Lumenaza raises €6.5M Series B from First Imagine and Tom Wolf
Smart green utility-in-a-box: Today Lumenaza announces the successful closing of their €6.5M Series B, led by First Imagine and the family office of Tom Wolf. The existing investors Future Energy Ventures and IBB Ventures made follow-on investments while EnBW New Ventures exited after a holding period of 5 years. The new capital enables the Berlin-based startup to accelerate its growth and international expansion and further develop its energy-as-a-service platform and services. Lumenaza is specialised in enabling new utilities and energy communities. Customers include E.ON, SMA and Envision Digital and partners include Greencom Networks. The software-as-a-service startup pitched at Ecosummit Berlin 2014 for the first time and, recently, at Ecosummit Zoom 3 November 2020 and Ecosummit Zoom 21 April 2021.
Read moreEcoIntense rounds up 22 million euro cash injection
One Peak Partners and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital are on board. Together, the private equity firms invest 22 million euros in Berlin-based EcoIntense. The late stage software startup has been cashflow positive since 2012 and even debt free since 2014. But “it’s almost like an old saying: you should have a financing round, when you don’t need any cash,” Markus Becker, Co-founder of EcoIntense explained his reason for raising capital anyhow.
Read moreRelayr raises $23M Series B from Munich RE/HSB Ventures, KPCB and Munich Venture Partners
The Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and the insurance industry are coming together. Berlin-based IoT startup Relayr raises $23M (€20.7M) Series B from Munich RE/HSB Ventures, KPCB and Munich Venture Partners. It turns out that the industrial insurance company Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB), since 2009 part of Munich RE, has started to embrace IoT a while ago to make their life easier and insurance business smarter. In a nutshell, HSB insures manufacturing companies against the risk of equipment breakdown and other reasons for suboptimal factory performance. By making the machines smart and connecting them to the Relayr cloud, their health status can be monitored online. If the automated machine data analysis identifies any problems, the malfunctioning machines can be repaired or replaced before it is too late and the production line has to be put on hold without knowing why.
Read moreAndreas Spiess pitches Solarkiosk at ECO15 Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Andreas Spiess pitches Solarkiosk at ECO15 Berlin. The Berlin-based smart green startup operates Solarkiosks designed by Graft in emerging markets and targets people living in offgrid communities at the Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP). By the end of 2015, 200 Solarkiosks will be online in 7 countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Nigeria). Founded in 2011, Solarkiosk has got over 60 employees, raised more than €10M and will be fundraising in 2016 looking for the best impact investors and VCs that believe in the tremendous business opportunities in emerging markets. Solarkiosk’s ultimate goal are 300.000 Solarkiosks in Africa, Asia and South America. Solarkiosk is one of the most exciting startups in Europe and a superb impact investment opportunity.
Read moreThermondo raises €6M Series B from Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures, E.ON, IBB and Grey Corp
“We only raise as much capital as we need to reach the next company growth and valuation milestone,” says Thermondo‘s CEO Philipp Pausder. In fact, that’s a pretty smart fundraising strategy that ensures the founders do not sell off their company too quickly before substantial value has been created with the help of the current financing round. Today, the Berlin-based late stage startup announced their €6M Series B that they collected from Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures, E.ON, IBB and Grey Corp. Thermondo sells heating systems online and dispatches internal teams from 12 cities to every corner in Germany to install the units at the customers’ premises. Learning from Solarcity, Thermondo decided a while ago to vertically integrate the installation process in order to manage it digitally and minimise process costs.
Read moreFelix Grolman pitches Grundgrün
Ecosummit TV: Felix Grolman pitches Grundgrün at ECO14 Berlin. The Berlin-based startup is building a next generation smart green utility focusing 100% on renewable energy. Grundgrün’s core business is the direct marketing of renewable energy assets that they sell on short-term, long-term and balancing markets as well as directly to households and companies. The key to their success is an integrated IT infrastructure that enables sourcing, trading and distribution of energy as well as innovative energy services such as virtual power plants and production forecasting. Founded in 2011, Grundgrün is a fast-growing late stage startup with a team of 65 employees and backed by the family office Aeris Capital. Grundgrün is currently fundraising to further accelerate growth in Germany and new international markets.
