5 smart green startups that are connected to Ecosummit in various ways successfully raised new venture capital during the last months: Power to Gas pioneer SolarFuel (€7.5M, Germany), electric scooter maker Govecs (€10M, Germany), bike messenger platform Tiramizoo (undisclosed, Germany), sustainable cooling provider Sortech (undisclosed, Germany) and algae harvester Evodos (undisclosed, Netherlands). Let’s take a closer look at the products and business models of the startups and their new investors.

We first wrote about SolarFuel in November 2011 and invited Stephan Rieke to pitch at ECO12 Berlin in March. Now SolarFuel has reached another milestone by raising €7.5M from Aster Capital (€4M), the automotive supplier Ventrex and private investors. The French VC Aster Capital has got Alstom, Rhodia and Schneider Electric as LPs and is very active in cleantech. SolarFuel’s first customer is Audi that produces renewable methane for its CNG cars to achieve “balanced mobility” end-to-end from energy production to consumption. Although the Power to Gas technology for renewable energy conversion is very new and not yet economical, we believe it has a big future because long-term energy storage and connecting the electricty and gas grids are 2 strategic pillars for the energy transformation (Energiewende).

Munich-based Govecs pitched at our first Green Venture Summit 2010 and their new VC Gimv from Belgium sponsored ECO12 Berlin and is live on Ecosummit TV. Electric mobility becomes reality a lot faster on 2-wheels than on 4-wheels due to the smaller mass that has to be moved around. Govecs is a European first mover in the electric scooter market and produces in Wroclaw, Poland, since the company foundation in 2009. The electric scooters have a reach of up to 100 km and a maximum speed of 85 km/h. Next to Gimv (€4M), BayBG, KfW and private investors participated in the financing round. Compact Power Motors, another successful German cleantech startup financed by Environmental Technologies Fund, used to be a supplier to Govecs.

Founder and CEO Michael Loehr (photo above) pitched Tiramizoo at Green Venture Summit 2010. Since then the Munich-based startup has come a long way and just received an undisclosed amount of venture capital from Daimler Business Innovation. Daimler Business Innovation invented Car2go and is interested in all kinds of new mobility services and business models. Tiramizoo is a marketplace for bike messengers with a strong focus on sustainable urban delivery. As Daimler also produces electric 2-wheelers, they want to electrify the last mile of logistics in cities. Electric bike messengers are faster and generate more revenue per day. Moreover, bike messengers are by far the coolest group of early adopters and betatesters you can find on the planet. Tiramizoo is live in 12 German cities and wants to enter new international markets. Therefore, they are looking for more cleantech VCs that believe in the power of the bicycle for smart green urban logistics.

Sortech converts waste heat into cooling energy using an optimised adsorption process. Sortech’s energy-efficient cooling products can be used to cool private and commercial buildings, supermarkets and data centers. The German startup is based in Halle and is now backed by Munich Venture Partners, one of the strongest cleantech VCs in Germany, and UnternehmerTUM Fund, the new VC fund connected to the Technical University Munich. Ingo Potthof, Partner at UnternehmerTUM Fund, joined the Climate-KIC Panel at ECO12 Berlin and is live on Ecosummit TV. One of Sortech’s competitors is the Berlin-based startup Invensor that pitched at ECO11 Berlin.

Evodos is the forth cleantech deal of eCapital in 2012. The Dutch startup fits very well into eCapital’s cleantech portfolio as it complements the algae factory startup Subitec. Evodos produces a mechanical centrifugal separator that can be used for algae harvesting, in particular to separate the algae from water in a very energy efficient way. While Subitec positions as technology provider for algae producers, Evodos plays the role of the refinery in the algae value chain. Of course, the centrifugal separators of Evodos can be used for other applications, too, e.g. for dewatering manure.

At ECO12 Düsseldorf on 14-15 November you can meet many cleantech executives that are working on intensifying the Dutch-German cleantech friendship as well as other cross-national smart green business relationships.

Tags: Alstom, Aster Capital, Audi, Car2go, Compact Power Motors, Daimler Business Innovation, eCapital, ECO12 Berlin, Energy Storage, Evodos, Germany, Gimv, Govecs, Green Venture Summit 2012, Ingo Potthof, Invensor, KFW, Michael Loehr, Munich Venture Partners, Netherlands, Power to Gas, Rhodia, Schneider Electric, Skion, Smart Green Dealflow, SolarFuel, Sortech, Stephan Rieke, Tiramizoo, UnternehmerTUM Fund, Ventrex