Smart green accelerator panel featuring Startupbootcamp, Climate-KIC, Rockstart and Swedish Energy Agency
Ecosummit TV: Accelerating smart green startups should be the key motivation for everybody working with startups on a day-to-day basis, not only accelerators, but also angels, VCs, corporates and service providers. At ECO14 Berlin, we discuss the art of faster startup development with Alex Farcet (Startupbootcamp), Franka Birke (Climate-KIC), Yme Bosma (Rockstart) and Bigge Lidgren (ex-Swedish Energy Agency, now Cleantech Invest). A typical accelerator programme lasts 90 to 180 days with intensive mentoring on product development, customer development, fundraising and team building. Private accelerators like Startupbootcamp and Rockstart follow the business model of investing €20K for 8% of equity at a rather low valuation. Then they work hard to create value, increase the startup’s valuation and attract follow-on investments. Public accelerators like Climate-KIC and Swedish Energy Agency usually do not take equity and rather provide grants and soft loans. A key challenge for all accelerators is to attract coachable founders that are, at the same time, very talented and skilled at building successful startups. Only then do the accelerators get returns on their investments.
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 moreAlex Farcet pitches Startupbootcamp and its smart transportation and energy accelerator
Ecosummit TV: Alex Farcet pitches Startupbootcamp and its smart transportation and energy accelerator at ECO14 Berlin. While corporate accelerators are mushrooming in the US and Europe, Startupbootcamp is an independent accelerator founded in 2010 that runs 3-month programmes focused on verticals in several cities including Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Berlin. The idea is to give startups the best possible start by providing €20K for 8% equity, intensive workshops with mentors on product and customer development and a final pitch in a room packed with investors. SBCBerlin‘s smart transportation and energy demo day was a big show and featured 11 young startups raising seed rounds from angels. Sunride, Comodule, Rokka Solutions, Houseahedron and Mybus have great teams that are ready for closer inspection. According to Alex, a good accelerator acts like a co-founder and adds a lot of measurable value in a short period of time. The startups we met all confirmed that Startupbootcamp and its mentors delivered on their promises. However, for smart green startups 3 months are rather short to reach product/market fit. It may be worthwhile to double the programme length in future editions.
Read moreJonathan Tyler presents Climate-KIC and its startup accelerator
Ecosummit TV: Jonathan Tyler presents Climate-KIC and its startup accelerator at ECO13 London. The public-private partnership is funded by the European Commission via the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) with a budget of €63M in 2014. Climate-KIC has got 6 national centres embedded in leading universities in UK, Denmark, Netherlands, France, Germany and Switzerland and fosters education, innovation and entrepreneurship with a particular focus on early stage cleantech startups. Among the many startups funded by Climate-KIC are Tado (Germany), Waste2chemical (Netherlands) and Aqdot (UK). Climate-KIC Germany partners again with Ecosummit Berlin 2014 and sends their best fundable startups to our smart green innovation conference.
Read moreClaire Cockerton presents the future city accelerator Level39
Ecosummit TV: Claire Cockerton presents the future city accelerator Level39 at ECO13 London. Based in Canary Wharf and backed by the Canary Wharf Group, Level39 is a technology accelerator specialised in fostering startups in the financial, retail and smart green city industries. While Level39 does not invest, they provide affordable office space which in some cases may be sponsored by a corporate. Moreover, the accelerator facilitates coaching sessions with mentors and business relationships with local companies that act as pilot customers for bringing new services to the market. Level39 welcomes startups from all over the world that want to touch down in the Docklands to co-invent the city of the future.
Read moreAaron Best and Franka Birke present the European startup accelerator Climate-KIC
Ecosummit TV: At Ecosummit Berlin 2013, Aaron Best and Franka Birke present Climate-KIC, the European initiative to foster cleantech entrepreneurship and education. Climate-KIC runs a startup accelerator that provides up to €95K, office space and coaching to young startups in Germany, UK, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands. They also organise master classes with famous startup gurus such as Steve Blank or Alexander Osterwalder. During the Climate-KIC session, Ingo Potthof (UnternehmerTUM Fund) interviewed Alexander Zosel (E-volo), Niels Beisinghoff (Bettertaxi), Philipp Pausder (Futurewatt), Philipp von Seherr-Thoss (Milk the Sun) and Martin Burkhardt (Boxtango). If you are an early stage startup or support startups with capital or industry expertise, you should definitely join the Climate-KIC network.
Read moreTarja Teppo pitches Cleantech Invest from Finland
Ecosummit TV: Tarja Teppo pitches the Helsinki-based early stage VC Cleantech Invest. Their portfolio currently consists of 11 smart green startups including Savosolar, Enercomp, One1 and Swap.com. As home markets are rather small, Scandinavian cleantech startups go international very quickly and are very interested in foreign investors, partners and customers. Cleantech Invest is part of the Vigo Accelerator of the Finnish government which provides €1M grant money to early stage startups to leverage the VC investment. Tarja’s ambitious goal is to create a large evergreen cleantech fund by doing an IPO. We are proud to have Tarja as Ecosummit Advisor and look forward to promoting the best startups from the Nordics.
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