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Making Profit and An Impact Through Renewables Investment

Gurpreet Gujral

Atrato Group

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Making Profit and An Impact Through Renewables Investment

Gurpreet Gujral

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Atrato Group

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Gurpreet Gujral Atrato Group
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About Gurpreet Gujral

In LAB #1, Gurpreet Gujral, Managing Director of Renewable Energy at Atrato Group discusses how to both make an impact and make returns for investors.

Gurpreet Gujral is the MD for Renewable Energy at the Atrato Group. Atrato Partners, part of the Atrato Group is the investment adviser to Atrato Onsite Energy. Atrato Capital, part of the Atrato Group is the investment adviser to Supermarket Income REIT”

Gurpreet Gujral

Atrato Group

Show Notes

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Gurpreet Gujral Full Transcript

Gurpreet Gujral: [00:00:00] We save approximately 28, 000 tons of carbon emissions. That's the equivalent of powering about 50, 000 households.

Amardeep Parmar: And we're live. Today we have with us Gurpreet Gujral, who's the Managing Director of Renewable Energy at the Atrato Group. Can you explain to people What you actually do as a managing director of renewable energy. Like, what does that actually mean? 

Gurpreet Gujral: So Atrato Onsite Energy is an investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Gurpreet Gujral: It is a renewable energy investment trust. Uh, we focus on investing in solar projects across the UK. The, the mandate is, is very simple. Uh, strategies to invest in solar PV projects that connect directly into corporates. The reason why that's, uh, important is when you have your electricity bill, whether it's you or a big company like Tesco's, they effectively have two parts of their electricity bill, um, the commodity cost and the non commodity cost.

Gurpreet Gujral: The commodity cost is how much it costs to actually make the electricity. And in [00:01:00] this country, it's the cost of gas. Okay. So gas determines the price of electricity in this country, and then you have a non commodity cost and that's everything else. Uh, associated to obtaining electricity, and that's paying for the grid, paying for policy costs, paying for your supply margins and things like that.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, what we do is we disintermediate the non commodity cost. So we install solar PV systems on rooftops of large Tesco supermarkets, um, big car manufacturers, aerospace businesses, heavy industry. Uh, and we might be on their roofs of big warehouses or big factories, or we might be in adjacent lands where we have PV systems that are

Gurpreet Gujral: basically, I installed right next to the factory and then the private wire that goes straight in and ultimately what we're doing is we're saving big corporates a lot of money on their electricity bill by, by just delivering them electricity through our PV systems. So it's a clean, so there's a lot of green kudos that goes with it.

Gurpreet Gujral: But one of the key drivers, especially now in this kind of energy climate is saving, saving companies, [00:02:00] which ultimately should feed into individuals who are buying, buying stuff from these companies with lower bills. So that's, that's the kind of mandate of the fund. It's, it's pretty unique in the sense that most other renewable energy funds, whether it's run by Macquarie or Blackrock or Blackstone or 3i or whoever, tend to be more focused on very large grid connected projects.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, so these are big solar farms or big wind farms or offshore wind farms. Whereas our focus is very niche in that we're focusing on those private wire installations. So it's onsite energy generation systems. So that's, that's the funds. That's the mandate. The investment trust itself is, is essentially an SPV with no employees, just assets and money.

Gurpreet Gujral: I work for, um, the investment advisory group called ATRATO. Before I joined was essentially managing a real estate fund. And then I joined to set up the renewable energy franchise, which our first fund was the, the onsite energy fund, which we IPO'd on the stock exchange in November, 2021. I joined in January, spent best part of [00:03:00] 2021 building a team, building a strategy, going out, meeting investors, and then launching the IPO, which we successfully could be completed at the end of the year.

Gurpreet Gujral: 

Amardeep Parmar: What attracted you to the project in the first place? Like, why did you want to go into this Renewable energy space?

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so I've been in renewables right, right from the beginning, right? So, so ever since university, always in the sort of investment banking context, uh, worked for various different banks.

Gurpreet Gujral: Spent most of my career at a bank called Macquarie, which is a large Australian infrastructure specialist bank, uh, always worked within renewable energy. Why renewable energy? Uh, well, it's a good question. I mean, it wasn't something that, you know, when I was a kid, I was always dreaming about, right? Like it's, it's, it's, it wasn't anything like that.

Gurpreet Gujral: I guess I, I started off being an equity analyst for, uh, for a bank. Uh, my boss, um, this was basically a research analyst and our job as a research analyst is to to write, uh, write publications on companies and giving investors recommendations on whether they should buy sell or hold a stock. And at the time, my boss asked me to sort of cover this really small, at time penny stock [00:04:00] and they made fuel cells. right.

Gurpreet Gujral: And this is, this is going back, right. 15 years or so. And they had just IPO it was a, it was a kind of a, a very much a, you know, a startup business. I think at the time they had a core technology with good people and they asked me to cover it. My first note. You know, as the lead analyst, just a kid out of uni published it, got a lot of traction.

Gurpreet Gujral: Suddenly realized that actually there weren't that many people covering renewable energy stocks. Like there was lots of people doing telcos, dot com, lots of bank analysts, lots of other analysts, but actually the sort of alternative energy or renewable energy space, just there wasn't really anyone dedicated on it.

Gurpreet Gujral: And the firm that I worked for gave me the sort of you know, it's quite cliche and cheesy to say about the platform, right? They just said, go, go run with it. And, you know, as a young analyst, if, if you get the chance to be the lead analyst, cause normally you sort of, you report up to someone who's the lead analyst, and then you work your way up.

Gurpreet Gujral: They gave me the chance to just run with it. And then, yeah, I just, I guess I just, um, built a little, um, a little franchise out of that. [00:05:00] Um, and, uh, and then a few years ago, I got asked to move across to, um, the, the kind of principal investment team at Macquarie, uh, which is where they use the, um, the bank's balance sheet to invest and develop projects.

Gurpreet Gujral: So real assets and not looking at stocks, but actually investing in real, real infrastructure projects, whether it's offshore wind farms, solar PV projects. Energy from waste, spent some time there and then got talking to, uh, I got introduced to Atrato. They, they, they had ambitions to set up their second fund.

Gurpreet Gujral: They didn't really at that time have a huge amount of experience in the renewable space because they were all kind of real estate folk and had built a fantastic fund, which is also listed in the real estate space. And, you know, this particular niche I don't think was ever focused on by many of the big funds.

Gurpreet Gujral: So it just gave us a bit of an opening and it was, you know, it got a lot of traction when we went out and met investors, it resonated with folk, made a lot of sense. It's the world's easiest sell. You [00:06:00] go to a corporate, you say to them, what's, you know, from an energy perspective, what, what are the two, two or three key things that's bugging you from an energy perspective?

Gurpreet Gujral: It's the price, it's the volatility and it's dirty. All right. Our solution is really simple. We give you cheaper electricity. That's at a fixed price and it's clean. So it's really simple.

