ECOSUMMIT - Accelerating smart green startups

Ecosummit Zoom

Join our online events for smart green startups, investors and corporates
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Ecosummit Berlin

Join our annual physical event for smart green startups, investors and corporates
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9
June
2023
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit Berlin 14-15 June 2023

Ecosummit accelerates smart green startups in energy, mobility and cities to save our climate, decarbonise our economy and electrify our planet. Our events are startup markets enabling fundraising, lead and co-investing, portfolio development, corporate venturing, open innovation and M&A. Ecosummit Berlin 14-15 June 2023 is supported by 46 sponsors and takes place at Spindler & Klatt, Köpenicker Strasse 16-17, 10997 Berlin, the perfect location for sunshine and outdoor networking. The agenda features 116 speakers including 79 startups. Get your tickets and start arranging your meetings with our 326 participants using Linkedin. We look forward to hosting you.

7
June
2023
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit facilitates Eturnity Series A, ESFORIN Series B and Installion exit

Ecosummit is startup paradise as we bring together fundraising startups and active investors that want to create impact. Our goal is to enable as many new investments as possible in smart green startups that focus on saving our climate, decarbonising our economy and electrifying our planet. It makes us especially happy if startups meet their investors at Ecosummit for the first time as it happened between Eturnity and Klima or ESFORIN and SEB last year. Sometimes we also make introductions during the year. Connecting Installion and their Series A lead Eneco Ventures in 2021 turns out to have been truly impactful. In April 2023, Lichtblick, the German subsidiary of Eneco, acquired Installion. Next week, you all have the chance again to make more deals creating impact at Ecosummit Berlin 14-15 June 2023.

8
March
2023
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2023

Ecosummit is the place to be for fundraising startups and active investors. Our online events are sustainable, time-efficient and lots of fun. Let’s meet at Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2023, 10:00-12:00 Berlin time, co-hosted by Bart Markus, Julia Padberg and David Hunt. 9 speakers share their screens and stories: Davor Sutija (Nexwafe), Rod MacGregor (GlassPoint), Susan Graham (Dendra Systems), Carsten Brinkschulte (Dryad Networks), Axel Dickenbrock (InnoEnergy), Alejandro Cabrera Muñoz (Green Eagle Solutions), Mamoun Taher (Graphmatech), Ulf Stenerhag (Wayout) and Charlotta Holmquist (Blixt). Ecosummit Zoom is invitation-only for sponsors and participants of Ecosummit Berlin 14-15 June 2023. Let’s co-invest, cooperate and build big startups with big impact.

19
January
2023
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit Zoom 20 January 2023

It’s a new year, a new game and a new chance to raise big financing rounds and make smart green investments to maximise our impact until 2030. Ecosummit is the place to be for fundraising startups and active investors. Let’s get together online at Ecosummit Zoom 20 January 2023, 10:00-12:00 Berlin time, co-hosted by Gerard Reid, Bart Markus and Julia Padberg. 9 inspiring speakers share their screens and stories: Gerard Reid (Alexa Capital), Julia Padberg (SET Ventures), Melchior Schulze Brock (Enviria), Janice Goodenough (Hydrogrid), Matthew Chagan (Sustainable Future Ventures), Emanuel Heisenberg (Ecoworks), Sergey Ogorodnov (Voltaware), Marcel Smit (Energyworx) and Arthur Singer (Stabl Energy). Ecosummit 2023 Sponsors get free access to Ecosummit Zoom. Alternatively, you may buy your tickets to join us. Let’s co-invest, cooperate and build big startups with big impact.

16
January
2023
Jan Michael Hess

Aerones raises $30M Series A led by Lightrock and Haniel

We love this startup since we got to know it in April 2021. Applying the power of robotics to make the wind industry more efficient is a great idea. Our ecoportfolio company Aerones raises $30M Series A led by Lightrock and Haniel with participation of new investor Blume Equity. Aerones is based in Riga (Latvia), develops and manufactures a family of smart robots and provides their robot-enabled services for the maintenance of wind turbines with a team of 200 employees to more than 100 customers in 20 countries including Vestas, GE, Siemens Gamesa, NextEra and Enel. The goal is to minimise downtime when wind turbines are inspected, cleaned, coated or repaired. In fact, Aerones’ services are 6 times faster, 40% more efficient and a lot safer for humans that don’t need to climb up wind turbines because the robots do. This enables huge cost savings in the $30B wind turbine maintenance market that is forecasted to grow to $50B by 2028.

