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- March
2013
Ecosummit Lounge London 2 May 2013
Ecosummit and Taylor Wessing, the international law firm with extensive cleantech and private equity experience, co-host the second Ecosummit Lounge London on 2 May 2013 at Taylor Wessing’s magnificent office. We will enjoy an inspiring evening of smart green business networking with a group of local and international cleantech startups, investors and corporates. Rob Wylie, Partner at WHEB Partners, gives a keynote on the current state of cleantech venture capital, followed by startup pitches of the 3 ECO13 Award Nominees Ubitricity, Tado and Loowatt. Tickets are available for £30,00. Thanks a lot to Simon Walker and his team for hosting us and sharing the super cool roof terrace.
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- March
2013
Andreas Aepfelbacher presents Fraunhofer Venture
Ecosummit TV: Andreas Aepfelbacher, Deputy Head at Fraunhofer Venture, presents the corporate VC of Europe’s largest R&D organisation. Fraunhofer has got 60 research institutes spread out evenly over Germany in which 20.000 employees develop new technologies for a better future powered by an annual budget of €1.9B. Many cleantech startups already cooperate with the most relevant Fraunhofer institute in their specific knowledge area, e.g. Fraunhofer ISE, IWES or IPMS. Fraunhofer offers applied research and welcomes startups, VCs and corporates to discuss new opportunities for creating value together.
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- February
2013
Alois Flatz, Zouk Capital, talks about cleantech venture capital 2.0
Ecosummit TV: Alois Flatz, Partner at Zouk Capital, talks about Cleantech Venture Capital 2.0 at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012 and explains how investment strategies are changing in the current market. On the one hand, Alois thinks positive as cleantech becomes ubiquitous and affects all aspects of life. On the other hand, he has learned from 20 years of experience that VC investors (general partners) depend on fast exits to be able to raise new funds from their investors (limited partners). Thus, investment horizons are shortening and startups need to generate cash and prove their business models as quickly as possible. Zouk Capital is a late stage investor that accelerates cleantech startups that already have at least €5M revenues, multiplying the value of the company and then selling it again after a couple of years. Don’t approach Zouk without revenues and rather try to get there fast.
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- February
2013
Smart green dealflow: Sunfire, Greenergetic, Sonnenbatterie, LEDeXCHANGE, Valopaa and Friedola Tech
6 smart green startups successfully raised new venture capital recently: Power to gas and fuel startup Sunfire (seven-figure, Germany), PV online retailer Greenergetic (undisclosed seed, Germany), residential storage provider Sonnenbatterie (undisclosed, Germany), retrofit LED provider LEDeXCHANGE (€500K seed, Germany), LED lighting company Valopaa (€2M, Finland) and recycled plastics manufacturer Friedola Tech (€31M, Germany). The active cleantech VCs include Bilfinger Venture Capital, eCapital, High-Tech Gründerfonds, VNT Management, Silver Lake Kraftwerk and Kleiner Perkins.
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- October
2012
Lean cleantech startup – New Context Conference Tokyo 2012
Only successful cleantech startups have a positive impact on climate change and global resource problems. The problem is that most hardware-based cleantech startups are very capital and time intensive. Entrepreneurs and investors constantly look for new strategies to accelerate the development and marketing of smart green innovation. Applying the lean startup philosophy to cleantech could be the perfect solution. Cleantech startups also search for scalable business model, product market fit, validated learning from customers and engine of growth. In this context, it was a special honour to go to Japan – especially after Fukushima – and speak about Lean Cleantech Startup at the spectacular New Context Conference Tokyo 2012 two weeks ago.
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- August
2012
What cleantech startups and VCs in Europe and USA can learn from each other
Ecosummit TV: Europeans don’t think big enough. Michael Linse (KPCB), Pascal Mauberger (McPhy Energy), Oliver Stahl (Entelios) and Bart Markus (Wellington) discuss the differences between the cleantech startup and VC business in USA and Europe. There are many things we can learn from each other. On average, US cleantech startups get 4 times more capital than European ones. This has to do with the different environment in terms of market size, capital availability and competition.
