Salvador Investor
Ushers Cleantech Start-Ups To Latin America
By Mara Lemos-Stein
SAN SALVADOR - El Salvador business
magnate Adolfo Salume has created a new
company to help clean technology start-ups
distribute their products in Latin America.
Salume’s business interests range from food,
beverage and flower distribution to
insurance and private equity, and include
his holding the post of president for Pepsi
El Salvador, part of PepsiCo Inc. He plans
to tap these channels to bring clean
technologies developed mostly by
venture-backed companies to Latin America,
he told VentureWire.
“We plan to be a trusted source for the best
products to all the people out there that
want to have more energy efficiency and
savings but don’t know where to turn,” said
Salume.
The new company, called Clean Technology
Solutions, is funded by Salume’s own
capital, while U.S. cleantech firm Sail
Venture Partners is also an investor.
Through his investment in Sail’s recently
closed Fund II, Salume looked into the
venture firm’s portfolio companies and
identified the potential of using his
business connections and funding resources
to open new markets for their technologies.
“This is the second movement in the
development of these companies: the first is
creating the product or device; the second
is entering the market,” said Walter
Schindler, a partner at Sail. He declined to
disclose how much the firm invested in Clean
Technology Solutions.
Clean Technology Solutions offers young
companies with proven technologies and
manufacturing capability the ability to
enter a market that is rarely cited as a
primary target by entrepreneurs, largely
because they lack expertise or connections
in the region.
“These guys don’t ever look at Latin
America, so we can bring them that, and for
us we will be able to build a market,” said
Luis Lugo, a former consultant who is Clean
Technology Solutions’ commercial director
based at the company’s office in Swampscott,
Mass.
Clean Technology Solutions will focus on new
technologies that improve energy efficiency,
provide energy savings or make industrial
processes more environmentally sound, the
founders said.
Some examples of companies for which Salume
believes Clean Technology Solutions can
carve out markets are Ice Energy Inc.’s
power consumption shaving HVAC unit;
FlexEnergy LLC’s waste-to-energy conversion
systems; and ActiveIon Cleaning Solutions
LLC’s water ionizer.
“We’re commercializing only proven
technologies; with our credibility we can go
to our clients and verify the validity [of
the technologies],” said Salume.
The aim is that energy costs savings
generated by certain technologies will pay
for the investment over time. This is not
only a selling point for customers but could
also be the basis on which Clean Technology
Solutions would provide or arrange
financing.
Although Salume spoke only of technologies
from companies backed by Sail, Clean
Technology Solutions will look broadly
around the sector for potential products to
introduce into its distribution chain. As an
investor, Sail will provide its expertise in
vetting the technologies, he said.
The next market on Clean Technology
Solutions’ radar after Latin America is
Spain, where Ignacio Campo, a former general
manager for the pay-television unit of Grupo
Prisa in Spain, will lead the effort.
Salume’s investment in Sail is his first in
clean technology venture capital, he said.
He has been an investor in Bain Capital’s
funds for many years, and has also invested
in CVC Capital Partners, in a technology,
media and telecom fund managed by Credit
Suisse, and in Bain Venture Capital. |
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