- 6
- 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.
Read more- 11
- April
2012
Smart Green Dealflow: Sefaira, Geo-En, Tado and WeSustain
Let’s toast to 4 smart green startups that successfully closed new funding rounds during the last months. Sefaira, Geo-En, Tado and WeSustain have all been on our Ecosummit stage and are active members of our Smart Green Business Network. Sefaira, Tado and WeSustain were also nominated for the Ecosummit Award 2012. Braemar Energy Ventures leads Sefaira’s €8.2M round with co-investors Chrysalix SET and Hermes GPE. eCapital and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft invest €4M in Berlin-based Geo-En. Target Partners seed finances Tado while NBank, MBG, KfW and High-Tech Gründerfonds back WeSustain. Let’s take a closer look at the startups and some of their new investors.
Read more- 5
- April
2012
Jan Michael Hess Opens Ecosummit 2012 Berlin – With A Little Help From Some Friends
Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit Founder Jan Michael Hess opens Ecosummit Berlin 2012 on 22 March at Radialsystem. The sun is shining and many smart green people are in the house, visibly motivated to share ideas and grow their network. Our third Smart Green Business Conference is climate neutral thanks to the carbon offset powered by ClimatePartner. According to Bart Markus of Wellington Partners, Cleantech includes many big markets such as wind, solar, water or efficiency. Big markets attract lots of VC money and absorb experiments and execution mistakes. According to Prof. Karl Leo, Europe is good at basic research – this is our culture – but bad at application and bringing new ideas fast to global markets. At ECO12, we aggregated 225 startups, VCs and corporates to accelerate Smart Green Innovation. And we announced Virtual Ecosummit powered by ubivent. Let the show begin!
Read more- 7
- January
2012
Invitation to Ecosummit 2012 on 22-23 March in Berlin
It is our pleasure to invite you to Ecosummit 2012. ECO12 is our third international Smart Green Business Conference and takes place on 22-23 March 2012 in the beautiful Radialsystem in Berlin. We bring together startups, VCs, corporates and utilities fostering cleantech, renewable energy, emobility, smart green city and sustainability. We expect 400 participants and have already confirmed 26 speakers, 10 sponsors, 15 partners, 45 jury members and 17 award nominees. The next 2.5 months are going to be super exciting and you should join us in Berlin for our annual climax – ECO12.
Read more- 14
- December
2011
Karl Leo, Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth and Martin Pfeiffer win Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2011
Congratulations to Prof. Dr. Karl Leo, Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer for winning the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2011 (DZP11) today. The DZP11 is awarded by the German President and includes €250K prize money. I am very proud of this trio and their work. Karl Leo is university professor at TU Dresden and co-founder of both Novaled and Heliatek, Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth is co-founder and CSO (Chief Scientific Officer) of Novaled and Martin Pfeiffer is co-founder and CTO of Heliatek. It’s all about organic electronics, organic LED and organic PV made in Dresden, Europe’s leading cluster for green photonics.
Read more- 13
- 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!
Read more- 15
- September
2011
Ecosummit 2012 celebrates Smart Green Business with new Award
Press Release: For the third time, Mobile Economy GmbH organises Ecosummit, the international smart green business conference. Ecosummit 2012 (ECO12) takes place on 22-23 March in Berlin and gathers 400 executives representing investors, startups, corporates and utilities. ECO12 focuses on cleantech, renewable energy, electric mobility, smart green city, startup financing and sustainability management. The new ECO12 Award rewards the best smart green companies in Europe.
Read more- 15
- September
2011
Ecosummit 2012 zelebriert Smart Green Business mit neuem Award
Pressemitteilung: Mobile Economy GmbH organisiert den dritten Ecosummit am 22.-23. März 2012 in Berlin. Die internationale Konferenz für Smart Green Business lockt 400 Topmanager von Investoren, Startups, Konzernen und Energieversorgern in die Hauptstadt. Auf dem Ecosummit 2012 (ECO12) geht es um Cleantech, erneuerbare Energien, Elektromobilität, Smart Green City, Startup-Finanzierung und Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement. Der neue ECO12 Award zeichnet die besten intelligenten grünen Unternehmen in Europa aus.
Read more- 12
- 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.