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- July
2012
Algae startup Subitec raises €4.5 Million Series A from eCapital, Fraunhofer, HTGF and KfW
The upcoming German algae startup scene celebrates its first venture capital investment. The lucky startup is Stuttgart-based Subitec that successfully closed its Series A financing round led by eCapital. Subitec’s algae factories consist of patented vertical photobioreactors that use little space and energy while producing high yield. CEO Peter Ripplinger who pitched Subitec at Ecosummit Berlin 2011 wants to use the fresh money to grow the team, expand the lab and pilot facilities and internationalise the business. The main target market is the US where the demand for innovative algae technologies is the strongest.
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- June
2012
Ecosummit Lounge London at Taylor Wessing on 19 September 2012
Ecosummit and Taylor Wessing, the international law firm with extensive cleantech and private equity experience, joined forces to invite you to a high-voltage evening of Smart Green Business Networking. Our first Ecosummit Lounge London takes place on 19 September 2012 at Taylor Wessing’s spacious London office. At the lounge, we will enjoy a keynote by Niki Rosinski, Partner at Generation Investment, talking about Sustainable Capitalism, 6 startup pitches by SolarFuel, Sefaira, Carzapp, Ventive, EnergyDeck and Ecosummit, tasty drinks, finger food and all that Jazz. Tickets for the Ecosummit Lounge London are available for £30,00. The amazing list of participants is included at the bottom of this article. We look forward to seeing you in London.
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- June
2012
Michael Linse of Kleiner Perkins: humanity is about to hit a wall
Ecosummit TV: Michael Linse, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, talks about his favourite greentech investing framework at Ecosummit Berlin and comes to a scary conclusion: Humanity is about to hit a wall. Cleantech is about the impact of the macro trends on huge industries that will lead to a more sustainable functioning of these industries. The demand side of the equation is changing, in fact, it will go up tremendously. From now until 2030, 3 billion people will join the global middle class. This is significant as the resource consumption pattern increases most dramatically as people move from the scope of poverty to the middle class.
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- June
2012
Hansjoerg Sage pitches the cleantech VC Gimv
Ecosummit TV: Hansjoerg Sage is a Partner at Gimv and pitches the cleantech VC from Belgium at ECO12 Berlin. Gimv is around for 30 years and has €1.8B under management of which 30% is venture capital. Hansjoerg points out that cleantech investing is about solving very big problems and is driven by fundamental trends such as climate change, energy supply security, urbanisation, scarcity of resources and environmental concerns that will be a top human priority for the next couple of decades. However, cleantech investments have a particular risk return profile that needs to be managed.
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- June
2012
Fabienne Herlaut presents the corporate VC Ecomobilité Ventures
Ecosummit TV: Fabienne Herlaut is the Managing Partner of the French corporate VC Ecomobilité Ventures that has 4 very powerful limited partners: SNCF, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Total and Orange. Fabienne presents her new €30M fund at Ecosummit Berlin 2012 and shares her investment strategy into smart green startups working on new technology and business models for sustainable mobility. I strongly recommend that you talk to Fabienne if you are an ambitious ecomobility startup with an international strategy that wants to take advantage of the added value of this promising group of corporates.
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- May
2012
Climate-KIC Incubator Network Strengthens Early Stage Startups In Europe
Ecosummit TV: The closing panel of day 1 of Ecosummit 2012 in Berlin focused on supporting smart green entrepreneurs in the early stage of the startup process. The panel was presented by Climate-KIC, the European incubator network initiated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. Sebastian Matthes, technology section editor of our media partner Wirtschaftswoche, moderated a very informative conversation with Agnes von Matuschka (Center for Entrepreneurship at TU Berlin, University), Dr. Alexander von Frankenberg (High-Tech Gründerfonds, VC), Dr. Ingo Potthof (UnternehmerTUM Fund, VC) and Dr. Maximilian Horster (Climate Neutral Investments – South Pole Carbon, Startup). A couple of interesting issues came up during the panel discussion.
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- May
2012
Bart Markus Of Wellington Talks About The Art Of Investing In Cleantech Startups
Ecosummit TV: Bart Markus, General Partner of Wellington Partners, gives an outstanding talk about the Art of Investing in Cleantech Startups at Ecosummit Berlin 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.
