Sunvigo raises €10M Series A led by Eneco Ventures
Finding the perfect lead investor is the most important milestone in venture capital financing rounds. In March 2021, we introduced Sunvigo to Eneco Ventures and started another promising relationship. As a result, our ecoportfolio company has successfully closed its €10M Series A led by the corporate VC arm of the Dutch utility. The second new Series A investor is Sparta Capital, a London-based multi-strategy fund with $500M assets under management (AUM) focused on smart green investments decarbonising our economy. The seed investors Übermorgen Ventures, Ecosummit and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), as well as a private real estate investor that joined in summer 2021, also make follow-on investments in the A round. The Cologne-based startup is a smart solar utility that bundles PV system, battery, asset financing, installation, operations, maintenance and insurance into one simple power contract and electricity tariff for homeowners in Germany, a very useful value proposition when energy prices are skyrocketing.
Read moreSolar data manager Solytic raises Series A from EWE and Vattenfall
Data is key and enables new business models. The more data you have the better. This is also true in the solar industry and that’s why solar data manager Solytic is a hot startup these days. We’re happy to break the news that Solytic celebrates the first closing of its Series A raising almost €5M from new investor EWE and existing investor Vattenfall, 2 of the top 5 utilities in Germany. As a result, Vattenfall owns a bit more than 20% and EWE a bit less than 20%. The A round was also joined by 3 business angels led by ex-Goldman Sachs banker Frank Oliver Lehmann. EWE’s impressive investment manager Justin Müller met Solytic’s Enrico Ohnemüller and Vattenfall’s Alexander Hain on 16 May 2019 at Ecosummit Berlin and learned that Solytic was planning a new round. As EWE is transforming into a smart green utility that believes in the power of data and wants to grow its renewable energy business, the Berlin-based startup immediately looked like a good strategic fit and smart investment. In fact, Solytic is open to talk to new investors providing strategic value because the next financing round is already planned.
Read moreHeliatek raises €80M Series D to increase production capacity by a factor of 40
Capital-intensive smart green startups in Europe aiming at building their own hardware factories have a hard time fundraising. Financially motivated VCs require capital efficiency and prefer hardware startups that outsource manufacturing and the necessary CAPEX. Financing new PV factories in Europe is even more difficult due to China’s hegemony. It turns out it can only be done if you develop the next generation of PV technology, continuously improve efficiency and work diligently on building a co-investor syndicate of family offices, corporates and governments. Keep in mind that it was the Chinese government that backed a myriad of Chinese manufacturers to hijack the global PV industry. After a very long fundraising journey, 10-year old Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) pioneer Heliatek finally found the capital to build its second 3G solar factory in Dresden, Germany’s epicentre of photonics and organic semiconductors.
Read moreEternal Sun raises €2M Series A from Vermec
How can you guarantee the performance of solar panels over a long period of time, let’s say 20 years? By simulating sunshine and testing the solar panels in a controlled lab environment with powerful and energy efficient lamps, e.g. Heliospectra LEDs. Chokri Mousaoui (CEO) and Stefan Roest (CTO) co-founded Eternal Sun in 2011 after they developed their first solar simulator prototype at Delft University of Technology. As their second and third prototype were already paid by pilot customers, the founders managed to reach product market fit very quickly and bootstrap their smart green startup to €1M revenues in 2014 while keeping a clean 50:50 cap table until their Series A. In July 2011, they moved into the incubator YesDelft where they are still located. The role of TU Delft and its ecosystem cannot be overestimated as 9 out of 11 employees were educated at the university. We first saw Chokri pitching in front of the Climate-KIC accelerator jury at Utrechtinc on 5 July 2012. 2 months later, we went together on the first Climate-KIC USA Startup Tour to Silicon Valley, Washington and Boston. Then Stefan came to Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012 in November to look for investors.
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 moreProf. Eicke Weber is very optimistic about the solar industry
Ecosummit TV: Prof. Eicke Weber, Director of Fraunhofer ISE, is very optimistic about the future of the solar industry. Firstly, the PV cost curve is going down continuously. Even in Germany with Alaska-type sunshine, we can produce electricity with silicon-based PV for 10-12 cents/kWh. At this cost level, grid parity is already outperformed since 1 kWh costs 22 cents (net) in Germany if you buy it from your local utility. Making your own electricity and storing it in a solar battery is a smart economic idea. Secondly, the global solar market will grow 10 times from 30 GW/year in 2012 to 300 GW/year by 2025. At the same time, higher efficiencies and lower production costs make PV competitive with onshore wind and hydro power. The current oversupply of 60 GW/year is a temporary phenomenon that causes trouble for PV manufacturers for another 1-2 years. Afterwards, Europe should reenter the PV industry with a “multi-GW solar Airbus project” to drive the enormous PV industry again as a technology leader.
