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“Cleantech remains a buzz word, but the positive dynamics of 2010 shows that this investment space is here to stay", said Magnus Agerström, Managing Director of Cleantech Scandinavia, as the membership network organisation released its annual trend report.

Last year 500 million euro poured into the Nordic cleantech sector, highest of all recorded years. Compared to 2009 numbers were up 10 percent in total amount of funding and up 16 percent in the number of deals.

Technology areas which attracted the most investor attention were solar and wind energy, electric vehicles, biofuels and biogas, the “Nordic Cleantech Dealflow 2010” pointed out.

Other groups of technologies that are clearly on the rise are manufacturers of sensors, transistors and transformers, developers of monitoring systems and specific software solutions; all targeting the growing cleantech industry as their main customer.

Seed funding increased for the first time in three years. This changes the trend of the previous year when investors were looking for safer investments in later stage companies and "creates a more sustainable investment ecosystem where more early stage companies get access to necessary growth funding", the report said.

"The cleantech sector in the Nordic countries has become an established investment category for venture capital. We see new funds being established and we observe a growing interest from institutional investors and LPs, including large international players”, Magnus Agerström said.

All countries except Sweden showed growth. Denmark and Finland stood out showing the highest growth in private equity of all Nordics.