Amardeep Parmar: So like today, like a lot more people are trying to get involved in the new energy from the, because the climate is obviously much bigger a topic maybe than when you started, right?

Amardeep Parmar:  So the same people listening right now, maybe you're thinking they want to make a difference somewhere in the climate tech space. They're trying to look at what the opportunities are. How do they get involved in that world? What advice would you have for somebody who maybe wants to get involved in climate, wants to get involved in this space, but maybe doesn't exactly know where they should go yet?

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, look, I mean, it's, it's such a big industry, right? You can, you can get into this, the industries through so many different ways, whether it's from a finance perspective, whether it's from an engineering perspective, whether it's from project management, there's just so many different facets of the industry.

Gurpreet Gujral: The best advice that I [00:07:00] could give, you know, people always talk about, it's not what you know, but who you know. It's what you know, right? Like it really is what you know, forget about who you know. Right? You're a kid coming through university. You're trying to break into the industry. Someone that you might know might may open the door for you to get an interview or get through that door.

Gurpreet Gujral: But, but it's what you know. Right. So, so it is, it is very, it is about kind of understanding the content, understanding how it works. That doesn't mean that you have to get a degree in this subject. Like you can learn. 

Amardeep Parmar:  You did that, right? You, you did a master's. Yeah.

Gurpreet Gujral: I did a finance, I did a finance degree. I did a finance degree.

Gurpreet Gujral: And so it was very cliche kind of business type, you know, finance, stayed on uni to do a master's, uh, in a more kind of specialized finance degree. Um, started working and then a new course, uh, masters opened up at Oxford in sustainability. I was the first cohort to join, [00:08:00] managed to get on the course. It was, it was whilst I was working.

Gurpreet Gujral: So it was pretty neat and work helped me out, you know, you know, with the fees and stuff. So, but I had already got, you know, kind of a few years of experience in, in sustainability and renewable energy. But like I said, it's not about going, going to the right school. It's not about getting that degree in that specific space.

Gurpreet Gujral: You can learn so much, um, without it, but, but you need to know the content and it is one of those technical degree, uh, technical subject matters, right? So, so you do need to, to kind of, to, to understand it. And when you understand something, then you can command presence in a conversation. You can, you can solve problems.

Gurpreet Gujral: Because you've got the background, right? And you're not waiting for someone to give you the answer. So, so, you know, if you're, if you're coming into any industry, right, it doesn't, it doesn't matter if it's finance or renewable energy, it's, it's, um, you know, just mastering it and understanding it and just spending time, you know, just spending time learning it.

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah, it's a good  point as well, because I think a lot of people might, for example, be going for like advocacy, right? Where they talk about a [00:09:00] subject or they try to encourage other people to do it. But like I said, if you've got that technical knowledge and scientific knowledge. You can make more of a direct impact yourself on the, like in the industry, for example, right?

Amardeep Parmar: Because what you're doing now, say, for example, by having those solar panels on those big supermarkets and those big car parks, then how much energy is being saved there that would normally be made in other ways, right? So that makes a huge impact because you've got that background, we're doing it through the industry as opposed to maybe just

Amardeep Parmar: going like, for example, you're doing today, right? You could be telling people to go and make change, but you're being part of the change yourself. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, no, and that's, that's great. I'm really privileged to be part of that, right? Like being able to actually make an impact. Um, and that's just through the support of, of the, of the investors that we got, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so we raised 150 million pounds in November. There was, we had a really strong appetite. We could have raised a lot more. We, we maintained our position. We, we, we didn't want to raise too much money with investment trusts. Um, the, the, the thing, the difference between a public [00:10:00] investment trust and a, and a private equity fund is that when, when you raise money from a, in, in, in the public markets, you actually receive the money.

Gurpreet Gujral: So it's in your bank account, right? Or it's in the, in the funds bank account, it takes time to invest. And if that money is just sitting there. Just not generating that much interest right now is generating a lot of interest because of the market. But back then, you know, you're not earning much. And so, so we had to, we had to be pretty disciplined about that.

Gurpreet Gujral: And, um, and, and being able to, to deploy that money and invest that money, which we have now into projects that actually is making a real difference. Um, you know, is actually, and we, and we track all of that, right? We track how many carbon emissions we're saving. What the, what the equivalent is in terms of planting trees and the numbers just getting bigger and bigger.

Amardeep Parmar: Can you give us some examples  of some of those numbers? 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah. We save approximately 28, 000 tons of carbon emissions. That's the equivalent of, of powering about 50, 000 households. 

Amardeep Parmar: Hey everyone. I hope you're enjoying this episode so far. The BAE HQ has a [00:11:00] podcast. But we're so much more than that. So if you want to find out about all the events we've got going on, all the different ways you can meet each other, as well as resources to help you build the business of your dreams, then check out the link in the show notes, sign up to our newsletter, where you get a weekly roundup, which we like to call the BAE letter that will keep you in the loop.

Amardeep Parmar: If you want to help us out, the best thing you can possibly do is sign up to our newsletter and share it with your friends. So that's enough from me. Now let's get back to the show. 

Amardeep Parmar: And obviously like the fund has been going only for a short time so far. What's the ambition? Like what's the, what impact do I make over time?

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so, um, yes, you're right. We, we launched in, in, um, over 18 months ago. Now, um, we're now at a position where we've deployed and invested the capital. Um, we've got a couple of big projects being built out and will be commissioned over the next few months. Um, the ambition is to grow, uh, to grow the fund. Um, look, um, you know, we, we think this, this genuinely has the capability of [00:12:00] being a FTSE 250 business, will raise more capital, um, probably in the same kind of order, 100 to 150 million pounds.

Gurpreet Gujral: And then the cycle just, uh, turns again. So, so we then spend that money, invest that money, continue to build a portfolio and then raise again and raise again. So over the course of the next four or five years, you know, being above a billion pounds of market cap is the, is the target. 

Amardeep Parmar: Obviously that's a huge goal, right?

Amardeep Parmar: But then you're on the path to doing that. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yep. 

Amardeep Parmar:  And what have been some of the challenges that you said, like when you went to go and raise capital, because so many people are interested in the climate right now, you said it was easy, but how, is that being very modest or what was the challenge?

Gurpreet Gujral:  At the time it wasn't easy, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Looking back, it was, it was a good time to raise capital. Um, the market in 2021 was, was, uh, it was very much a bull market. And, and so we, we did raise money at the top of the top of the market. I think it's fair to say at the time it certainly wasn't easy. I think I, I met in, in the course of, um, the roadshow, the IPO roadshow, maybe 80 to [00:13:00] 90 investors in, in the space of three weeks, two weeks leading up to that, you know, we're preparing a presentation, which probably had about 60 to 70 turns, different iterations, you know, you know, you've, you've, you've got to manage accountants, you've got to manage the tax lawyers, you've got to manage the lawyers, you've got to manage your brokers.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, you know, and, and build a team and an infrastructure. So, so no, it was, it was, it was. It was, it was a hard slog having a really simple message, a really simple story that happens to, to fit the market at the time. And that's just luck, right? Helps. And just obviously having a really good team, um, like the, the Atrato team are fantastic.