2
November
2022
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit Zoom 10 November 2022

Let’s get together online again and connect fundraising startups and active investors at Ecosummit Zoom 10 November 2022, 10:00-12:00 Berlin time, co-hosted by Gerard Reid, David Hunt and Jan Michael Hess. 9 smart green startups are pitching: Ed Gunn (Lunar Energy), James Johnston (Piclo), Friedrich Rojahn (Solandeo), Martin Baart (Ecoligo), Laurent Coulot (Insolight), Christoph Berger (Vilisto), Mike Rosenberg (Circadian), Tobias Wagner (ChargeX) and Christian Adelsberger (Ubiq). Please note that ECO22 Berlin participants get free access to Ecosummit Zoom 10 November 2022. Alternatively, you may buy your tickets to join us. Let’s co-invest, cooperate and build big startups with big impact.

11
October
2022
Jan Michael Hess

Smart green startups you should know

Your deal flow is on Youtube. We’re happy to present the best smart green startups in energy, mobility and cities that pitched at Ecosummit Berlin in the past 4 years on Ecosummit TV: Sunfire, 1KOMMA5°, First Light Fusion, Instagrid, Nexwafe, Dendra Systems, Electrochaea, Ineratec, Kiwigrid, CorPower Ocean, LiveEO, VoltStorage, Aerones, Sunvigo, ESFORIN, Enspired, Mixergy, Ecoworks, Wirelane, Roofit.solar, DEPsys, Energyworx, Vyntelligence, EcoG, Epilot, Einhundert, Node.energy, Solytic, Ezzing Solar, Ubiq, Eliq, Blixt, Eologix, Installion, Lumenaza, Exnaton, Scone, Dexter Energy, Energiency, Grid Edge, Elaphe, PowerUp, Volytica Diagnostics, Omniflow and Epishine. These hardware and software startups represent exciting investment opportunities with environmental, financial and strategic returns for (C)VCs and family offices. All of them work hard to generate big climate impact and many of them have the potential to become smart green unicorns made in Europe. Pitch at Ecosummit Berlin 14-15 June 2023 to tell your startup growth story and increase the quantity and quality of the term sheets in your next financing round.

29
August
2022
Jan Michael Hess

Enphase Energy acquires GreenCom Networks and Lunar Energy acquires Moixa

Exciting exit times for the Ecosummit community and joyful reasons to celebrate 2 happy endings of the famous startup investor relationship: On 29 August 2022, Enphase Energy announced its acquisition of GreenCom Networks and, on 24 August 2022, Sunrun announced that Lunar Energy acquired Moixa. Both exits are very similar: 2 US-based public solar energy companies are buying European startups to grab established software products, local teams and customers and accelerate their market expansion on the continent. GreenCom Networks first pitched at Ecosummit Berlin 2016 and Moixa at Ecosummit London 2014 and both smart green startups had many Ecosummit investors in their cap tables.

22
June
2022
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit Berlin 23-24 June 2022

We want to live in 100% sustainable cities powered by 100% renewable energy and 100% electric mobility. Founded in 2010, Ecosummit accelerates smart green startups in energy, mobility and cities to save our climate, decarbonise our economy and electrify our planet. Our events are startup markets enabling fundraising, lead and co-investing, corporate venturing, open innovation and M&A. Ecosummit Berlin 23-24 June 2022 takes place at Spindler & Klatt, Köpenicker Strasse 16-17, 10997 Berlin, the best smart green startup conference in the perfect location for sunshine and outdoor networking. Get your tickets and join us. Ecosummit is a European platform supported by 55 sponsors from 17 countries. The agenda features 108 speakers including 67 startups. Check out our amazing list of 300 participants and start arranging your meetings with the help of Linkedin. All participants must be fully COVID-19 vaccinated/recovered. We serve vegetarian/vegan food, excellent wines, good music  and 2 dinner parties. Extend your stay for the weekend, bring your families and enjoy our special programme for Ecosummit participants, included in the conference ticket, on Saturday, 25 June 2022: We celebrate the Ecosummit Afterparty on the island Lindwerder, Havelchaussee 43, 14193 Berlin in the Havel, Grunewald from 15:00 until late. Let’s accelerate smart green startups together to maximise our impact until 2030.

