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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.
Read more- 17
- 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).
Read more- 4
- 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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- May
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Frank Siebke – Good Energies – Cleantech VC
In his talk “PV – Is the Party Over?” at Ecosummit 2011, Frank Siebke, Investment Director at Good Energies, gives a detailed overview of the current and future trends of the PV industry from an investor’s point of view. Frank says that the party is not over yet, solar has still a huge potential. After polycrystalline silicon solar (1G) and thin-film solar (2G) now we enter the third solar technology generation (3G) which is organic PV (OPV).
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- April
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Paulus Neef – Henner Gladen – MAMA
CEO Paulus Neef and Venture Partner Henner Gladen of the Berlin-based Sustainability VC called MAMA talk with Jan Michael Hess at Ecosummit 2011 (ECO11). MAMA is a young early stage investor focusing on Cleantech and Sustainability that currently has 3 companies in its portfolio. The strategic limited partner of MAMA is the global innovation corporate 3M. MAMA wants to bring sustainability to the mass market and we look forward to further cooperation in the future.
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- April
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Holger Schmitz – Ventizz Capital
Holger Schmitz is investment manager at Ventizz Capital, a private equity firm focused on investing growth capital into strong Cleantech companies in the German speaking countries. They don’t do early stage VC deals but rather look for companies that have between €10M and €200M revenues. Their current portfolio includes 1366 Technologies and Sovello. Apparently, their funds enjoy a very good performance with an investment multiple of 7.8 on average.
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- April
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Denis Lucquin – Sofinnova Partners
“You need to master the industry in which you invest,” says the French VC with a plan to help the big chemistry corporates overcome their oil dependence through external innovation commercialised by innovative startups. His name is Denis Lucquin, Managing Partner of Sofinnova Partners, one of the most successful VCs in Europe. I was totally impressed by the strategy of his new VC fund focused within Cleantech on the specific sector called Green Chemistry.
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- April
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Gina Domanig – Emerald Technology Ventures
Gina Domanig, Managing Partner, Emerald Technology Ventures, is a real pioneer in the Cleantech Venture Capital scene. 10 years ago she raised her first Cleantech fund and can now tell very interesting stories about the lessons she learned during the past decade. At Ecosummit 2011, Gina gave a wonderful slide-free speech sharing her VC experience. Gina points out the significance of managing close relationships with the corporates in the various Cleantech sectors, i.e. the big companies that often buy the products of the startups or, even better, the entire startup company. In my eyes, a real highlight of our agenda and definitely a must-watch episode of Ecosummit TV for investors, startups and corporates.
Read more- 31
- March
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Michael Linse – KPCB
It’s the cost curves, stupid! – A cool title chosen for his speech by Michael Linse, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, at ECO11 in Berlin. The cost of production for all major green technologies including PV, Wind, Water, Batteries etc. will further go down. That’s the good news. Driving cost out of the business should be the focus of all Cleantech startups and corporates trying to scale their business and go global. According to Michael, it is also the key parameter for his investment decisions. Later stage deals mean that the technology risk has already been taken out. The next question is how to scale globally as fast as possible. Enter Michael’s KPCB Green Growth Fund.
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