Can Energy Startups Be Saved?

 

 

BIOTECH

 

至少从理论上来说，小型企业和大公司之间建立更多合作将带来重要意义。已建成的能源和制造业公司拥有初创企业所需的工程技术经验、市场理解力以及获取资本的渠道。同时大公司刚好常缺乏初创企业所具备的企业家精神及创造真正意义上的创新技术的能力。

In theory, at least, more collaboration between small companies and large corporations makes obvious sense. Established energy and manufacturing firms have the engineering experience, market savvy, and access to capital that startups need. At the same time, the big firms often lack startups' entrepreneurial spirit and the creativity to invent truly innovative technologies.

 

近20多年来，许多生物技术公司的成功案例表明这种合作模式是如何发挥作用的。如同清洁能源公司一样，生物技术初创企业的产品面临一个漫长且昂贵的商业化过程。然而很多这类公司则借助使自己成为吸引大型制药公司的目标而避免了这一过程。急需获取创新技术的制药公司对初创企业的收购很大程度上推动了生物技术产业的增长。在尚缺乏经验的初创企业需要应对各种业务开支，扩大规模或将自己的技术商业化的困境之前，那些意识到公司本身研发做得不到位，且药物管线产品正趋于衰退中的大型制药公司与他们之间的交易，早已给风险投资资本家从生物技术初创企业中兑现所投入的资金带来了极为有利可图的方式。反过来，这种有利可图的资金“出口”将极大地激励风险投资者去投资下一轮早期初创企业。Nanda称此这为一个良性循环过程。

The success of many biotech companies over the last two decades suggests how such collaborations can work. Like clean-energy companies, biotech startups face a lengthy and expensive commercialization process for their products. But many have avoided that process by making themselves attractive targets for large pharmaceutical companies. The acquisition of startups by drug companies desperate to gain innovative new technologies has fueled much of the biotech industry's growth. These deals by large pharmaceutical firms, which recognized that their own research was inadequate and their drug pipelines were collapsing, gave venture capitalists a highly profitable way to cash out of their investments in biotech startups long before the fledgling companies had to deal with the expense and difficulty of scaling up or commercializing their technologies. In turn, these lucrative "exits" for venture investors provided strong incentives to invest in the next round of early-stage companies. "It is a virtuous cycle," Nanda says.

 

清洁能源技术的价值就在于能更廉价地输送能量。而试图证明这一价值，往往需要在大型示范工厂花费多年时间进行高成本的验证。

The value of many clean-energy technologies lies in whether they can deliver power more cheaply. Finding out whether that's the case often takes years of testing in costly large-scale demonstration plants.

 

同时，能源初创企业能够引进创新理念，如更加高效低成本地生产太阳能电池。这种推进对于一个期望提高业务营运水平或向新领域扩张的大企业来说是非常有价值的。然而生物技术产业花费了很多年才形成这样一个良性循环，Nanda还提出，将20世纪80年代的生物技术工业与当今刚起步的清洁能源产业放到一起进行类比的方式，本身就存在缺陷。

Likewise, energy startups can introduce innovations that, say, make solar cells more efficient or cheaper to produce. And those advances could be valuable to large manufacturers looking to improve their own operations or expand into new businesses. But the virtuous cycle in biotech took years to develop. What's more, Nanda is quick to add, the analogy between the biotech industry in the mid-1980s and the fledgling clean-energy sector today "is not perfect."

 

 

在这其中最明显的区别便是能源作为一种商品，不像药品一样，它生产出来的产品通常是以价格为竞争手段的。许多清洁能源技术（如新型电池或太阳能电池）的价值在于他们能够更加廉价地输送能量。而试图证明这一价值，往往需要在大型示范工厂花费多年时间进行高成本的验证。更何况能源已是一种发展空间有限的成熟工业。因此，制药企业可能会为了推出一种重磅新药而投入大量资金以收购一个初创型企业，而能源公司就没有这样的动力去为新技术进行同样的投入。Perhaps the most notable difference is that energy, unlike new drugs, is a commodity: the products of its technologies generally compete on price. The value of many clean-energy technologies, such as new types of batteries or solar cells, lies in whether they can deliver power more cheaply. Finding out whether that's the case often takes years of testing in costly large-scale demonstration plants. What's more, energy is generally a mature industry with limited prospects for growth. So while pharmaceutical companies might pay extravagantly to acquire a startup in hopes of eventually offering a blockbuster new drug, energy companies have no such incentive to sink that kind of money into new technologies.

 

事实上很多大型公司仍对小公司在任何一项交易中所能带来的技术价值表示怀疑。Dow化学的执行副总裁兼首席技术官William Banholzer提出，从大公司获取风险投资额，或者被某家大公司收购则是能源初创型企业的一种可行的生存策略。这些初创企业必须向大公司展示一个令人信服的“价值提案”，但这将会比较困难。Banholzer 说：“能源是一种商品，该商品交易是利润比较低的行业，且初创企业往往拥有不切实际的想法，而为这些想法买单的将是我们。他们并不了解欲将这些想法商业化需要多大的工作量。我们所需要的通常是一个几十年的时间框架，而非几个月，或者几年。”另外，拥有“下一个最好的选择”往往决定了能源技术的市场价值。Banholzer说：“你并不如你所想象的那么独具一格。”

 

Indeed, many large corporations remain skeptical about the value of the technology that small companies bring to any deal. While obtaining venture investments from a big company or being acquired by one are viable strategies for energy startups, says William Banholzer, Dow Chemical's executive vice president and chief technology officer, they have to present a convincing "value proposition" to the larger company, and that can be difficult. "Energy is a commodity, and commodities are low-margin businesses," Banholzer says. "Startups often have unrealistic expectations of what we will pay. They don't understand how much work it takes to commercialize this stuff. We're talking time frames that are typically decades—not months, not years." And, says Banholzer, there is always "a next-best alternative" that determines the market value of an energy technology. "You're not as special as you think," he says.

 

 

 

 

 

这些消息可以是震撼人心的，特别是对于那些希望放弃能源行业，而寄希望于利润丰厚的生物技术和互联网行业收购案的一些风险资本家来说。但是有迹象表明一些能源初创企业开始越来越多地关注他们的核心创新能力并对其雄心壮志显得越发有耐心，以使自身成为大型企业更加理想的合伙人。

 

Such messages can be humbling, especially for venture capitalists who hope to disrupt the energy business and have counted on the kinds of lucrative acquisitions common in the biotech and Internet industries. But there are signs that some energy startups are focusing more sharply on their core innovations and becoming more patient with their ambitions, making themselves far more desirable partners for large companies.

 

 

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