3
March
2022
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2022

Climate change, pandemic, war – if we work together globally, we can solve all our problems and save our planet for future generations. Putin’s terrible war in Ukraine kills people and endangers peace, freedom and democracy in the whole world. It also has a huge impact on our climate and the energy transition. Now we must stop burning fossil fuels and reach 100% renewable energy autonomy a lot faster than originally planned. Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2022 takes place at 10:00-12:00 Berlin time and is a free event for fundraising startups and active investors. Rather than selling tickets we kindly ask you to make a donation to your preferred humanitarian aid organisation (e.g. Aktionsbündnis Katastrophenhilfe in Germany) to support the people and economy in Ukraine.

9
February
2022
Jan Michael Hess

Instagrid raises €29M Series B led by Energy Impact Partners

The Instagrid success story continues and reaches the next level. In February 2020, we wrote a groovy story on the €8.5M Series A and how Sebastian Berning and Andreas Sedlmayr launched their mobile battery startup and met their lead investor SET Ventures at Ecosummit Berlin 2019, our 10-year anniversary. Today, we’re happy to break the news that Energy Impact Partners (EIP) leads Instagrid’s massive €29M Series B as the only new investor. With $2B AUM EIP itself is pretty massive, too. Hans Kobler and Matthias Dill invest in Instagrid both from their US and EU funds as they plan to share returns and the mobile battery business opportunity with their global LPs. The Ludwigsburg-based startup provides portable green power to professionals and mobile lifestyle optimisers in all kinds of offgrid situations, including construction sites, ubiquitous events, smart forests or sustainable picknicks in the park enhanced by electric BBQs and powerful sound systems.

8
February
2022
Jan Michael Hess

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.

3
November
2021
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit Zoom 10 November 2021

It’s time to get together again online after Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021, our amazing physical conference of which we published all 83 videos on Ecosummit TV on Youtube. Let’s connect a few fundraising startups and active investors at Ecosummit Zoom 10 November 2021, 10:00-12:00 Berlin time, co-hosted by Christoph Ostermann and Jan Michael Hess. 6 speakers are confirmed: Susan Graham (Dendra Systems), Fabio Tentori (Enel), Sabrina Malpede (ACT Blade), Robert Schrimpff (Solar for Schools), Martin Pentenrieder (Kraftwerk) and Maximilian Isensee (Kitekraft). We have open speaker slots, so please get in touch if you want to pitch at Ecosummit to accelerate your startup, fund or portfolio. ECO21 Berlin participants get free access to Ecosummit Zoom 10 November 2021. Alternatively, you may buy your tickets to join us. Let’s co-invest, cooperate and build big startups with big impact.

12
October
2021
Jan Michael Hess

Nexwafe raises €39M Series C led by Reliance Industries

Solar is the most economic renewable energy on planet Earth. India is the second-most populous country with 1.38 billion inhabitants. On 24 June 2021, Mukesh Ambani, India’s most successful entrepreneur, Forbes top 10 (€86B) and majority owner of Reliance Industries, promised the shareholders to invest €8.6B in the next 3 years to build a new energy business powered by 4 vertically integrated giga factories for solar systems, batteries, green hydrogen electrolysers and fuel cells. On 10 October 2021, Reliance made the first move and acquired the solar manufacturer REC for €667M. Fitting well into Ambani’s ambitious solar strategy, Nexwafe today announces the first closing of their €39M Series C led by the subsidiary Reliance New Energy Solar. Aramco Ventures, Innoenergy and other co-investors participate in the round enabling Nexwafe to further develop and market its green solar wafer manufacturing technology. Next to investing a ticket of €25M, Reliance plans to license and deploy Nexwafe’s technology in its new solar giga factory. This is a strategic proof of scalability for Nexwafe’s green solar wafers.

5
October
2021
Jan Michael Hess

Roofit.solar raises €7.85M Series A led by BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures

The Tesla solar roof now has a strong competitor in Europe. Today, Roofit.solar announces its €7.85M Series A (€6.4M new capital and €1.45M converted loans) led by BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures and supported by an outstanding group of Estonian co-investors. The co-investor syndicate includes the family office of Priit Piilmann (largest shareholder of Viru Keemia Grupp), Taavet Hinrikus (Co-founder of Wise, recently listed on LSE) and Sten Tamkivi (ex-General Manager at Skype Estonia), Spring Capital and Helmes Investments. We’re super happy about this transaction because Ecosummit advised the 3 co-founders of Roofit.solar during the 9-month fundraising process and successfully introduced the German lead investor BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures, the main piece in the Series A puzzle.