Read moreFlorian Meyer-Delpho pitches solar e-commerce startup Greenergetic
Ecosummit TV: Florian Meyer-Delpho pitches Greenergetic at ECO12 Düsseldorf and believes that the market is ready for their solar e-commerce business model thanks to grid parity. Greenergetic develops an online portal to bring PV and smart home solutions directly to residential end customers. Houseowners can plan, finance and order their preferred PV system online. The Bielefeld-based cleantech startup also offers a whitelabel solution for utilities that are increasingly interested in selling solar systems to their customer base. Backed by eCapital and following the role model of Solarcity, Greenergetic is about to launch their new portal very soon.
Read moreStefan Roest pitches Dutch solar testing startup Eternal Sun
Ecosummit TV: Eternal Sun was a real highlight at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. The lean cleantech startup from TU Delft in the Netherlands develops and manufactures state-of-the-art solar testing equipment and found customers all over the world within 1.5 years after company foundation. The audience was impressed by the fact that Eternal Sun focuses so well on lean product development and fast customer development while still being self-funded by the founders. CTO Stefan Roest delivers an awesome pitch on Ecosummit TV and now looks for VCs that know the solar testing market well and can help scale sales and production.
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 moreFelix Krause pitches PV marketplace Milk The Sun
Ecosummit TV: Not only their name is cool but also their business model. Felix Krause pitches Milk the Sun at ECO12 Berlin. The Berlin-based smart green startup develops and operates an online marketplace for existing and planned PV systems connecting buyers and sellers. Milk the Sun’s goal is to establish solar investments as a liquid asset class that can be easily traded. There are several service providers attached to the marketplace that can help make a PV installation more effective and cost-efficient, thus increasing ROI. Milk the Sun is live in Germany, UK and Italy and looks for funding to accelerate their company growth.
Read more3G Solar made in Germany – Heliatek is getting ready to take Organic PV global
The more I learn about this company, the more I like it. Heliatek is a world leader of Organic PV (Organic Photovoltaics) and they are getting ready to prove it. Since we visited Heliatek 6 months ago in Dresden for Ecosummit TV, a couple of things have happened. Heliatek has a new CEO and a beautiful new corporate identity. They’re in the middle of building the first factory in the world for OPV panels with a roll-to-roll vacuum production process. “For our next-gen organic solar cells we had to invent a totally new production system,” says Heliatek’s CTO Martin Pfeiffer. Heliatek’s factory of the future goes live in 2012. Kleiner, VantagePoint, Khosla, RockPort and DFJ take note: Heliatek plans a new funding round next year and wants the best US VCs in. A multi-billion dollar market is waiting to be conquered and 3G Solar made in Germany volunteers to do the job.
Read more5th Munich Cleantech Conference on 14 July 2011 – Interview with Curt Winnen
On Thursday next week, 14 July 2011, the Munich Network, headed by Curt Winnen, produces the 5th Munich Cleantech Conference (MCC11). That’s rather sustainable and proves a lot of experience in bringing together smart green startups, investors and corporates. Below you find our interview with Curt about the MCC11. Myself, I joined the investor-heavy congress last year and will attend the upcoming MCC11, too, as Ecosummit is one of the media partners.
Read moreTilman Eichstaedt of Inventux on Thin-film Solar and German Grid Parity in 2011
Tilman Eichstaedt, management team member of Inventux, gave a very interesting presentation at ECO11 about the Berlin-based thin-film solar manufacturer and the future prospects of solar power. According to Tilman, we will have reached grid parity in Germany in the second half of this year. The feed-in tariff in Germany for larger installations (more than 1.000 KW) will be around €0.20 per KWh in Q3 and Q4 of 2011 while people pay €0.22 per KWh in Germany.
Read moreEcosummit TV – ECO11 – Frank Siebke – Good Energies – Cleantech VC
In his talk “PV – Is the Party Over?” at Ecosummit 2011, Frank Siebke, Investment Director at Good Energies, gives a detailed overview of the current and future trends of the PV industry from an investor’s point of view. Frank says that the party is not over yet, solar has still a huge potential. After polycrystalline silicon solar (1G) and thin-film solar (2G) now we enter the third solar technology generation (3G) which is organic PV (OPV).
Read moreEcosummit TV – ECO11 – Nick Kanopoulos – Brite Solar
Nick Kanopoulos, cofounder and CEO of Brite Solar, pitches his 3G solar startup to investors at Ecosummit 2011. Afterwards, Nick is interviewed by Ane Mari Aakernes, our Ecosummit TV moderator during ECO11. Brite develops transparent coloured PV panels that can be used as energy-producing building windows. Brite currently looks for €2M venture capital to enable mass production of their PanePower Solar Windows. Brite is a Greek startup with R&D in Greece and Marketing and Sales in the US. Nick agreed to share his Brite Solar Slides as PDF.
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