March 2017

APAC / March 2017 7 NEWS , Beijing was chosen as the initial focus of this study given con- cerns relative to air quality, as recently re- ported in Chemical and Engineer- ing News, January 2017. Grey- rock’s patented gas-to-liquids process produces synthetic die- sel fuels that meet or exceed die- sel fuel specifications established by ASTM D975. The improved characteristics of the Greyrock synthetic diesel over petroleum based alternatives include high- er cetane, virtually no sulphur or aromatics, and excellent lubricity. Greyrock’s synthetic diesel burns more cleanly and efficiently than comparable petroleum based fu- els resulting in reductions of par- ticulate matter (PM), carbon mon- oxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. Greyrock synthetic fuels can also improve diesel vehicle economy and extend the life of diesel en- gines by providing superior lubric- ity. Synthetic fuels may be used for other practical applications such as cooking and domestic heating, potentially resulting in up to 100 times less particulate emis- sions than coal fired stoves. Drs. Hoekman and Wang, of DRI, one of the leading research insti- tutes for measuring and model- ling ambient air quality globally, commented, “We look forward to collaborating with Tsinghua and Greyrock on this study.” DRI is particularly interested in studying the multiple benefits of using Chi- na’s agricultural waste to gener- ate synthetic fuels, thereby reduc- ing air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions from biomass burning and finding better uses for China’s large stock of agricul- tural waste. “We are excited to work with Greyrock and DRI on this effort,” remarked Professor Ye Wu, As- sociate Dean of the School of En- vironment at Tsinghua University. Tsinghua, a leading university in Asia, will lead the efforts to carry out the vehicle emission model- ling in Beijing. Having worked on various pro- jects with Tsinghua and DRI for over 20 years, Dr. Dennis Schuet- zle, Greyrock’s Chief Technology Officer, reported that “The models and databases developed in this study will be key to future efforts to access and improve air quality in other large cities such as Los Angeles, Mumbai, Bangkok and Tokyo.” www.greyrock.com www.FlaretoFuels.com www.tsinghua.edu.cn www.dri.edu Europe has created an unprecedented number of tech com- panies these last ten years. Early stage money, once so hard to come by, is now 25% of US levels, an aston- ishing statistic given how young the European tech industry is. Yet it is later stage money which is so crucial to creating global win- ners, and where so much of the real value is generated. By the time a tech companies achieves a $1B exit, late stage investors usually own most of the equity. While European tech has come very far in terms of early stage money available, later stage money remains elusive for most growth companies; US tech at- tracts 4x the early stage money available in Europe, but 10x the late stage money. Surprisingly, according to a re- cent Magister Advisors analysis, what little late stage money that is available is mainly provided by US and Asian investors. While it’s no secret international capital has been flowing to Europe in greater amounts, surprisingly over half of all late stage rounds were driven by US or Asian capital. The impact is even greater when we look at total amount, rather than number of rounds. US and Asian investors have driven 76% of all the capital invested in Euro- pean late stage tech. The largest rounds creating the biggest tech companies are driven dispropor- tionately by international interest. The implications are clear: • European tech has ‘come of age’ the last five years, at- tracting more money from in- ternational investors overall; all signs point to this growing even more over the coming five to ten years The Potential of Using Synthetic Diesel Fuels to Improve Air Quality in China US and Asian investors provided 76%of all the capital invested in European late stage tech in the last 12months, and stand to benefit most fromEurope’s unprecedented success in tech. • Because of the lack of Eu- ropean late stage investors, the most promising Europe- an tech players have mainly been funded by overseas capital. While this is a huge validation of the quality and attractiveness of European tech competitors, it is also a huge indictment of the ‘local’ tech investment marketplace. • Put simply, the quality of available ‘demand’ (compa- nies looking for funding) far outstrips EU capital ‘supply.’. There are far too few late stage EU investment funds in Europe to fuel the next gener- ation of winners. • European investors have started responding. 1/3 of all $400m later stage European tech funds have been raised since the start of 2016, but the evidence shows it’s still far short of the available qual- ity supply. While the imbalance is slowing changing, we expect the num- ber of European success stories deserving of late stage funding will double in the next years. We cannot see how the gap can be filled quickly enough by the still sub-scale European late stage sector, so unless something changes fast we expect over 80% of all capital for these companies to be driven by investors outside the EU. Europe is now a proven laborato- ry for creating world-class start- ups capable of competing inter- nationally. However, the huge value created this seismic trend looks set to flow mainly to inves- tors outside Europe. Put bluntly, Europe is in the pro- cess of creating unprecedented value which the rest of the world can capitalise on. Greyrock Energy, Inc. in Sacramento, CA, on 16thMarch announced that it will participate with Tsinghua University of Beijing, China and Desert Research Institute (DRI) of Reno, Nevada to quantify the positive impact on air quality from the use of synthetic diesel fuels as compared with petroleumderived diesel fuels.