2.8
2.8 
2.4 
2.9 
3.0 If You are Early Stage in Cleantech and Serious about Building Up Your Company I Highly Recommend
Fund: Terra Venture Partners
Posted by xailor on 2009-11-23
I am the founder of a Terra invested company. I have worked with more than a few Israeli and international VCs in my previous companies and Terra is very refreshing in the VC scene.
They have tremendous understanding of the clean-tech sector and are extremely well contacted (very strong in Europe and surprisingly strong in USA even though their roots are not from there), They are getting us contacts of different types (customers, suppliers, industry experts, business partners) almost weekly. We are deeply involved with a major player in our industry (they are large and old-tech, we fit in with a new-tech solution and this could bring us instant access to huge customers as well as an exit option) this is completely due to one of the partner’s (Astorre) personal connections
An example of their added value. We were working very hard on some important deal and decided not to put too much emphasis on finding alternatives to a critical supplier. Harold understood that and worked diligently to back us up. Ultimately the original supplier imploded, and we were ready. Let me be clear the company would have gone under had that not happened.
We sit together every 6 weeks or so and go over all the issues. I always feel backed strongly by them. They have a simple down to earth office, which I find very refreshing over the fancy arrogant offices that many VCs seem to need to have.
Their downside is probably deal terms, they know their worth of much more than just $$ and that they back high risk companies and aim accordingly. I think that is very good quid-pro-quo for the founders if you believe in maximizing the chances of a successful exit. Even this is mitigated as a higher chance of getting through later rounds in a better placing than you would have (our next round is forthcoming and I hope to prove this theory and will update here)
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