Investment Opportunities

Ever since starting GreenNet in 1985, I've believed that we have to move to an environmentally sustainable economy - to move beyond lobbying into business. I do not believe we will achieve a sustainable planet until people are making better money from responsible behavior than from irresponsible behavior. More recently it appears to me that this is a good time to actually do something about it. The world is beginning to realize that sustainability is important, and governments and business are at least paying lip-service to it.

In many ways, sustainability industries such as solar power are in a similar position to the internet in the late 80's. Until recently it was a business peopled by enthusiasts where everyone is asking how anyone could possibly make money out of it. Now, money is moving into the field, and people are looking for solid businesses which can make good returns. For example the Sydney Morning Herald's business section (approximately equivalent to New York Towns) on 14 June 02 had a half page article "Sooner or later, green energy will be worth a fortune". (story)

There have been discussions, currently on hold, but which might restart again, on putting together a pool of investors to call on for specific projects. Ideally we'd like to keep open some opportunities for smaller local (to Byron Bay) investors to participate (say at $10-$100k) and will also look for larger investors further away ($100k - $10m). It is our intent to create a pool where investors can choose to spread the risk over a number of businesses, investing a small amount in each. The bulk of investment will be equity based, but there is also likely to be a need for shorter term, fixed interest rate, investments to fund the production of products for specific orders.

I think there are opportunities to be had, especially in very early stage funding, identifying ideas that have potential but need mentoring to take them to the next stage, and a key focus now is looking for those kinds of ideas, and early stage companies, and figuring out what is needed to make them successful.

Investing through us is similar to most technology investments, we expect the risk to be substantial, only a small percentage of such businesses survive, however the return on the successful businesses can be very high. We will explore ways for the risk to be spread over a number of the client businesses, but this is NOT a venture where you should invest money that you cannot afford to lose, nor is it a field to be investing in if you don't have enough experience to make smart decisions about your investments.

If you have an interest in hearing about opportunities as they arise, please email Mitra on mitra@mitra