Gurpreet Gujral: They've done it once before, had a lot of track record with those same investors, which, which meant it was far easier reaching out to the same folk and kind of presenting a story, hearing their feedback, tweaking it. Presenting it again, hearing their feedback. So from, from January through to, um, I think August, [00:14:00] we spent a lot of time fine tuning the message.

Gurpreet Gujral: And then we went out in, I think, October, did three weeks and kind of doing seven, eight meetings a day. Same thing, hour, hour, you know, same thing. A lot, all of it on, on Zoom and Teams. So no, no, no real face to face messages. So that was that, um, that was weird, but, but really efficient because you could just, you know, there was no, there was no time in between meetings.

Gurpreet Gujral: You just went straight to the next one, straight to the next one. So, so it meant that we could cover a lot of ground. Um, and now since then I've been going around meeting everyone, uh, for the first time, so it's been great. It's, it's the world's easiest sell. We say, we say as a bit of a joke, but it's, it's, it's not really.

Gurpreet Gujral: It ticks a lot of boxes, but, but one thing that, that it makes it very difficult is that what you're, what you're asking a corporate do is commit to buying energy from your PV system for 20 years. And they're not used to that, right? They're just not used to that. Right. So, so there's a, there is a bit of a mind shift there, but, but some of the corporates that we've already engaged with, they're obviously progressive in their space.

Gurpreet Gujral: [00:15:00] They, they, they understand it, uh, it's made it, made it, you know, we eventually got there. So we deployed the capital and now we, we go back. 

Amardeep Parmar: So obviously in your role as managing director as well, because that's different. It's raised what you've done before, but it's going to be different in terms of the pressure and raising the fund.

Amardeep Parmar: What's been the biggest challenge for you other than actually raising the capital  itself?

Gurpreet Gujral: There's lots of challenges every day. There's, there's something that comes up, right? I mean, building the right team. You know, super important, you know, I've been really lucky with the people that we've hired, um, some, some of the folk that I've known before, some new, new people that have joined, so that, that, that's super important to have that because, you know, there's, there's now about 10 of us and, and, you know, we've all got our own kind of disciplines and, you know, they've got a, they've, they've been fantastic.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, so, but finding those people is hard. 

Amardeep Parmar:How did you find them? 

Gurpreet Gujral:  Some, some, some of the folk I know are new from previous, previous, um, experiences, uh, worked with them before, been on transactions with them before, and some folk just, just [00:16:00] through kind of normal, you know. Interview processes. And so, um, and you generally get a good feel for, for, for, you know, who's going to fit into the team that's been hard, but, but been worked out okay for us.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, and then just building the infrastructure, right? So, so all of a sudden you're, you're kind of running a public fund that, that, that requires a huge amount of process and a huge amount of set standards because it's other people's money, right? That you're dealing with. And, um, and so, so, so having that plumbing in place beforehand is super important.

Gurpreet Gujral: That's been a challenge. But as I said, um, when I joined Detroiter, they'd done it once before, they know how to do it. And so that kind of, again, really cliche, cheesy phrase, but you know, that platform kind of, kind of helps, right. From not just from a, from an investment perspective, but from a compliance perspective, from a HR perspective, from, uh, from an ESG perspective and, and, and all of that.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so having that base is super important. Because, because it could all go wrong, right? If you get one thing [00:17:00] wrong from a compliance point of view, from a legal perspective. So, so you need to have that space or place to, to, to kind of allow you to grow. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. And like I said, like a lot of your clients at the moment are corporates, right?

Gurpreet Gujral:Yeah.

Amardeep Parmar: Like large corporates. If there's people now who may be at those kinds of companies, right? Who are liking what you're doing. And they think maybe their company should be involved, or are you very specifically looking at certain times, because at the moment it says supermarkets, and I think you said car garages, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Car manufacturing facilities. So, so, so, yeah, I mean, big, big, uh, big, uh, factories. Uh, so, so we've got a project up in, uh, Sunderland right now, uh, the Nissan factory. Um, so, so we're, we're putting 20 megawatts of, uh, Uh, solar PV systems, um, uh, Nissan's factory up in Sunderland's one of the biggest in Europe, I think, uh, will be energizing about 10 percent of that plant from, from our solar PV system.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, um, so, so any, anywhere where there is, um, a huge amount of electricity consumption, so we don't tend to do offices or hotels just because, uh, the [00:18:00] space, uh, is not conducive and, and the energy intensity within the, in the space is, is not, is not ideal. So we tend to, to, to focus on those bigger kind of drinks, manufacturers, food, beverages, businesses, um, and they consume a hell of a lot of electricity, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Tesco's or Sainsbury's or Marks and Spencers, um, they consume a lot of energy cause, cause they have, um, chillers, um, in place and, and, you know, and they've got big rooftop spaces. So it makes a lot of sense. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. And is it primarily UK focused at the moment, right? 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, it's a UK Ireland fund. We had the mandate to go to, um, to OECD countries.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, we, we always said we'd, we'd, we'd start to, to think about that in year two or year three. Fortunately, a lot of our customers in place right now are, you know, have pres, have a presence out in, in Europe and other places. So, so we've, we've started that dialogue, but again, it's just having the right team, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: You can't, you can't do that without having people in the market, in, in the location. And so, so, you know, that, that eventually will be our next step. 

Amardeep Parmar: So would you say in some ways that you could expand [00:19:00] faster than you are, but you're trying to do it through the right steps by because getting the right team in place first.

Gurpreet Gujral: Yep. 

Amardeep Parmar: Because I think a lot of people, for example, they think so much about expansion, but then they can then run into problems. And there's so many examples of this in the past of where say, for example, some of the supermarkets have tried to expand abroad, but they didn't have the local teams understood the market there.

Amardeep Parmar: And they then had to retreat and waste a lot of money. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yep. 

Amardeep Parmar: So is that something you're very consciously doing in terms of your planning? 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, I think so. Maybe it's in the subconscious rather than, you know, something that's conscious. But, you know, we all, we all have a finite bandwidth, right? Right. And we're trying to build a fund here that, that's, well, it is a permanent capital vehicle, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so the fund itself is, is, is an investment trust. So, so, so. Um, the capital stays within the fund forever. If an investor wants to sell out, they sell their shares on the stock market, right? Just like any other stock. So, so, so the, so the, the very nature of the fund is that it, it's a long term, highly contracted fund.