Read moreSilvan Rath pitches ParkTAG
Ecosummit TV: Parking is big: every drive starts and ends in a parking space. Moreover, cars are parked 95% of the day and 30% of urban traffic is caused by drivers looking for parking. Having developed a mobile solution to the parking problem, Silvan Rath pitches ParkTAG at ECO14 Berlin. ParkTAG operates a social parking community that enables car drivers to find available parking places with their smartphones. The ParkTAG app uses the built-in sensors of the device to track user movement and learns automatically when the user is parking a car or vacating a parking space and driving away. The Berlin-based early stage startup was founded in 2014 and is backed by High-Tech Gründerfonds, Germany’s leading seed investor. ParkTAG’s capital efficient business model is to license its smart parking technology to partners that market it to their customers.
Read moreAlex Farcet pitches Startupbootcamp and its smart transportation and energy accelerator
Ecosummit TV: Alex Farcet pitches Startupbootcamp and its smart transportation and energy accelerator at ECO14 Berlin. While corporate accelerators are mushrooming in the US and Europe, Startupbootcamp is an independent accelerator founded in 2010 that runs 3-month programmes focused on verticals in several cities including Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Berlin. The idea is to give startups the best possible start by providing €20K for 8% equity, intensive workshops with mentors on product and customer development and a final pitch in a room packed with investors. SBCBerlin‘s smart transportation and energy demo day was a big show and featured 11 young startups raising seed rounds from angels. Sunride, Comodule, Rokka Solutions, Houseahedron and Mybus have great teams that are ready for closer inspection. According to Alex, a good accelerator acts like a co-founder and adds a lot of measurable value in a short period of time. The startups we met all confirmed that Startupbootcamp and its mentors delivered on their promises. However, for smart green startups 3 months are rather short to reach product/market fit. It may be worthwhile to double the programme length in future editions.
Read moreStephan Schulze and Konstantin Hanssen present Investitionsbank Berlin
Ecosummit TV: According to Stephan Schulze of IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Berlin is a smart green business location for startups that has changed tremendously during the last 25 years. In fact, we count more than 30 fundable smart green startups in Berlin of which 5 are backed by IBB: Ubitricity, Thermondo, Geo-en, ECF Farmsystems and Qinous. IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft was founded in 1997 as a 100% subsidiary of Investitionsbank Berlin, the business development bank of Berlin. Next to venture capital, IBB provides a lot of support to SMEs including grants, public loans, bank credits, guarantees and mezzanine capital. IBB is a well-connected local business partner that always keeps their door open for ambitious founders based in Berlin or planning to relocate.
Read moreKnut Hechtfischer pitches Ubitricity at Ecosummit Berlin 2014
Ecosummit TV: Although he didn’t leave our sponsor dinner as the first guest the night before, Knut Hechtfischer delivered his best pitch at ECO14 Berlin so far. Ubitricity has got a great story that is acknowledged by an increasing number of VCs and industry experts. This year Ubitricity entered Cleantech Group’s 2014 Global Cleantech 100 – next to 7 more startups that pitched at Ecosummit in the past. Moreover, the Berlin-based smart green startup won EDF Germany as strategic investor and has got a product ready for market. Ubitricity wants to make smart charging affordable by enabling mobile metering in the virtual power grid. They bring together electric mobility and mobile electricity in a very simple, yet powerful way. The key idea is to put the intelligence into the charging cable. This allows for a cost reduction of 90% when installing smart sockets (thin charging stations) in street lights, garages and any other place you can imagine. In 2015, Ubitricity rolls out in Germany and we are curious to see how EV drivers, fleet operators, municipalities and utilities adopt this smart charging service.