Read more- 22
- August
2011
Smart Green Business Networking at Ecosummit Lounge on 21 September 2011 in Berlin
We are happy to announce our first Ecosummit Lounge on 21 September 2011 in Berlin. Ecosummit Lounge takes place in the cool event location called HomeBase Potsdamer Platz. Ecosummit Lounge is a new event format we created to focus on Smart Green Business Networking in a laid-back atmosphere. From 18:00-24:00, we will enjoy a few short pitches from startups and sponsors and lots of healthy food, tasty red wine as well as funky jazz and electronic music. We will also preview Ecosummit 2012, our 3rd international Smart Green Business Conference. ECO12 features our new ECO12 Award that honours and rewards the best European smart green companies. Ecosummit Lounge tickets are available and 5 speakers are confirmed!
Read more- 19
- August
2011
Joachim Maass pitches German CSP startup Solar Tower Systems
Joachim Maass, Founder and CEO, pitches his German startup Solar Tower Systems to investors at ECO11. Solar Tower Systems is in the very promising business of CSP (Concentrated Solar Power), has the first customers and revenues, a strong management team and currently looks for €1.5M funding. Should be an easy deal.
Read more- 16
- August
2011
Google-Motorola Deal Accelerates Fusion of Mobile Economy and Smart Green Economy
Yesterday, 15 August 2011, Google announced its acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5B. At $40.00 per share this equals a premium of 63% compared to the closing price of the Motorola share on Friday. Given that I entered the Mobile Economy back in 2000 and went green in 2010, I want to comment on the impact of the Google-Motorola deal for the Mobile Economy and the Smart Green Economy which are growing together faster than ever. This deal makes Google really powerful but it will also make the users more powerful due to ubiquitous intelligent devices enabling a more sustainable lifestyle.
Read more- 15
- August
2011
Soeren Paulussen pitches Smart Green Cooling Startup Invensor
Invensor’s smart green cooling technology called adsorption converts heat into cold without using electricity. With this approach you can save up to 70% of electricity costs, e.g. in your data centres. Soeren Paulussen, Co-Founder and Head of System Technology, pitches Berlin-based Invensor to investors at ECO11.
Read more- 12
- August
2011
Erwin Burth invites you to join the free Autodesk Cleantech Partner Programme
Erwin Burth is Head of Cleantech Business Development EMEA at Autodesk, the famous CAD (Computer Aided Design) software company. It’s just pure magic how you can do intelligent product design using cool software and the power of cloud computing. At ECO11, Erwin presents the generous Autodesk Cleantech Partner Programme that provides free Autodesk software with a value of €120K ($150K) to Cleantech startups. Among the ECO11 startups, Pyrum, NTS and Solar Tower Systems are members of the Autodesk Cleantech Partner Programme. Apparently, it is rather easy to get accepted into the programme. So what are you waiting for?
Read more- 8
- 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.
Read more- 28
- July
2011
Fast cleantech IPO invitation by Sven Roger von Schilling and his SPAC European Cleantech 1
These guys want to make one of the biggest cleantech deals in Germany by the end of 2012 – at the latest. Their ambition is great and their budget is big. Their Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) European Cleantech 1 (ECT 1) is a recently listed public company that raised €115M to acquire a private cleantech company and take it public at the same time via a business combination. If you are a super successful private cleantech company in Europe and want to go public fast, you should talk to Sven soon.
Read more- 27
- 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.
Read more- 24
- July
2011
Antoine Gourdon pitches Water Treatment startup TMW Technologies at ECO11
Antoine Gourdon pitches his French water treatment technology startup TMW Technologies at Ecosummit 2011 in Berlin. Watch this Ecosummit TV episode to learn more about the startup, the investment opportunity of €2M and the growing water technology market. The management team is very strong and I am sure that they will be successful.
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- 5
- July
2011
5th Munich Cleantech Conference on 14 July 2011 – Interview with Curt Winnen
On Thursday next week, 14 July 2011, the Munich Network, headed by Curt Winnen, produces the 5th Munich Cleantech Conference (MCC11). That’s rather sustainable and proves a lot of experience in bringing together smart green startups, investors and corporates. Below you find our interview with Curt about the MCC11. Myself, I joined the investor-heavy congress last year and will attend the upcoming MCC11, too, as Ecosummit is one of the media partners.
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