Gurpreet Gujral: And what I mean by that [00:20:00] is, um, when we're selling electricity, we sell typically on a fixed basis. So, so we don't have the same level of exposure to the merchant curve. We call it the merchant curve. The merchant curve is, is basically the spot market, the wholesale energy market. And that's dictated by the gas price, which has nothing to do with solar PV.

Gurpreet Gujral: Right. So, so our goal was to create a fund that, that is, is, is not correlated or exposed in, in a significant way to, to the merchant curve, um, because we want to be out there for the long term. And, and, and it's the same for our growth strategy, right? Like, you know, we want to grow, um, we want to grow, we're really, really aggressive, but, but we've got to do that in a really measured way.

Amardeep Parmar:Yeah. And obviously it's  important, right? Because if you're using people's, the funding you've got in place. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah. 

Amardeep Parmar: Then you don't want to just, Oh, we need to spend it. It's got to be used in the right way. And I said there as well that you wanted to deploy the cups in the first year, but it took a bit longer because you made sure that you used in the right way.

Amardeep Parmar: And that's, at the end of the day, people rather use the money correctly and make a return for them. Then you spend it quickly, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: No, [00:21:00] absolutely. That's, that's one of the, you know, we're, we're really lucky. We've got some really, really supportive shareholders. Um, when we came back. When we came back to the market after, um, after our first four years results, we had to say to them, look, you know, it's taking, taking longer than we expected a number of reasons, macro reasons, but also, um, other reasons.

Gurpreet Gujral: And, um, the, the investors, uh, said, said exactly that. Right. We'd prefer you to spend the money sensibly than just invest it for the sake of it. And so, so, so that gave us the, I guess, the, the, the, the, you know, the confidence, um, to, to do that. And yeah, I think we, I think we invested everything by, by April.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so it was, it was all good. 

Amardeep Parmar: And in the climate space generally as well, have you seen many organizations trying to help each other out? And what's that kind of system? Like, so let's say there's somebody else for the organization right now that's in the climate space. Do you see many collaborations or how can that be fostered more? 

Gurpreet Gujral: As, as an investment advisor to a fund, you do get approached by [00:22:00] lots of different organizations to sort of work together and we do in some cases, it's just finding the right synergies, you know, it's really simple.

Gurpreet Gujral: It's just, you know, there's got to be something in it for both. Um, and, and we can't do everything right. So, so like we're very conscious about that. And sometimes there are ways to work with others. Um, in general, I think. Um, the sort of climate or renewable energy industry in general could do probably a bit more, I'd say, certainly from, um, from a technology perspective.

Gurpreet Gujral: I think in this country, we were one of the first, right, to really pioneer, particularly wind, offshore wind, but, but actually, if you think about the actual number of companies, british companies kind of making wind turbines. There's not many at all. Um, I mean, it's, it's really dominated to be fair. It's really only dominated by three or four companies anyway.

Gurpreet Gujral: But, but, um, but you know, this market was one of the first markets and, and in this country, we're blessed with a lot of wind, right? [00:23:00] Like, especially, especially in the North sea. And so, so it is a natural place for us, I think, here to, to do well. Now there's other ways that you can, you can do well, right? You don't actually have to, um, be a British business to, to be supportive to the economy, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, businesses outside of the UK setting up a factory in the UK helps the economy, right? It's not, I, it's not the perfect way of doing things, but it does help. It's great for employment. It's great for clustering. It's great for, it's great for a number of things. But, but I think what we could do better here is, is, um, being more collaborative.

Gurpreet Gujral: And again, very cliche phrase, but, um, when, when you are, um, when you are operating in clusters, clusters being areas in, in the world where we're areas in a location where lots of businesses are set up. Like this is a classic case of a, of a cluster, right? Shortage, you know, very creative, lots of [00:24:00] people hanging out, talking to each other, working together.

Gurpreet Gujral: The city of London, the, the most, um, the best example of a cluster, right? Finance businesses, um, and, and all the ancillary businesses around that working together all within a square mile. We could do that, right? We could do that here in the UK with renewable energy, um, creating a cluster where, where you can, you can innovate and you can work together.

Gurpreet Gujral: And that's the only way that you, you, you start, um, an industry. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. Yeah. So that's amazing. And we need to move on to a quick five questions now because of the timing. So first one. Who are three British Asians that you'd love to shout out that you think are doing incredible work?

Gurpreet Gujral: Who I really sort of admire is the guys, what they're doing, the the team out at Khalsa Aid and Sikh SWAT teams.

Gurpreet Gujral: That's just fantastic, right? Like, I just think that brings our community up. You know, it's so great to see, um, young kids just out, um, you know, um, doing server, right. And, and it, and it's not just about doing this sort of international humanitarian kind of work [00:25:00] that, that Khalsa Aid have been so successful at doing, but, but also it's, it's the, the, the local teams, you know, whether it's an Ealing or in common garden or in, in Victoria, you see, you see young kids just helping out.

Gurpreet Gujral: And that, that's like, that's just brilliant. Whenever I see that, I think that's just fantastic. And we sure we should all be doing that. But, but, you know, what it does do is it, it, it, it opens people's minds. The amount of times that I've sat on a tube where someone just sat next to me and just said, you know, I know, I know about you guys, or the amount of homeless people that have just stopped me and just said, you know, thanks, thanks so much for, for what you've done.

Gurpreet Gujral: And I've done nothing, right? Like, but they, they, they see a sikh with a turbine and, and it, and it's, uh, they, they draw that link. And, and for me, that's, that's just fantastic. 

Amardeep Parmar: And then the next question is, so if people listen right now, want to like, you reach out to you for advice or find out more about what you're doing, where should they go to?

Amardeep Parmar: What can they ask you?

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, look, I mean, um, I'm on LinkedIn. That's probably the only social media thing that I'm on. So happy for, for anyone to, um, to reach [00:26:00] out. At Atrata, we're, we're trying to build our own initiative. Uh, that's to encourage, uh, females into STEM subjects. So something that we're slowly starting to build up and, you know, I'd like to, to push that initiative this year, particularly, so, uh, particularly in that niche.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so if, uh, if there's anyone in that, in that particular category that is interested in the STEM subjects, that needs help, whether it's mentoring or, or otherwise. Please do reach out. 

Amardeep Parmar: And then on the  other side, you need help with right now, that our trial team needs help with. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah,  it's just in our own hands, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Like, you know, I think we're doing okay. Um, you know, it's, it's always, it's always great to, to hear from, from potential customers that, that have an energy need in, in what we do, um, and, and that's solving energy problems. So, so happy to hear from, from anyone in that, in that space, particularly those in those kind of high energy intents.

Gurpreet Gujral: Businesses. 

Amardeep Parmar: So thanks so much for coming on. 

Gurpreet Gujral: No worries.

