- 10
- May
2013
Martin Riedel pitches the small wind startup Enbreeze
Ecosummit TV: Decentralised local energy production is a key trend in the Energiewende. While small PV systems are already widespread, small wind is a new market with large potential growing at 30% CAGR. The advantage of small wind is that the wind also blows during the night and on cloudy days. At ECO12 Düsseldorf, Martin Riedel pitches the German early stage cleantech startup Enbreeze that develops small wind turbines.
Read more- 9
- May
2013
Guido Luetsch pitches NTS and its high-altitude wind technology
Ecosummit TV: “Fish don’t need electricity,” says Aloys Wobben of Enercon. While offshore there is more wind, there is also less demand. As Guido Luetsch explains in his pitch, the German startup NTS tackles this problem by going to an altitude of 500m onshore in order to harvest stronger winds. NTS has got a running prototype in which high-altitude kites are steered by robots sitting on a straight track system on the ground. NTS is backed by 3M and wants to raise €5M from new investors for the closed loop pilot system. Moreover, NTS is partner of Autodesk’s cleantech programme using their software to design the steering robots and track system.
Read more- 6
- May
2013
Jörg Fabri analyses wind energy and recommends operational excellence
Ecosummit TV: The Energiewende, i.e. the transformation to a smart green energy system, is a massive challenge for the energy industry and the government. Globally, renewable energy attracts $200B investment per year to which wind energy contributes one third. In his talk at ECO12 Düsseldorf, Joerg Fabri of allocate, analyses how we can keep up the pace in the European wind energy sector if the level of subsidies further decreases.
Read more- 29
- April
2013
Osborne Clarke’s Carsten Schneider discusses term sheets and other legal challenges
Ecosummit TV: As Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson write in Venture Deals, 2 key things matter in a term sheet negotiation: economics and control. Carsten Schneider is a German Partner at the European law firm Osborne Clarke. In his presentation at ECO12 Düsseldorf, he gives condensed legal advice to cleantech startups and also discusses term sheets. During the lifetime cycle of a cleantech startup from seed stage to exit usually a number of financing rounds take place during which the interests of the startup, existing and new investors have to be balanced in a smart and sustainable way. In fact, the relationship between founders and investors is exit-driven and entrepreneurs should understand what this means in reality – for them and their startup.
Read more- 28
- April
2013
Florian Meyer-Delpho pitches solar e-commerce startup Greenergetic
Ecosummit TV: Florian Meyer-Delpho pitches Greenergetic at ECO12 Düsseldorf and believes that the market is ready for their solar e-commerce business model thanks to grid parity. Greenergetic develops an online portal to bring PV and smart home solutions directly to residential end customers. Houseowners can plan, finance and order their preferred PV system online. The Bielefeld-based cleantech startup also offers a whitelabel solution for utilities that are increasingly interested in selling solar systems to their customer base. Backed by eCapital and following the role model of Solarcity, Greenergetic is about to launch their new portal very soon.
Read more- 24
- April
2013
Philipp Pausder pitches FutureWatt
Ecosummit TV: The Energiewende is not only about electricity but also about heat. Philipp Pausder pitches the Berlin-based startup FutureWatt at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. For business customers, FutureWatt controls the design, the financing and the operation of distributed energy systems with the aim of significantly reducing the energy bill. In December 2012, Philipp and his team launched the B2C Internet platform called heizkosten-senken.de which helps consumers reduce their heating costs.
Read more- 16
- April
2013
Urban Keussen introduces Connecting Energies, the new CVC of EON
Ecosummit TV: Urban Keussen presents EON’s innovation strategy for its smart green utility transformation and introduces their new corporate venture capital (CVC) activities. At ECO12 Duesseldorf, Urban announced EON’s CVC called “Connecting Energies” that co-invests in mid and late stage startups in Europe and the US that are focused on distributed renewable energy, energy storage, smart grid and customers and data. Moreover, Urban and his team work on a lot of innovation that does not have a business case yet but may well have in the future. Thus they are open for joint projects with smart green startups, especially if their solution is able to accelerate the Energiewende (energy transformation), the key task of all utilities.
Read more- 9
- April
2013
Rolf Adam discusses critical infrastructure for the new energy system
Ecosummit TV: On 15 November 2012, the city of Munich experienced a power outage affecting 450.000 people, the first one in 20 years. Just in time Rolf Adam of Cisco goes on stage at Ecosummit Düsseldorf to discuss 6 megatrends affecting large and small utilities in their efforts to manage the critical infrastructure for the new energy system: economics, employees, resources, innovation, industry fragmentation and regulation. To be fit for the future, Rolf recommends that utilities take a system approach, embrace rapid innovation and align their business model with 2050 rather than betting the company on today’s industry setup.
Read more- 26
- March
2013
Bernard Scherrer discusses open innovation at EDF and introduces Electranova Capital
Ecosummit TV: Bernard Scherrer discusses open innovation at EDF, one of the biggest utilities in Europe. Part of the long-term innovation strategy is the new corporate venture capital fund called Electranova Capital that already made 2 startup investments in Actility (smart grid M2M applications) and Seatower (offshore wind foundations). To get the cooperation started, Bernard and his colleague Valerie are interested in doing pilot projects with the best cleantech startups in Europe that fit into their open innovation areas. Please get in touch if you are interested in doing business with EDF.
