Ecosummit TV: Tim Lafferty of Global Corporate Venturing moderates the smart green corporate venture capital panel featuring Susana Quintana-Plaza (E.ON), Alexander Schlaepfer (Aster), Philippe Ringenbach (Electranova) and Tom Schulz (Entelios). Being an important pillar of the open innovation strategy of multinationals, corporate venture capital is a big trend as 500 new CVC units were created in the last 3 years. At least 10% of the CVCs are active in one or several of the cleantech sectors. Next to money, CVCs offer strategic value through market access and technological expertise.

Susana explains that her utility may well be the startup’s first customer ready to invest in the pilot project and validate the commercial value of a new technology. Alexander points out that they often introduce promising startups to their 3 corporate LPs even if they don’t invest. Tom raises the issue that the corporate sometimes turns out to be a competitor to the startup if it is also a technology supplier such as ABB or Siemens. Philippe confirms that the cooperation between EDF’s open innovation team, the business units and the CVC is very close. Very often the business units tell the CVCs which technologies they are looking for and why they are valuable from a business point of view. To sum up, startups should build relationships with the relevant corporates in their industry as soon as possible. Open innovation managers and corporate venture capital professionals are the perfect points of contact to get started. If your startup is successful, one of the corporates in your industry may be your exit channel.

Tags: Alexander Schlaepfer, Aster Capital, Cleantech Venture Capital, Corporate Venture Capital, CVC, ECO13 Berlin, Ecosummit Berlin 2013, Ecosummit TV, Electranova Capital, Entelios, Eon, Global Corporate Venturing, Open Innovation, Philippe Ringenbach, Smart Green Corporate Venture Capital, Susana Quintana-Plaza, Thomas Schulz, Tim Lafferty