Amardeep Parmar: Hello. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. It means a huge amount [00:27:00] to us. And we don't think you realize how important you are because if you subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you leave us a five star review, it makes the world of difference. And if you believe in what we're trying to do here,

Amardeep Parmar: to inspire, connect and guide the next generation British Asians. If you do those things, you can help us achieve that mission and you can help us make a bigger impact. And by doing that, it means we can get bigger guests. We can host more events. We can do more for the community. So you can play a huge part.

Amardeep Parmar: So thank you so much for supporting us.

Gurpreet Gujral: [00:00:00] We save approximately 28, 000 tons of carbon emissions. That's the equivalent of powering about 50, 000 households.

Amardeep Parmar: And we're live. Today we have with us Gurpreet Gujral, who's the Managing Director of Renewable Energy at the Atrato Group. Can you explain to people What you actually do as a managing director of renewable energy. Like, what does that actually mean? 

Gurpreet Gujral: So Atrato Onsite Energy is an investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Gurpreet Gujral: It is a renewable energy investment trust. Uh, we focus on investing in solar projects across the UK. The, the mandate is, is very simple. Uh, strategies to invest in solar PV projects that connect directly into corporates. The reason why that's, uh, important is when you have your electricity bill, whether it's you or a big company like Tesco's, they effectively have two parts of their electricity bill, um, the commodity cost and the non commodity cost.

Gurpreet Gujral: The commodity cost is how much it costs to actually make the electricity. And in [00:01:00] this country, it's the cost of gas. Okay. So gas determines the price of electricity in this country, and then you have a non commodity cost and that's everything else. Uh, associated to obtaining electricity, and that's paying for the grid, paying for policy costs, paying for your supply margins and things like that.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, what we do is we disintermediate the non commodity cost. So we install solar PV systems on rooftops of large Tesco supermarkets, um, big car manufacturers, aerospace businesses, heavy industry. Uh, and we might be on their roofs of big warehouses or big factories, or we might be in adjacent lands where we have PV systems that are

Gurpreet Gujral: basically, I installed right next to the factory and then the private wire that goes straight in and ultimately what we're doing is we're saving big corporates a lot of money on their electricity bill by, by just delivering them electricity through our PV systems. So it's a clean, so there's a lot of green kudos that goes with it.

Gurpreet Gujral: But one of the key drivers, especially now in this kind of energy climate is saving, saving companies, [00:02:00] which ultimately should feed into individuals who are buying, buying stuff from these companies with lower bills. So that's, that's the kind of mandate of the fund. It's, it's pretty unique in the sense that most other renewable energy funds, whether it's run by Macquarie or Blackrock or Blackstone or 3i or whoever, tend to be more focused on very large grid connected projects.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, so these are big solar farms or big wind farms or offshore wind farms. Whereas our focus is very niche in that we're focusing on those private wire installations. So it's onsite energy generation systems. So that's, that's the funds. That's the mandate. The investment trust itself is, is essentially an SPV with no employees, just assets and money.

Gurpreet Gujral: I work for, um, the investment advisory group called ATRATO. Before I joined was essentially managing a real estate fund. And then I joined to set up the renewable energy franchise, which our first fund was the, the onsite energy fund, which we IPO'd on the stock exchange in November, 2021. I joined in January, spent best part of [00:03:00] 2021 building a team, building a strategy, going out, meeting investors, and then launching the IPO, which we successfully could be completed at the end of the year.

Gurpreet Gujral: 

Amardeep Parmar: What attracted you to the project in the first place? Like, why did you want to go into this Renewable energy space?

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so I've been in renewables right, right from the beginning, right? So, so ever since university, always in the sort of investment banking context, uh, worked for various different banks.

Gurpreet Gujral: Spent most of my career at a bank called Macquarie, which is a large Australian infrastructure specialist bank, uh, always worked within renewable energy. Why renewable energy? Uh, well, it's a good question. I mean, it wasn't something that, you know, when I was a kid, I was always dreaming about, right? Like it's, it's, it's, it wasn't anything like that.

Gurpreet Gujral: I guess I, I started off being an equity analyst for, uh, for a bank. Uh, my boss, um, this was basically a research analyst and our job as a research analyst is to to write, uh, write publications on companies and giving investors recommendations on whether they should buy sell or hold a stock. And at the time, my boss asked me to sort of cover this really small, at time penny stock [00:04:00] and they made fuel cells. right.

Gurpreet Gujral: And this is, this is going back, right. 15 years or so. And they had just IPO it was a, it was a kind of a, a very much a, you know, a startup business. I think at the time they had a core technology with good people and they asked me to cover it. My first note. You know, as the lead analyst, just a kid out of uni published it, got a lot of traction.

Gurpreet Gujral: Suddenly realized that actually there weren't that many people covering renewable energy stocks. Like there was lots of people doing telcos, dot com, lots of bank analysts, lots of other analysts, but actually the sort of alternative energy or renewable energy space, just there wasn't really anyone dedicated on it.

Gurpreet Gujral: And the firm that I worked for gave me the sort of you know, it's quite cliche and cheesy to say about the platform, right? They just said, go, go run with it. And, you know, as a young analyst, if, if you get the chance to be the lead analyst, cause normally you sort of, you report up to someone who's the lead analyst, and then you work your way up.

Gurpreet Gujral: They gave me the chance to just run with it. And then, yeah, I just, I guess I just, um, built a little, um, a little franchise out of that. [00:05:00] Um, and, uh, and then a few years ago, I got asked to move across to, um, the, the kind of principal investment team at Macquarie, uh, which is where they use the, um, the bank's balance sheet to invest and develop projects.

Gurpreet Gujral: So real assets and not looking at stocks, but actually investing in real, real infrastructure projects, whether it's offshore wind farms, solar PV projects. Energy from waste, spent some time there and then got talking to, uh, I got introduced to Atrato. They, they, they had ambitions to set up their second fund.

Gurpreet Gujral: They didn't really at that time have a huge amount of experience in the renewable space because they were all kind of real estate folk and had built a fantastic fund, which is also listed in the real estate space. And, you know, this particular niche I don't think was ever focused on by many of the big funds.

Gurpreet Gujral: So it just gave us a bit of an opening and it was, you know, it got a lot of traction when we went out and met investors, it resonated with folk, made a lot of sense. It's the world's easiest sell. You [00:06:00] go to a corporate, you say to them, what's, you know, from an energy perspective, what, what are the two, two or three key things that's bugging you from an energy perspective?

Gurpreet Gujral: It's the price, it's the volatility and it's dirty. All right. Our solution is really simple. We give you cheaper electricity. That's at a fixed price and it's clean. So it's really simple.

Amardeep Parmar: So like today, like a lot more people are trying to get involved in the new energy from the, because the climate is obviously much bigger a topic maybe than when you started, right?

Amardeep Parmar:  So the same people listening right now, maybe you're thinking they want to make a difference somewhere in the climate tech space. They're trying to look at what the opportunities are. How do they get involved in that world? What advice would you have for somebody who maybe wants to get involved in climate, wants to get involved in this space, but maybe doesn't exactly know where they should go yet?

