http://ecosummit.net fostering the smart green economy Thu, 17 May 2012 19:36:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://ecosummit.net/articles/smart-hydro-power-raises-series-a-from-ecapital http://ecosummit.net/articles/smart-hydro-power-raises-series-a-from-ecapital#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 07:20:36 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6653 Smart Hydro Power successfully closed their Series A financing round raising €2.7M from the German Cleantech VC eCapital which values the startup at €8.4M premoney. The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds converted their loan in this round. As Smart Hydro Power also won the Ecosummit Jury Award 2012 convincing our 53 judges, this milestone is a welcome opportunity to interview the CEO Karl Kolmsee and his investors about the deal and the prospects of this unique young company. Moreover, this deal proves that we continue to bring the best smart green startups onto our Ecosummit stage. To celebrate, we are happy to publish Karl's fantastic ECO12 pitch on Ecosummit TV just in time for this story.]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/smart-hydro-power-raises-series-a-from-ecapital/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/erwin-burth-presents-autodesk-cleantech-partner-programme-eco12-berlin http://ecosummit.net/articles/erwin-burth-presents-autodesk-cleantech-partner-programme-eco12-berlin#comments Sat, 12 May 2012 10:26:42 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6644 Ecosummit TV: Erwin Burth manages business development for Autodesk in Europe in the cleantech industry. Autodesk was founded 30 years ago, is a public company with a market cap of $8.2B and plays a pivotal role in the Smart Green Economy when it comes to designing smart green products. At ECO12, Erwin presents Autodesk's design philosophy and its powerful design software solutions for the physical world. Autodesk believes that all problems can be solved with the help of intelligent design. In fact, that's exactly what every cleantech startup building hardware needs. Autodesk is a very generous corporate and offers free software with a value of up to €120K to cleantech startups. Many Ecosummit startups are already a member of the Autodesk Cleantech Partner Programme such as Smart Hydro Power that won the Ecosummit Jury Award 2012. I strongly recommend that you apply asap.]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/erwin-burth-presents-autodesk-cleantech-partner-programme-eco12-berlin/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/mar-alarcon-pitches-p2p-car-sharing-startup-social-car-eco12-berlin http://ecosummit.net/articles/mar-alarcon-pitches-p2p-car-sharing-startup-social-car-eco12-berlin#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 09:12:19 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6642 Ecosummit TV: Mar Alarcón is the founder and CEO of Social Car, Spain's leading p2p car sharing operator. Before Social Car Mar co-founded Social Energy, a PV project developer based in China. I like the brand name Social Car very much and I am very bullish with regards to the business model of p2p car sharing as it is very capital efficient and scaleable. Mar did a great pitch at Ecosummit 2012 on 22-23 March in Berlin.]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/mar-alarcon-pitches-p2p-car-sharing-startup-social-car-eco12-berlin/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/thibaud-le-seguillon-presents-organic-pv-startup-heliatek http://ecosummit.net/articles/thibaud-le-seguillon-presents-organic-pv-startup-heliatek#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 15:03:22 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6626 Ecosummit TV: Thibaud Le Séguillon, CEO of Heliatek, presents his Organic PV startup at ECO12. OPV is the third generation of solar technology and Heliatek is the global leader. The Dresden-based startup recently announced another efficiency world record of 10.7%. The efficiency roadmap goes up to 15-20%. But the real advantage of Heliatek is low cost per kwh as well as very green manufacturing processes without toxic materials. Now Heliatek looks for €60M for their Fab 2. Thibaud on Ecosummit TV is just the perfect sales pitch for their new financing round.]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/thibaud-le-seguillon-presents-organic-pv-startup-heliatek/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/bart-markus-wellington-art-of-investing-in-cleantech-startups http://ecosummit.net/articles/bart-markus-wellington-art-of-investing-in-cleantech-startups#comments Sun, 06 May 2012 11:56:08 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6614 Ecosummit TV: Bart Markus, General Partner of Wellington Partners, gives an outstanding talk about the Art of Investing in Cleantech Startups at Ecosummit 2012. Bart admits that being a successful Cleantech VC is a big challenge as Cleantech startups usually are very capital intensive and need a long time to develop until investors can exit. However, there are a number of success factors that Bart manages when advising his portfolio. One of them is having the best management team in place in every phase of the startup process. Another one is being 100% customer-centric because without solving real problems of customers revenue growth isn't possible. Bart is a very smart and funny investor ready to share his experience and investment strategy.]