Read more- 26
- March
2013
Peter van Gelderen pitches early stage cleantech VC Icos Capital from the Netherlands
Ecosummit TV: Peter van Gelderen is a Dutch piano-playing cleantech investor who pitches his VC firm Icos Capital at ECO12 Düsseldorf. Founded in 2006, Icos Capital has got €75M under management and a portfolio of 9 cleantech startups. Peter likes to point out that his firm is an early stage investor because this is where the fun is and smart green company builders are needed the most. To be successful as early stage Cleantech VC, close relationships with corporates are a key success factor. Peter is Ecosummit Advisor and currently raises a new fund to which he invites German corporates as new LPs. Whether you are a corporate or startup, go and find Peter to discuss the art of early stage cleantech investing and the benefits of working together.
Read more- 25
- March
2013
Thomas Grigoleit invites startups to invest in the cleantech nation Germany
Ecosummit TV: Thomas Grigoleit, Director Renewable Energies & Resources at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), invites the best smart green startups from all over the world to invest in the cleantech nation Germany at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. GTAI is a governmental organisation that provides a free location consulting service to cleantech startups and corporates interested in taking advantage of Germany’s Energiewende (energy transformation) and its long-term business opportunities. Thomas presents a few case studies of foreign startups GTAI successfully attracted to Germany including Bsolar from Israel and Parmenion from Canada. Talk to Thomas if you want to follow their example.
Read more- 24
- March
2013
Tarja 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.
Read more- 15
- March
2013
Martin Mohr pitches the algae startup Ecoduna from Austria
Ecosummit TV: Martin Mohr passionately pitches the Austrian algae startup Ecoduna at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. Founded in 2009, Ecoduna is one of the cleantech startups pioneering the algae business in Europe. Their ultimate goal is price competitive algae-based biofuel which they plan to reach within 5 to 8 years. Until then, the pharmaceutical industry is a potential buyer of algae products. Vattenfall in Germany is one of Ecoduna’s pilot customers. The Austrian startup received €2M public funding and patiently looks for €5M to €10M venture capital from strategic investors.
Read more- 14
- March
2013
Juergen Finke presents Evonik corporate venturing
Ecosummit TV: More and more corporates create their own venture capital business units to support external innovation that is relevant to their core business. One of the new kids on the block is Evonik, the German specialty chemistry group with €14.5B revenues and 33.500 employees in 2011. At Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012, Juergen Finke unveils the investment strategy of Evonik Corporate Venturing. Having started at the beginning of 2012, Evonik dedicated a €100M fund, made 3 fund investments (HTGF, Pangea and Emerald) to run up the learning curve and is working on their first direct startup investments. If your startup matches the strategy and expertise of one of Evonik’s business units, go and talk to Juergen. Smart green corporate venture capital may be your best choice.
Read more- 6
- March
2013
Alexander Zosel pitches electric helicopter startup E-volo
Ecosummit TV: Alexander Zosel pitches E-volo at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. The German startup develops a new type of electric helicopter called Volocopter. While in the US you don’t need a special license to fly the 1-seater Volocopter, the German aviation authority plans to create a new class of aircraft specifically for the Volocopter. Personal electric aviation will be a totally new market and E-volo is a worldwide aviation pioneer. They celebrated the first manned flight with a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft on 21 October 2011. Backed by the 4 founders and a €2M grant from the German government, E-volo looks for adventurous VCs in Europe and the US.
Read more- 2
- March
2013
Stefan Roest pitches Dutch solar testing startup Eternal Sun
Ecosummit TV: Eternal Sun was a real highlight at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. The lean cleantech startup from TU Delft in the Netherlands develops and manufactures state-of-the-art solar testing equipment and found customers all over the world within 1.5 years after company foundation. The audience was impressed by the fact that Eternal Sun focuses so well on lean product development and fast customer development while still being self-funded by the founders. CTO Stefan Roest delivers an awesome pitch on Ecosummit TV and now looks for VCs that know the solar testing market well and can help scale sales and production.
Read more- 1
- 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.
Read more- 28
- February
2013
Markus Becker pitches sustainability software startup EcoIntense
Ecosummit TV: Markus Becker pitches EcoIntense at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. The Berlin-based smart green startup develops sophisticated software for health, security and environmental management (HSE). EcoIntense was founded in 2007, has got 35 employees, doubled its revenues 2 years in a row and now enjoys profitability. EcoIntense’s customer list is really impressive and features Siemens that uses EcoWebDesk in 3 of their 4 business units. Having reached so many milestones, Markus is interested in talking to late stage financial or corporate VCs that can add strategic value.
Read more- 17
- February
2013
Oliver Luenstedt pitches p2p car sharing startup Carzapp
Ecosummit TV: Oliver Lünstedt, CEO of Carzapp, pitches the German p2p car sharing startup. While there are already 3 peer-2-peer car sharing startups in Germany, Carzapp is the first one to have developed their own hardware solution called ZappKit. The ZappKit enables wireless car access with smartphones used as digital keys. The magic hardware box also includes GPS and an immobiliser that prevents theft. Moreover, the Berlin-based startup has an idea for the cost-efficient rollout of electric cars and participates in the electric mobility showcase Berlin-Brandenburg by adapting their platform to support p2p electric car sharing. Carzapp is backed by angels and looks for €1M to enter the German market in the first half of 2013.
Read more- 16
- February
2013
Thomas delos Santos pitches the electric microcar Colibri
Ecosummit TV: Not many people have the guts to found an electric vehicle startup these days. Thomas delos Santos, CEO of Innovative Mobility, is one of them. His pitch at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012 provides the full story behind the electric microcar called Colibri. The Colibri will be unveiled at the auto show in Geneva in March 2013. The light electric vehicle (LEV) for city dwellers will cost €8.9K plus monthly battery leasing costs of €55. Colibri shall hit the market in 2015 and can be pre-ordered in 2014 – provided that Thomas manages to raise the rather large funds needed for series development and production. We cross our fingers as we want to see the smart green Colibri on the street.
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