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, look, I mean, it's, it's such a big industry, right? You can, you can get into this, the industries through so many different ways, whether it's from a finance perspective, whether it's from an engineering perspective, whether it's from project management, there's just so many different facets of the industry.

Gurpreet Gujral: The best advice that I [00:07:00] could give, you know, people always talk about, it's not what you know, but who you know. It's what you know, right? Like it really is what you know, forget about who you know. Right? You're a kid coming through university. You're trying to break into the industry. Someone that you might know might may open the door for you to get an interview or get through that door.

Gurpreet Gujral: But, but it's what you know. Right. So, so it is, it is very, it is about kind of understanding the content, understanding how it works. That doesn't mean that you have to get a degree in this subject. Like you can learn. 

Amardeep Parmar:  You did that, right? You, you did a master's. Yeah.

Gurpreet Gujral: I did a finance, I did a finance degree. I did a finance degree.

Gurpreet Gujral: And so it was very cliche kind of business type, you know, finance, stayed on uni to do a master's, uh, in a more kind of specialized finance degree. Um, started working and then a new course, uh, masters opened up at Oxford in sustainability. I was the first cohort to join, [00:08:00] managed to get on the course. It was, it was whilst I was working.

Gurpreet Gujral: So it was pretty neat and work helped me out, you know, you know, with the fees and stuff. So, but I had already got, you know, kind of a few years of experience in, in sustainability and renewable energy. But like I said, it's not about going, going to the right school. It's not about getting that degree in that specific space.

Gurpreet Gujral: You can learn so much, um, without it, but, but you need to know the content and it is one of those technical degree, uh, technical subject matters, right? So, so you do need to, to kind of, to, to understand it. And when you understand something, then you can command presence in a conversation. You can, you can solve problems.

Gurpreet Gujral: Because you've got the background, right? And you're not waiting for someone to give you the answer. So, so, you know, if you're, if you're coming into any industry, right, it doesn't, it doesn't matter if it's finance or renewable energy, it's, it's, um, you know, just mastering it and understanding it and just spending time, you know, just spending time learning it.

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah, it's a good  point as well, because I think a lot of people might, for example, be going for like advocacy, right? Where they talk about a [00:09:00] subject or they try to encourage other people to do it. But like I said, if you've got that technical knowledge and scientific knowledge. You can make more of a direct impact yourself on the, like in the industry, for example, right?

Amardeep Parmar: Because what you're doing now, say, for example, by having those solar panels on those big supermarkets and those big car parks, then how much energy is being saved there that would normally be made in other ways, right? So that makes a huge impact because you've got that background, we're doing it through the industry as opposed to maybe just

Amardeep Parmar: going like, for example, you're doing today, right? You could be telling people to go and make change, but you're being part of the change yourself. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, no, and that's, that's great. I'm really privileged to be part of that, right? Like being able to actually make an impact. Um, and that's just through the support of, of the, of the investors that we got, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so we raised 150 million pounds in November. There was, we had a really strong appetite. We could have raised a lot more. We, we maintained our position. We, we, we didn't want to raise too much money with investment trusts. Um, the, the, the thing, the difference between a public [00:10:00] investment trust and a, and a private equity fund is that when, when you raise money from a, in, in, in the public markets, you actually receive the money.

Gurpreet Gujral: So it's in your bank account, right? Or it's in the, in the funds bank account, it takes time to invest. And if that money is just sitting there. Just not generating that much interest right now is generating a lot of interest because of the market. But back then, you know, you're not earning much. And so, so we had to, we had to be pretty disciplined about that.

Gurpreet Gujral: And, um, and, and being able to, to deploy that money and invest that money, which we have now into projects that actually is making a real difference. Um, you know, is actually, and we, and we track all of that, right? We track how many carbon emissions we're saving. What the, what the equivalent is in terms of planting trees and the numbers just getting bigger and bigger.

Amardeep Parmar: Can you give us some examples  of some of those numbers? 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah. We save approximately 28, 000 tons of carbon emissions. That's the equivalent of, of powering about 50, 000 households. 

Amardeep Parmar: Hey everyone. I hope you're enjoying this episode so far. The BAE HQ has a [00:11:00] podcast. But we're so much more than that. So if you want to find out about all the events we've got going on, all the different ways you can meet each other, as well as resources to help you build the business of your dreams, then check out the link in the show notes, sign up to our newsletter, where you get a weekly roundup, which we like to call the BAE letter that will keep you in the loop.

Amardeep Parmar: If you want to help us out, the best thing you can possibly do is sign up to our newsletter and share it with your friends. So that's enough from me. Now let's get back to the show. 

Amardeep Parmar: And obviously like the fund has been going only for a short time so far. What's the ambition? Like what's the, what impact do I make over time?

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so, um, yes, you're right. We, we launched in, in, um, over 18 months ago. Now, um, we're now at a position where we've deployed and invested the capital. Um, we've got a couple of big projects being built out and will be commissioned over the next few months. Um, the ambition is to grow, uh, to grow the fund. Um, look, um, you know, we, we think this, this genuinely has the capability of [00:12:00] being a FTSE 250 business, will raise more capital, um, probably in the same kind of order, 100 to 150 million pounds.

Gurpreet Gujral: And then the cycle just, uh, turns again. So, so we then spend that money, invest that money, continue to build a portfolio and then raise again and raise again. So over the course of the next four or five years, you know, being above a billion pounds of market cap is the, is the target. 

Amardeep Parmar: Obviously that's a huge goal, right?

Amardeep Parmar: But then you're on the path to doing that. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yep. 

Amardeep Parmar:  And what have been some of the challenges that you said, like when you went to go and raise capital, because so many people are interested in the climate right now, you said it was easy, but how, is that being very modest or what was the challenge?

Gurpreet Gujral:  At the time it wasn't easy, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Looking back, it was, it was a good time to raise capital. Um, the market in 2021 was, was, uh, it was very much a bull market. And, and so we, we did raise money at the top of the top of the market. I think it's fair to say at the time it certainly wasn't easy. I think I, I met in, in the course of, um, the roadshow, the IPO roadshow, maybe 80 to [00:13:00] 90 investors in, in the space of three weeks, two weeks leading up to that, you know, we're preparing a presentation, which probably had about 60 to 70 turns, different iterations, you know, you know, you've, you've, you've got to manage accountants, you've got to manage the tax lawyers, you've got to manage the lawyers, you've got to manage your brokers.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, you know, and, and build a team and an infrastructure. So, so no, it was, it was, it was. It was, it was a hard slog having a really simple message, a really simple story that happens to, to fit the market at the time. And that's just luck, right? Helps. And just obviously having a really good team, um, like the, the Atrato team are fantastic.

