What Vantage Point wants to fund

Marc van den Berg is planning on a few, big investments in energy efficiency and storage.

He invests in every cleantech sector from biofuels to solar, but at the moment, Marc van den Berg has a few industries squarely in his sites; if you run a startup in energy storage or energy efficiency, especially in lighting, HVAC ("heating, ventilating, and air conditioning" aka climate control) or green building materials, you may want to talk to Marc. Oh—and there’s one other requirement for pulling down an investment: you need to be willing to take huge chunks of capital.

Unlike IT, greentech investment will have relatively few winners, van den Berg says, and a green VC needs to support a company along a much longer and more costly runway. That means a few lucky winners will take in a larger portion of the available venture capital. Vantage Point has funded some of the most notable companies in greentech to date, including Tesla, Brightsource Energy, Better Place and Mascoma. Not a bad crop considering their site only lists 22 portfolio companies. Competing for Vantage Point’s dollars may be competitive, but once you’re in, you’re a lot closer to the finish line.

Check out the interview for the qualities Marc looks for in a startup, and how he envisions (and hopes to impact) the global economic landscape in the decades ahead.