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/bart-markus-wellington-art-of-investing-in-cleantech-startups/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/cleantech-inside-is-the-future-reporting-from-cleantech-forum-europe-2012 http://ecosummit.net/articles/cleantech-inside-is-the-future-reporting-from-cleantech-forum-europe-2012#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:08:23 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6549 Sheeraz Haji, CEO of the Cleantech Group. I totally agree with Sheeraz and like to call it: sustainable by default. The next wave is pervasive cleantech and ubiquitous sustainability management that will be adopted by every company in every sector. Of course, it will take time to make it real but the good news is that there are many smart green investors, startups and corporates working on it. This was obvious at the fantastic Cleantech Forum Europe 2012 which Sheeraz and his team organised this week in Munich. Before I share some of the general challenges VCs and startups are facing, let me brief you on the strategy of the Cleantech Group.]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/cleantech-inside-is-the-future-reporting-from-cleantech-forum-europe-2012/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/serial-entrepreneur-prof-karl-leo-unveils-new-oled-microdisplay-startup-at-eco12 http://ecosummit.net/articles/serial-entrepreneur-prof-karl-leo-unveils-new-oled-microdisplay-startup-at-eco12#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:17:59 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6428 Ecosummit TV: Prof. Karl Leo is Germany's poster child when it comes to co-founding new smart green startups out of university. In his case, it's the University of Dresden where he leads the Institute for Applied Photophysics. He simultaneously works with Fraunhofer IPMS to create even more value. Karl Leo is famous for co-founding Novaled which is heading for NASDAQ as well as Heliatek. His new startup that currently looks for smart green VCs invents OLED Microdisplays which are super energy efficient as you put them directly in front of the eye. Karl Leo is a role model for Europe's university professors and we are happy that he joined Ecosummit 2012.]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/serial-entrepreneur-prof-karl-leo-unveils-new-oled-microdisplay-startup-at-eco12/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/smart-green-dealflow-sefaira-geo-en-tado-wesustain http://ecosummit.net/articles/smart-green-dealflow-sefaira-geo-en-tado-wesustain#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:40:46 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6380 http://ecosummit.net/articles/smart-green-dealflow-sefaira-geo-en-tado-wesustain/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/jan-michael-hess-opens-ecosummit-2012-berlin-with-a-little-help-from-some-friends http://ecosummit.net/articles/jan-michael-hess-opens-ecosummit-2012-berlin-with-a-little-help-from-some-friends#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:19:18 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6358 Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit Founder Jan Michael Hess opens Ecosummit 2012 Berlin on 22 March at Radialsystem. The sun is shining and many smart green people are in the house, visibly motivated to share ideas and grow the network. Our third Smart Green Business Conference is climate neutral thanks to the carbon offset powered by ClimatePartner. According to Bart Markus of Wellington Partners, Cleantech includes many big markets such as wind, solar, water or efficiency. Big markets attract lots of VC money and absorb experiments and execution mistakes. According to Prof. Karl Leo, Europe is good at basic research - this is our culture - but bad at application and bringing new ideas fast to global markets. At ECO12, we aggregated 224 startups, VCs and corporates to accelerate Smart Green Innovation. And we announced Virtual Ecosummit powered by ubivent. Let the show begin!]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/jan-michael-hess-opens-ecosummit-2012-berlin-with-a-little-help-from-some-friends/feed 0 http://ecosummit.net/articles/from-ego-to-eco-gerd-leonhard-talks-about-sustainable-capitalism-at-eco12 http://ecosummit.net/articles/from-ego-to-eco-gerd-leonhard-talks-about-sustainable-capitalism-at-eco12#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:56:38 +0000 Jan Michael Hess http://ecosummit.net/?p=6350 Ecosummit TV brings to you the first video of Ecosummit 2012 (ECO12), our third Smart Green Business Conference which took place on 22-23 March 2012 in Berlin. Futurist Gerd Leonhard, CEO of The Futures Agency, talks about Sustainable Capitalism and why we have to move from Ego to Eco. People and corporations alike should be sustainable by default in everything they do. The Internet enables a decentralised sharing economy in which we share energy and all other resources collaborating instead of competing. A new form of sustainable capitalism is the only way forward into a smart green future.]]> http://ecosummit.net/articles/from-ego-to-eco-gerd-leonhard-talks-about-sustainable-capitalism-at-eco12/feed 0