Gurpreet Gujral: They've done it once before, had a lot of track record with those same investors, which, which meant it was far easier reaching out to the same folk and kind of presenting a story, hearing their feedback, tweaking it. Presenting it again, hearing their feedback. So from, from January through to, um, I think August, [00:14:00] we spent a lot of time fine tuning the message.

Gurpreet Gujral: And then we went out in, I think, October, did three weeks and kind of doing seven, eight meetings a day. Same thing, hour, hour, you know, same thing. A lot, all of it on, on Zoom and Teams. So no, no, no real face to face messages. So that was that, um, that was weird, but, but really efficient because you could just, you know, there was no, there was no time in between meetings.

Gurpreet Gujral: You just went straight to the next one, straight to the next one. So, so it meant that we could cover a lot of ground. Um, and now since then I've been going around meeting everyone, uh, for the first time, so it's been great. It's, it's the world's easiest sell. We say, we say as a bit of a joke, but it's, it's, it's not really.

Gurpreet Gujral: It ticks a lot of boxes, but, but one thing that, that it makes it very difficult is that what you're, what you're asking a corporate do is commit to buying energy from your PV system for 20 years. And they're not used to that, right? They're just not used to that. Right. So, so there's a, there is a bit of a mind shift there, but, but some of the corporates that we've already engaged with, they're obviously progressive in their space.

Gurpreet Gujral: [00:15:00] They, they, they understand it, uh, it's made it, made it, you know, we eventually got there. So we deployed the capital and now we, we go back. 

Amardeep Parmar: So obviously in your role as managing director as well, because that's different. It's raised what you've done before, but it's going to be different in terms of the pressure and raising the fund.

Amardeep Parmar: What's been the biggest challenge for you other than actually raising the capital  itself?

Gurpreet Gujral: There's lots of challenges every day. There's, there's something that comes up, right? I mean, building the right team. You know, super important, you know, I've been really lucky with the people that we've hired, um, some, some of the folk that I've known before, some new, new people that have joined, so that, that, that's super important to have that because, you know, there's, there's now about 10 of us and, and, you know, we've all got our own kind of disciplines and, you know, they've got a, they've, they've been fantastic.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, so, but finding those people is hard. 

Amardeep Parmar:How did you find them? 

Gurpreet Gujral:  Some, some, some of the folk I know are new from previous, previous, um, experiences, uh, worked with them before, been on transactions with them before, and some folk just, just [00:16:00] through kind of normal, you know. Interview processes. And so, um, and you generally get a good feel for, for, for, you know, who's going to fit into the team that's been hard, but, but been worked out okay for us.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, and then just building the infrastructure, right? So, so all of a sudden you're, you're kind of running a public fund that, that, that requires a huge amount of process and a huge amount of set standards because it's other people's money, right? That you're dealing with. And, um, and so, so, so having that plumbing in place beforehand is super important.

Gurpreet Gujral: That's been a challenge. But as I said, um, when I joined Detroiter, they'd done it once before, they know how to do it. And so that kind of, again, really cliche, cheesy phrase, but you know, that platform kind of, kind of helps, right. From not just from a, from an investment perspective, but from a compliance perspective, from a HR perspective, from, uh, from an ESG perspective and, and, and all of that.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so having that base is super important. Because, because it could all go wrong, right? If you get one thing [00:17:00] wrong from a compliance point of view, from a legal perspective. So, so you need to have that space or place to, to, to kind of allow you to grow. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. And like I said, like a lot of your clients at the moment are corporates, right?

Gurpreet Gujral:Yeah.

Amardeep Parmar: Like large corporates. If there's people now who may be at those kinds of companies, right? Who are liking what you're doing. And they think maybe their company should be involved, or are you very specifically looking at certain times, because at the moment it says supermarkets, and I think you said car garages, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Car manufacturing facilities. So, so, so, yeah, I mean, big, big, uh, big, uh, factories. Uh, so, so we've got a project up in, uh, Sunderland right now, uh, the Nissan factory. Um, so, so we're, we're putting 20 megawatts of, uh, Uh, solar PV systems, um, uh, Nissan's factory up in Sunderland's one of the biggest in Europe, I think, uh, will be energizing about 10 percent of that plant from, from our solar PV system.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, um, so, so any, anywhere where there is, um, a huge amount of electricity consumption, so we don't tend to do offices or hotels just because, uh, the [00:18:00] space, uh, is not conducive and, and the energy intensity within the, in the space is, is not, is not ideal. So we tend to, to, to focus on those bigger kind of drinks, manufacturers, food, beverages, businesses, um, and they consume a hell of a lot of electricity, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Tesco's or Sainsbury's or Marks and Spencers, um, they consume a lot of energy cause, cause they have, um, chillers, um, in place and, and, you know, and they've got big rooftop spaces. So it makes a lot of sense. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. And is it primarily UK focused at the moment, right? 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, it's a UK Ireland fund. We had the mandate to go to, um, to OECD countries.

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, we, we always said we'd, we'd, we'd start to, to think about that in year two or year three. Fortunately, a lot of our customers in place right now are, you know, have pres, have a presence out in, in Europe and other places. So, so we've, we've started that dialogue, but again, it's just having the right team, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: You can't, you can't do that without having people in the market, in, in the location. And so, so, you know, that, that eventually will be our next step. 

Amardeep Parmar: So would you say in some ways that you could expand [00:19:00] faster than you are, but you're trying to do it through the right steps by because getting the right team in place first.

Gurpreet Gujral: Yep. 

Amardeep Parmar: Because I think a lot of people, for example, they think so much about expansion, but then they can then run into problems. And there's so many examples of this in the past of where say, for example, some of the supermarkets have tried to expand abroad, but they didn't have the local teams understood the market there.

Amardeep Parmar: And they then had to retreat and waste a lot of money. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yep. 

Amardeep Parmar: So is that something you're very consciously doing in terms of your planning? 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, I think so. Maybe it's in the subconscious rather than, you know, something that's conscious. But, you know, we all, we all have a finite bandwidth, right? Right. And we're trying to build a fund here that, that's, well, it is a permanent capital vehicle, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so the fund itself is, is, is an investment trust. So, so, so. Um, the capital stays within the fund forever. If an investor wants to sell out, they sell their shares on the stock market, right? Just like any other stock. So, so, so the, so the, the very nature of the fund is that it, it's a long term, highly contracted fund.

Gurpreet Gujral: And what I mean by that [00:20:00] is, um, when we're selling electricity, we sell typically on a fixed basis. So, so we don't have the same level of exposure to the merchant curve. We call it the merchant curve. The merchant curve is, is basically the spot market, the wholesale energy market. And that's dictated by the gas price, which has nothing to do with solar PV.

Gurpreet Gujral: Right. So, so our goal was to create a fund that, that is, is, is not correlated or exposed in, in a significant way to, to the merchant curve, um, because we want to be out there for the long term. And, and, and it's the same for our growth strategy, right? Like, you know, we want to grow, um, we want to grow, we're really, really aggressive, but, but we've got to do that in a really measured way.

