Australian executives visiting Silicon Valley: green companies getting ripe for business



In the last two weeks, a group of CEOs from Australia have been through an intensive business acceleration program in Silicon Valley supported by the Victorian Government. Pyksis selected seven promising company executives across social networking, clothing, security and water. Each paired with a US mentor from the ANZA Technology Network, they have taken a hard look at their business models and faced the realities of doing business in the US.

Michel Abeysekera, CEO of Cylk and President of the Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia, came to work on his market entry strategy and make some high-end connections to help his company penetrate the US market. A veteran of the fashion industry, he accepted to answer questions on the latest trend in fashion: “Eco fashion has been under the radar in Australia for 4 to 5 years. It is a challenging area.” The key question is whether customers will pay a premium for organic garment: “What we are learning is that you need to be fashionable as well as eco friendly, hence eco chic”.

Michel also touched base on the issue of traceability. “We have a very stringent accreditation and a traceable process within our company. We use organizations like Oeko Tex that are well known organizations in the organic space and provide traceability from the plant to the factory.” Unfortunately there is a lot of green washing in the area. “Some companies say they are sustainable and eco but questions should be asked” according to Michel who concluded that “things will change as Governments provide more standards”.

With four companies represented, water was the main subject during the brainstorming sessions. How to solve one of the world’s critical challenges and build a sustainable business at the same time? Paul Fox, investor at California Clean Energy Angel Fund, was one of the mentors who took part in the sessions. He explained that “Australia experienced stressed weather conditions, and it is not surprising to see good water technologies coming from that part of the world”. He added that “there are some water companies coming from Israel as well and they have access to more capital”.

The relative lack of venture capital remains a difficulty in Australia, often forcing business owners to boot-strap their companies and work out deals as they grow. Graeme Wright, the CEO of WiSA, originally developed his solution out of his farm before other farmers asked him to do the same. He integrated sensors, wireless communication, software and scientific algorithms to make agriculture smarter. Improving the quality of products in a competitive market is usually the main driver with Water efficiency a fringe benefit.

A winery in New South Wales leveraged WiSA’s solution to refine the grapes to specifications and reduced their water consumption by a staggering 85%. The irrigation went from 18 hours a day to 15 minutes every hour and it increased the production from 3 tons to 30 tons of grapes. No land is the same and benefits vary but the results are always there.  WiSA is doing now a project in Dubai.

Sunny States like California represent a massive opportunity for Graeme’s company. His mentor, Jonathan Baer from Threshold Ventures, quickly captured how the product could do more with less, in this case water and electricity: “The statistics is that about 20% of all electricity in California is for pumping water. Not all of that is at the individual farm’s level but it says that agriculture is a significant portion of energy usage.”

Jonathan warned however that “in California, it is less about the cost of water, because it is artificially set in the State, it is simply about supply”. Some areas of California are not farmed currently due to lack of water. Jonathan summarized that “the challenge is to figure out, within the context of water cost and water availability, how to create a sustainable business.”