Relayr 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 moreSmart green dealflow: Sunfire, Greenergetic, Sonnenbatterie, LEDeXCHANGE, Valopaa and Friedola Tech
6 smart green startups successfully raised new venture capital recently: Power to gas and fuel startup Sunfire (seven-figure, Germany), PV online retailer Greenergetic (undisclosed seed, Germany), residential storage provider Sonnenbatterie (undisclosed, Germany), retrofit LED provider LEDeXCHANGE (€500K seed, Germany), LED lighting company Valopaa (€2M, Finland) and recycled plastics manufacturer Friedola Tech (€31M, Germany). The active cleantech VCs include Bilfinger Venture Capital, eCapital, High-Tech Gründerfonds, VNT Management, Silver Lake Kraftwerk and Kleiner Perkins.
Read moreMichael Linse of Kleiner Perkins: humanity is about to hit a wall
Ecosummit TV: Michael Linse, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, talks about his favourite greentech investing framework at Ecosummit Berlin and comes to a scary conclusion: Humanity is about to hit a wall. Cleantech is about the impact of the macro trends on huge industries that will lead to a more sustainable functioning of these industries. The demand side of the equation is changing, in fact, it will go up tremendously. From now until 2030, 3 billion people will join the global middle class. This is significant as the resource consumption pattern increases most dramatically as people move from the scope of poverty to the middle class.
Read moreCleantech Paradise Going Green Silicon Valley 2011
California here I come. 2 days after our Ecosummit Lounge I will hop on a plane to San Francisco. My target is the Cleantech paradise that Tony Perkins, Founder of AlwaysOn, unites at Going Green Silicon Valley 2011 which takes place on 27-28 September in San Francisco. Having joined Going Green East in March 2010 in Boston, I know what to expect: The best Cleantech VCs and startups the West Coast has on offer, everybody totally wired and inspired to save the world, grow disruptive companies and make big returns on investment.
Read more11.000 VideoViews on Ecosummit TV – Let’s Celebrate by Rewatching the best Smart Green Startups and VCs
We are proud to announce having reached a new major milestone on Ecosummit TV, our wonderful Youtube HD channel: 11.000 VideoViews since we started in February 2011. This is a good reason for rewatching some of the best episodes on Ecosummit TV featuring smart green startups and VCs. Learn about hot Cleantech deals worth backing and how you should invest your fund for successful returns. One more thing: Ecosummit 2012 takes place on 22-23 March 2012 in Berlin and it’s going to be big. Stay tuned!
Read moreEcosummit TV – ECO11 – Michael Linse – KPCB
It’s the cost curves, stupid! – A cool title chosen for his speech by Michael Linse, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, at ECO11 in Berlin. The cost of production for all major green technologies including PV, Wind, Water, Batteries etc. will further go down. That’s the good news. Driving cost out of the business should be the focus of all Cleantech startups and corporates trying to scale their business and go global. According to Michael, it is also the key parameter for his investment decisions. Later stage deals mean that the technology risk has already been taken out. The next question is how to scale globally as fast as possible. Enter Michael’s KPCB Green Growth Fund.
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