Amardeep Parmar:Yeah. And obviously it's  important, right? Because if you're using people's, the funding you've got in place. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah. 

Amardeep Parmar: Then you don't want to just, Oh, we need to spend it. It's got to be used in the right way. And I said there as well that you wanted to deploy the cups in the first year, but it took a bit longer because you made sure that you used in the right way.

Amardeep Parmar: And that's, at the end of the day, people rather use the money correctly and make a return for them. Then you spend it quickly, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: No, [00:21:00] absolutely. That's, that's one of the, you know, we're, we're really lucky. We've got some really, really supportive shareholders. Um, when we came back. When we came back to the market after, um, after our first four years results, we had to say to them, look, you know, it's taking, taking longer than we expected a number of reasons, macro reasons, but also, um, other reasons.

Gurpreet Gujral: And, um, the, the investors, uh, said, said exactly that. Right. We'd prefer you to spend the money sensibly than just invest it for the sake of it. And so, so, so that gave us the, I guess, the, the, the, the, you know, the confidence, um, to, to do that. And yeah, I think we, I think we invested everything by, by April.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so it was, it was all good. 

Amardeep Parmar: And in the climate space generally as well, have you seen many organizations trying to help each other out? And what's that kind of system? Like, so let's say there's somebody else for the organization right now that's in the climate space. Do you see many collaborations or how can that be fostered more? 

Gurpreet Gujral: As, as an investment advisor to a fund, you do get approached by [00:22:00] lots of different organizations to sort of work together and we do in some cases, it's just finding the right synergies, you know, it's really simple.

Gurpreet Gujral: It's just, you know, there's got to be something in it for both. Um, and, and we can't do everything right. So, so like we're very conscious about that. And sometimes there are ways to work with others. Um, in general, I think. Um, the sort of climate or renewable energy industry in general could do probably a bit more, I'd say, certainly from, um, from a technology perspective.

Gurpreet Gujral: I think in this country, we were one of the first, right, to really pioneer, particularly wind, offshore wind, but, but actually, if you think about the actual number of companies, british companies kind of making wind turbines. There's not many at all. Um, I mean, it's, it's really dominated to be fair. It's really only dominated by three or four companies anyway.

Gurpreet Gujral: But, but, um, but you know, this market was one of the first markets and, and in this country, we're blessed with a lot of wind, right? [00:23:00] Like, especially, especially in the North sea. And so, so it is a natural place for us, I think, here to, to do well. Now there's other ways that you can, you can do well, right? You don't actually have to, um, be a British business to, to be supportive to the economy, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Um, businesses outside of the UK setting up a factory in the UK helps the economy, right? It's not, I, it's not the perfect way of doing things, but it does help. It's great for employment. It's great for clustering. It's great for, it's great for a number of things. But, but I think what we could do better here is, is, um, being more collaborative.

Gurpreet Gujral: And again, very cliche phrase, but, um, when, when you are, um, when you are operating in clusters, clusters being areas in, in the world where we're areas in a location where lots of businesses are set up. Like this is a classic case of a, of a cluster, right? Shortage, you know, very creative, lots of [00:24:00] people hanging out, talking to each other, working together.

Gurpreet Gujral: The city of London, the, the most, um, the best example of a cluster, right? Finance businesses, um, and, and all the ancillary businesses around that working together all within a square mile. We could do that, right? We could do that here in the UK with renewable energy, um, creating a cluster where, where you can, you can innovate and you can work together.

Gurpreet Gujral: And that's the only way that you, you, you start, um, an industry. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. Yeah. So that's amazing. And we need to move on to a quick five questions now because of the timing. So first one. Who are three British Asians that you'd love to shout out that you think are doing incredible work?

Gurpreet Gujral: Who I really sort of admire is the guys, what they're doing, the the team out at Khalsa Aid and Sikh SWAT teams.

Gurpreet Gujral: That's just fantastic, right? Like, I just think that brings our community up. You know, it's so great to see, um, young kids just out, um, you know, um, doing server, right. And, and it, and it's not just about doing this sort of international humanitarian kind of work [00:25:00] that, that Khalsa Aid have been so successful at doing, but, but also it's, it's the, the, the local teams, you know, whether it's an Ealing or in common garden or in, in Victoria, you see, you see young kids just helping out.

Gurpreet Gujral: And that, that's like, that's just brilliant. Whenever I see that, I think that's just fantastic. And we sure we should all be doing that. But, but, you know, what it does do is it, it, it, it opens people's minds. The amount of times that I've sat on a tube where someone just sat next to me and just said, you know, I know, I know about you guys, or the amount of homeless people that have just stopped me and just said, you know, thanks, thanks so much for, for what you've done.

Gurpreet Gujral: And I've done nothing, right? Like, but they, they, they see a sikh with a turbine and, and it, and it's, uh, they, they draw that link. And, and for me, that's, that's just fantastic. 

Amardeep Parmar: And then the next question is, so if people listen right now, want to like, you reach out to you for advice or find out more about what you're doing, where should they go to?

Amardeep Parmar: What can they ask you?

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah, look, I mean, um, I'm on LinkedIn. That's probably the only social media thing that I'm on. So happy for, for anyone to, um, to reach [00:26:00] out. At Atrata, we're, we're trying to build our own initiative. Uh, that's to encourage, uh, females into STEM subjects. So something that we're slowly starting to build up and, you know, I'd like to, to push that initiative this year, particularly, so, uh, particularly in that niche.

Gurpreet Gujral: So, so if, uh, if there's anyone in that, in that particular category that is interested in the STEM subjects, that needs help, whether it's mentoring or, or otherwise. Please do reach out. 

Amardeep Parmar: And then on the  other side, you need help with right now, that our trial team needs help with. 

Gurpreet Gujral: Yeah,  it's just in our own hands, right?

Gurpreet Gujral: Like, you know, I think we're doing okay. Um, you know, it's, it's always, it's always great to, to hear from, from potential customers that, that have an energy need in, in what we do, um, and, and that's solving energy problems. So, so happy to hear from, from anyone in that, in that space, particularly those in those kind of high energy intents.

Gurpreet Gujral: Businesses. 

Amardeep Parmar: So thanks so much for coming on. 

Gurpreet Gujral: No worries.

Amardeep Parmar: Hello. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. It means a huge amount [00:27:00] to us. And we don't think you realize how important you are because if you subscribe to our YouTube channel, if you leave us a five star review, it makes the world of difference. And if you believe in what we're trying to do here,

Amardeep Parmar: to inspire, connect and guide the next generation British Asians. If you do those things, you can help us achieve that mission and you can help us make a bigger impact. And by doing that, it means we can get bigger guests. We can host more events. We can do more for the community. So you can play a huge part.

Amardeep Parmar: So thank you so much for supporting us.

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