Why did I set up Action Energy Finance?

Why did I set up Action Energy Finance?

Back in 2005 when me and my co-founder Timo started my previous company Cleantech Invest, you could count companies investing into new energy tech and other sustainability related solutions with one hand.

Heck, we even got an email from an excited business owner in China  that FINALLY someone had seen the light and started to invest into cleaning solutions.

Over the years Cleantech Invest developed from a financial advisory firm into an early-stage venture capital company. We listed the company in the Nasdaq First North in 2014, mainly to raise more capital to invest in our portfolio firms. At the peak, I think we had over 15 portfolio firms and were meeting hundreds of new ventures in the Nordics every year. The cleantech / green tech space was growing, fast.

But I was growing more and more frustrated with the slow deployment of new solutions. I also kept running into the same problem: in the project finance community, no one was interested in funding small size assets.

I stepped down from Cleantech Invest (called Loudspring at that point) in 2018, wanting to look beyond early stage VC in the Nordic space. I joined an energy utility in Germany, expecting them to have a hands-on answer into deploying new solutions in scale (they didn't, but that's a story for another time).

After corona hit, I moved the family back to Finland from Berlin. Two years of corporate life had convinced me that I needed to do my own thing and return to being an entrepreneur.

I founded Action Energy Finance in October 2021. Before founding the firm, I had tested the waters with a potential co-founder and initial business idea. Pivoted from both and started building Action Energy Market software platform with a new co-founder.

We launched Action Energy Market in the Finnish market in August 2023 (check us out here: https://buff.ly/3PIXpJx ). We have also taken a more ambitious step and started to build a global marketplace (https://buff.ly/48GSp0I ).

I will be writing about the lessons learned during energy VC times and documenting the building of Action Energy Finance, here at LinkedIn. It will take a village to make this baby grow too!

Back in the VC years, I used to say to portfolio firms that it always takes at least 7 years to get the company truly going. That even if you have a lot of experience, everything will take longer than you think.

With realistic expectations you get the best out of the resources you have and can also prepare yourself mentally.

As with everything that is worth doing, it's going to take a while. It's going to be a slog and sometimes you wonder why you are putting yourself through it . And it's going to be worth it.