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- October
2011
Smart Green VC Khosla Ventures raises new billion-dollar fund
Vinod Khosla is a wise man and smart green investor. Originally from India, Co-Founder of Sun Microsystems, Partner at Kleiner Perkins and, since 2004, Founder and Managing Partner of Khosla Ventures, Vinod is probably the most successful Cleantech VC in 2011 with 3 successful IPOs already. Not afraid of taking big risks, ready to fail in order to succeed, focused on the relevance of the Chindia price (unsubsidised price competitiveness in China and India) and self-defining as venture assistant helping entrepreneurs build relevant companies, Vinod is a big role model for me. Now he has even more money to accelerate smart green startups. That’s awesome, dude, congrats to all of us!
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- September
2011
Cleantech Paradise Going Green Silicon Valley 2011
California here I come. 2 days after our Ecosummit Lounge I will hop on a plane to San Francisco. My target is the Cleantech paradise that Tony Perkins, Founder of AlwaysOn, unites at Going Green Silicon Valley 2011 which takes place on 27-28 September in San Francisco. Having joined Going Green East in March 2010 in Boston, I know what to expect: The best Cleantech VCs and startups the West Coast has on offer, everybody totally wired and inspired to save the world, grow disruptive companies and make big returns on investment.
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- August
2011
Robert Seiter of Ernst & Young presents Global Cleantech Venture Insights
Robert Seiter, Head of Cleantech EMEIA at accounting firm Ernst & Young, presents Global Cleantech Venture Insights at ECO11. In 2010, the Cleantech industry received 15% of global VC investments and proves that it is a huge business opportunity. As of Q3/2010, there are 1.434 private VC-backed Cleantech companies with €22.16B in equity raised. US companies are funded at a 4 times higher level than European companies while the Energy Efficiency sector turns out to be especially popular among VCs. Now you can watch Robert’s ECO11 talk on Ecosummit TV.
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- July
2011
ECO11 Cleantech VC Panel showcasing Taylor Wessing, WHEB Partners, Zouk Capital and Climate Change Capital
This new Ecosummit TV episode showcases the views of 3 leading Cleantech VCs and the law firm Taylor Wessing on the hot trends in the Cleantech VC industry. Enjoy Peter Hellich (Taylor Wessing), Joerg Sperling (WHEB Partners), Felix von Schubert (Zouk Capital) and Bruno Derungs (Climate Change Capital), moderated by Jan Michael Hess (Ecosummit), talking about the deals they make and the deals they would like to make.
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- July
2011
Alexander von Frankenberg introduces High-Tech Gründerfonds, Germany’s leading Seed VC
Alexander von Frankenberg, Managing Director of the German seed VC High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), presents the fund at ECO11 and shares his lessons learned during 5 years of seed funding the German High-tech startup ecosystem. HTGF makes every 2nd seed deal in Germany and currently has 18 portfolio firms in the Cleantech industry. At ECO11, 6 HTGF Cleantech portfolio companies were on stage: Entelios, Subitec, ZIM Plant Technology, Next Kraftwerke, Ecointense and Wesustain.
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- July
2011
Bruno Derungs of Climate Change Capital presents Cleantech for Smart Buildings and Smart Cities
Bruno Derungs, Partner of Climate Change Capital Private Equity, talks about Cleantech for Smart Cities and Smart Buildings at Ecosummit 2011. Bruno is now on our Youtube Ecosummit TV channel. Climate Change Capital – I really like the name – is a London-based smart green investor that combines various teams investing in different asset classes including technology companies (private equity) and energy infrastructure (project financing).
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- May
2011
Cleantech Investment Manager Shimpei Yamashita of Sumitomo Corporation talks about Cleantech Economy Japan and Fukushima on Ecosummit TV
Shimpei Yamashita, Cleantech Investment Manager at Sumitomo Corporation, flew from Tokyo via London to Berlin to give an elaborate speech about the Cleantech Economy in Japan at Ecosummit 2011 (ECO11) on 25 March. This is our first long Youtube HD video on Ecosummit TV. Shimpei explains the status quo and future of the Japanese Cleantech Economy and the lack of smart green VC-backed startups in Japan.
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