estonia in Sunnyvale, was pleased to see more attention being brought to his small Baltic nation of 1.3 million people -- perhaps best known in the tech world for being the original homeland of Skype.

Palo Alto lawyer Sylvia K. Burkes, who leads the clean technology group at Pillsbury law firm, walked away impressed by the presentations, cautiously optimistic that some of the companies could find a local foothold.

“I think that the Nordic countries have the most innovation in cleantech,” said Burkes. “They’ve also lived through tough economic times and have come away with some great ideas.”