7
September
2021
Jan Michael Hess

Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021

It is our big pleasure to invite you to Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021, our invitation-only 100% physical conference optimised for outdoor networking – exactly what we missed the most during the pandemic. The amazing agenda presents 83 speakers including 52 startups. We’re super grateful for the support of our wonderful 38 sponsors. Check out our 183 participants and join us to start arranging your meetings at Ecosummit Berlin with the help of Linkedin. Private tickets are available for €2.000 + VAT for investors and €1.000 + VAT for startups and may be ordered by email. If you like the deal, please send us an email to request your invitation to Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021 telling us who you are and why you want to take part. We look forward to hosting you and accelerating smart green startups together. It’s going to be magic.

24
August
2021
Jan Michael Hess

Installion raises €4M Series A led by Eneco Ventures

The energy transition is a hands-on job because somebody has to install all the hardware needed for making, storing and charging solar energy at the customers’ premises. It turns out that finding a good installer can be anything from very tough to simply impossible. In other words, installation is the bottleneck if we want to reach 100% renewables. For the founders among us it’s an obvious startup opportunity. Installion is the installation service provider for the energy transition helping utilities and other solar companies with qualified manpower onsite and on time. On 25 February 2021, we introduced Installion to Eneco and other smart green VCs to find the best lead investor, the main piece in the Series A puzzle. After watching Florian’s online pitch at Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2021, Eneco was hooked and due diligence started. The deal closed end of July and today we’re breaking the news that Eneco Ventures invests a ticket of €3.2M leading Installion’s €4M Series A. At the same time, Ecosummit gets 1 assist on the startup VC matchmaking scoreboard which proves our value and track record.

21
August
2021
Jan Michael Hess

Alantra’s new Klima fund invests in Mainspring

Smart green energy startups in Europe raising Series B or later rounds now have one more financial VC to go to in Madrid. The new late stage VC fund is called Klima (climate in German), focuses on hardware and software startups accelerating the energy transition and achieved its first closing at €80M on 7 June 2021. Klima’s capital is committed by powerful Spanish LPs including the listed investment bank and asset manager Alantra (€18M commitment), the gas corporate Enagás (€30M), the state-owned bank Instituto de Crédito Oficial (€15M), the renewable energy developer Capital Energy (€2M), the German family office Blueworld Group and other undisclosed institutional investors. On 12 July 2021, Klima announced its first investment in Sillicon Valley-based Mainspring, expanding their $95M Series D to $108M together with other investors entering the massive round at the last minute. GP Lucille Bonnet will pitch Klima at Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021.

10
August
2021
Jan Michael Hess

Wirelane raises €18M Series B led by Abacon Capital

Ubiquitous electric mobility and EV charging play an important role to save our climate and planet and this is the decisive decade to limit global warming to 1.5°C. By 2030, Transport & Environment’s Road2Zero scenario forecasts a need for 2.9 million public EV chargers in the EU. Just-in-time, Wirelane raises €18M Series B (€12.1M fresh capital and €5.9M converted loans) to accelerate its growth and contribute to rolling out more EV charging stations. The B round is led by Abacon Capital, the investment arm of the Büll family office in Hamburg. Early investors in Wirelane include Vito Ventures, HTGF and Coparion. Founded in 2016, Wirelane employs 40 emobility experts in Munich and Berlin and targets €5M+ revenues in 2021. Among the B2B customers are BMW and Vattenfall.

7
July
2021
Jan Michael Hess

Energyworx raises €5.1M Series B led by Eneco Ventures

Breaking news at Ecosummit Zoom today: Energyworx raises €5.1M Series B led by Eneco Ventures and with participation of existing investors ENGIE New Ventures, EDP Ventures and SET Ventures. While the round was oversubscribed, Energyworx selected Eneco Ventures as lead investor due to the shared vision and growth strategy as well as a really smooth deal process and fast due diligence. The Dutch startup is focused on cloud-based energy data management for grid operators and retailers, employs a team of 27 and aims at growing at 100% in 2022. Eneco Ventures is standing out among Europe’s Corporate VCs because it already celebrated 3 exits in the first half of 2021 having sold their stakes in Thermondo, Next Kraftwerke and Greenflux. The proceeds of the exits will be invested in new startups of which Energyworx is the first one. Marcel Smit, CEO of Energyworx, first pitched at Ecosummit Berlin 2017 and, most recently, at Ecosummit Zoom 2 September 2020.