Read moreFelix Krause pitches Milk the Sun
Ecosummit TV: Felix Krause pitches Milk the Sun at ECO13 London. Since their launch at ECO12 Berlin the German startup made a lot of progress in a very short period of time. Milk the Sun rolled out globally their online marketplace for PV systems that matches old investors (sellers) and new investors (buyers) of existing or planned PV assets by creating a so-called secondary market. More than 1 GW in PV projects looking for new investors are listed on the web-based platform. This brings liquidity to a large but intransparent market where feed-in-tariffs and investments are valid for 20 years. In January 2014, Milk the Sun raised a seed round from Gründerfonds Münsterland (managed by Ecapital) and co-investor Howaldt Energies. As Milk the Sun is cash-flow positive since 2013 we expect a lot more interest from European cleantech VCs in their next round.
Read moreFranz Salzmann pitches Lock8 – the Airbnb for bicycles
Ecosummit TV: Franz Salzmann pitches Lock8 at ECO13 London. Their bikes got stolen frequently at Oxford University. To solve this problem, Franz Salzmann and his co-founder Daniel Zajarias-Fainsod developed Lock8, a sensor smart, GPS tracked and online bicycle lock. The Lock8 app locates available bicycles and functions as the wireless key for the smart lock – all you need to build a global Airbnb for bicycles. Berlin-based Christophe Maire (Atlantic Internet) invested early, followed by a couple of million Euro from Horizons Ventures in Hong Kong and Otto Capital. Lock8 is a cool product that works well on Kickstarter to aggregate pre-orders and safe cycling enthusiasts. All set for a successful market launch.
Read moreOliver Luenstedt pitches Carzapp from Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Oliver Lünstedt pitches Carzapp at ECO13 Berlin. While there are now 4 p2p car sharing startups in the German market, Carzapp is the first one to have developed their own hardware solution called ZappKit. The ZappKit enables wireless car access with smartphones used as digital keys. The magic hardware box also includes GPS and an immobiliser that prevents theft. While Carzapp is about to start their beta test in Berlin, they also offer their ZappKit to companies with significant car fleets they want to share. The B2B business of Carzapp is bound to grow quickly as the ZappKit is pretty price competitive. Carzapp is backed by angels and raised €250K in a crowdfunding round on Seedmatch earlier this year. Now Carzapp looks for fresh money to accelerate its growth. Meet Oliver at ECO13 London to get an update and talk smart green business.
Read moreKnut Hechtfischer pitches Ubitricity
Ecosummit TV: Knut Hechtfischer pitches Ubitricity at ECO13 Berlin. The Berlin-based cleantech startup develops a cost-efficient charging solution for electric vehicles by putting the intelligence into the charging cable. This allows mobile metering wherever the user wants to buy electricity from. Recently, they became famous for integrating their solution in street lights. Up to now, Ubitricity raised €5.4M and is backed by Earlybird, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft and Heinz Dürr (largest shareholder of Dürr, former CEO of AEG and Deutsche Bahn). Founded in 2008, Ubitricity plans to launch Mobile Metering in 2014, just-in-time when new electric cars hit the market. Meet Knut at ECO13 London next week to get an update and learn about their high risk, high return investment opportunity. That’s what venture capital is all about, isn’t it?
Read morePhilipp Pausder pitches Thermondo (heizkosten-senken.de)
Philipp Pausder, CEO of Thermondo (formerly known as FutureWatt), pitches their new online portal for heating cost reduction at ECO13 Berlin. The idea is to make buying heat as simple as buying electricity. At the same time, heating is often neglected in the discussion about the Energiewende (energy transition). In fact, consumers can save a lot of money and energy when they buy a new heating system and move from oil to gas or wood pellets. Combined heat and power (CHP) is a big trend in the consumer market, too. Most steps in the purchase process can be organised online before a plumber comes to your house to install the new heating system. Philipp is very happy with their traction and they just closed their seed round. But the heating e-commerce business will need more venture capital to grow, so put Thermondo on your watch list and get in touch.
