Driven by a global focus on environmental protection and the role of transportation in meeting aggressive sustainability goals; stakeholders in the commercial fleet sector are bringing to market clean vehicles and technologies at record speed. In turn, private and public investors are quickly realizing that the sector holds huge growth potential. In just a short number of years, investment in the space has exploded—with ambitious logistics startups, technology providers, and equipment suppliers garnering a record amount of attention and billions in funding.
Drawn by an array of promising clean technologies, investors are hungry to identify the latest trends and opportunities for returns.
Commercial fleet transportation has historically not received as much attention from growth-focused venture investors, but that is changing before our eyes as the size of the market and the transformative potential of clean vehicle technologies becomes apparent. Drawn in by an array of promising clean technologies, smarter and more efficient vehicles, and a global shift to lower emission transportation, investors—from early stage venture capitalists to traditional fund managers—are hungry to identify the latest trends and opportunities for returns. Meanwhile, leading commercial fleets, OEMs, fuel providers and other suppliers are trying to keep pace with the dizzying changes in the industry in order to deploy their capital into the clean technologies and fuels that will achieve large-scale market adoption.
Proven Strategies for Clean Tech Investment
To facilitate this demand, this year’s Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo will bring together investors, entrepreneurs, top OEMs and suppliers, fleet customers, and policy makers to launch a first-of-its-kind event, the ACT Expo Investor Summit. Leveraging ACT Expo, North America’s largest advanced transportation technology and clean fleet event, the Investor Summit is an unrivaled opportunity for networking, trend-spotting, and engaging one-on-one with the industry’s key “movers and shakers”.
The Investor Summit is an opportunity for networking, trend-spotting, and engaging one-on-one with the industry’s key “movers and shakers”.
This year’s inaugural event, held Monday, May 11, 2020, will feature two keynote addresses as well as four speaker-led sessions. The full-day agenda provides a look into the current state of investing in the clean transportation technology market, the role and types of government funding, an in-depth perspective on early-stage venture capital funding, and a commercial-fleet driven discussion on what it takes for new technologies to reach widescale adoption and scale.
What to Expect at the ACT Expo Investor Summit
Kicking off the day as the morning keynote, Meritor CEO and President, Jay Craig, will provide insight into how an industry leader draws on 110-years of experience to assess the rapidly changing and transformative technology landscape in order to make strategic investments, ensuring the company’s leadership position well into the future. As the ACT Expo 2018 keynote speaker, Craig shared that Meritor had begun to develop a portfolio of drivetrain products for the commercial electric vehicle market due to the anticipated rapid growth in the sector. In 2019, Craig returned to provide the welcome address at ACT Expo, where he doubled-down on his stance that clean technology is the future, only to say that he was wrong in one assumption—the market is growing at a much faster rate than predicted only a year prior. As one of the industry’s most preeminent speakers and technology leaders, ACT Expo welcomes Jay Craig back for the Investor Summit—the original concept for which was spurred by discussions with the Meritor team at the 2019 ACT Expo.
As one of the industry’s most preeminent speakers and technology leaders, ACT Expo welcomes Jay Craig back for the inaugural Investor Summit.
The afternoon keynote address will be provided by Michael Linse, Founder and Managing Director of Linse Capital, a growth equity firm focused on transportation and energy technology companies. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience investing in leading companies such as ChargePoint, Valens, and Proterra, Linse will provide valuable insight on strategies for innovative startups, the investment community, and the all-important end-user. He will also focus on key characteristics for picking industry standouts and how companies can survive to achieve scale.
Throughout the program, fleets, OEMs, and energy majors will have the opportunity to offer insight into how their solutions and technologies have gone from the R&D phase to mass-market penetration, and the key critical factors for a technology to reach true commercial scale. View the full ACT Expo Investor Summit program.
Celebrating 10 Years of ACT Expo
The Investor Summit is just one of many opportunities for fleets to connect with the latest technology trends at ACT Expo. The show always brings attendees the most timely and relevant workshops, panels, and sessions—this year will be is no exception as it marks the 10th anniversary of ACT Expo. In just 10 years, ACT Expo has grown to become “THE destination” where thousands of transportation executives and North America’s most progressive fleets convene to stay current on the latest technologies, fuels, policies and investments driving the future of the industry. The 2020 ACT Expo takes place May 11-14 in Long Beach, California, to register visit www.actexpo.com.