Read moreNiels Beisinghoff pitches Bettertaxi
Ecosummit TV: Niels Beisinghoff pitches Bettertaxi at Ecosummit Berlin 2013. The Berlin-based smart green startup enters a crowded market of mobility apps and competes directly with Mytaxi. However, Bettertaxi connects to existing taxi dispatch centres and works everywhere in Germany. They also want to enable taxi ride sharing to make taxi mobility cheaper and greener. This is a cool idea which we had back in 2010 when we envisioned Sustainable Social Mobility (Weniger Autos ist mehr). Now Bettertaxi wants to raise €500K to accelerate its growth. Check out their iPhone and Android app to find out which one is the best taxi service in Germany. The ultimate goal are ubiquitous shared electric taxis. That’s what smart green cities really need.
Read moreAndreas Spiess pitches Solarkiosk from Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Andreas Spiess wants to bridge the energy divide in Africa as it is the biggest roadblock for development. At ECO13 Berlin, he pitches Solarkiosk that targets 800 million Africans without access to energy. The Berlin-based cleantech startup develops and operates Solarkiosks to provide solar-powered local commerce hubs to offgrid communities. Their vision are entire smart green villages powered by renewable energies. Up to now, Solarkiosk runs 7 sunshops in Ethiopia and 5 in Kenya and has got one year of experience in the field. Having invested €5M Solarkiosk now wants to raise a big VC round to reach the milestone of 100 Solarkiosks in operation. In my opinion, this startup is one of the most exciting I have seen so far, not only because I was born in Nairobi. In fact, I encourage all of us to get involved in at least one renewable energy project in developing countries. Solarkiosk is an obvious candidate.
Read moreChristopher Schlaeffer pitches Yetu from Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Christopher Schlaeffer pitches Yetu at ECO13 Berlin. The Berlin-based startup develops an open smart home platform that they license as a service to utilities and telecoms. Christopher left Deutsche Telekom to found Yetu 2 years ago because he believes that smart home is the third wave of the consumer Internet. An open platform is badly needed that connects everything with open APIs. A unique feature of Yetu’s energy management module is device recognition based on algorithms allowing the user to compare their energy consumption per device. It is too early to tell whether Christopher and his team will reach their goal of establishing as the leading smart home platform that also enables universal applications including entertainment and security. However, this startup should be on your watch list. Moreover, they are fundraising and are interested in talking to smart green investors and utilities.
Read morePieter Bots pitches Geo-En that uses geothermal energy for smart green buildings
Ecosummit TV: Pieter Bots pitches Geo-En at Ecosummit Berlin 2013. The Berlin-based cleantech startup provides a near surface geothermal energy solution to heat and cool smart green buildings. Backed by eCapital, IBB and Pieter Bots himself, Geo-En finalised various new projects in Hamburg, Berlin and other cities in the first half of 2013. Geo-En’s solution is quite unique as it uses very little space and usually works with only one borehole underneath or very close to the building. The systems recently installed cost between €60K and €600K and have an amortisation period of 3 to 20 years depending on energy prices and system configuration. Now Pieter looks for new smart green investors that support Geo-En’s international expansion.
Read moreSmart green dealflow: Ubitricity, Saperatec, Skeleton, Waste2Chemical, O-Flexx and Romo Wind
Financing cleantech startups is a tough game these days. You need a strong team, product market fit and, even better, customers and revenues. In this difficult market environment, it is a great pleasure to report that 6 smart green startups managed to raise new venture capital: Ubitricity (around €3.5M, Germany), Saperatec (€3.3M, Germany), Skeleton (€2.2M, Estonia), Waste2Chemical (undisclosed, Netherlands), O-Flexx (€2.4M, Germany) and Romo Wind (€4.8M, Switzerland). The active cleantech VCs include Earlybird, IBB, NRW Bank, HTGF, eCapital, Dutch Greentech Fund, Emerald, Yellow&Blue, ABB and b-to-v. Let’s take a closer look at the startups and their new investors.
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