Kurt Kaltenegger of ABB proposes sustainable art of corporate venturing

Ecosummit TV: Kurt Kaltenegger is CTO of ABB Technology Ventures which did 11 cleantech investments since it was founded 2.5 years ago. ABB’s corporate VC (CVC) approach combines strategic and financial goals when investing in startups that have innovative technologies ABB can use for new business. Now Kurt challenges his fellow VCs to reconsider their current investment strategies by implementing a new symbiosis between VCs and CVCs. Kurt believes that corporates like ABB bring so much expertise and added value to the table that valuations should be lower for them. That’s a cool way to start a negotiation with the startup CEO and her existing investors.

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.

Smart Hydro Power raises €2.7 Million Series A from eCapital

Smart Hydro Power successfully closed their Series A financing round raising €2.7M from the German Cleantech VC eCapital which values the startup at €8.4M premoney. The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds converted their loan in this round. As Smart Hydro Power also won the Ecosummit Jury Award 2012 convincing our 53 judges, this milestone is a welcome opportunity to interview the CEO Karl Kolmsee and his investors about the deal and the prospects of this unique young company. Moreover, this deal proves that we continue to bring the best smart green startups onto our Ecosummit stage. To celebrate, we are happy to publish Karl’s fantastic ECO12 pitch on Ecosummit TV just in time for this story.

Erwin Burth Presents Autodesk Cleantech Partner Programme At ECO12 Berlin

Ecosummit TV: Erwin Burth manages business development for Autodesk in Europe in the cleantech industry. Autodesk was founded 30 years ago, is a public company with a market cap of $8.2B and plays a pivotal role in the Smart Green Economy when it comes to designing smart green products. At ECO12, Erwin presents Autodesk’s design philosophy and its powerful design software solutions for the physical world. Autodesk believes that all problems can be solved with the help of intelligent design. In fact, that’s exactly what every cleantech startup building hardware needs. Autodesk is a very generous corporate and offers free software with a value of up to €120K to cleantech startups. Many Ecosummit startups are already a member of the Autodesk Cleantech Partner Programme such as Smart Hydro Power that won the Ecosummit Jury Award 2012. I strongly recommend that you apply asap.

Mar Alarcón Pitches P2P Car Sharing Startup Social Car At ECO12 In Berlin

Ecosummit TV: Mar Alarcón is the founder and CEO of Social Car, Spain’s leading p2p car sharing operator. Before Social Car Mar co-founded Social Energy, a PV project developer based in China. I like the brand name Social Car very much and I am very bullish with regards to the business model of p2p car sharing as it is very capital efficient and scaleable. Mar did a great pitch at Ecosummit 2012 on 22-23 March in Berlin.

Thibaud Le Séguillon Presents Organic PV Startup Heliatek

Ecosummit TV: Thibaud Le Séguillon, CEO of Heliatek, presents his Organic PV startup at ECO12. OPV is the third generation of solar technology and Heliatek is the global leader. The Dresden-based startup recently announced another efficiency world record of 10.7%. The efficiency roadmap goes up to 15-20%. But the real advantage of Heliatek is low cost per kwh as well as very green manufacturing processes without toxic materials. Now Heliatek looks for €60M for their Fab 2. Thibaud on Ecosummit TV is just the perfect sales pitch for their new financing round.

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.

Serial Entrepreneur Prof. Karl Leo Unveils New OLED Microdisplay Startup At ECO12

Ecosummit TV: Prof. Karl Leo is Germany’s poster child when it comes to co-founding new smart green startups out of university. In his case, it’s the University of Dresden where he leads the Institute for Applied Photophysics. He simultaneously works with Fraunhofer IPMS to create even more value. Karl Leo is famous for co-founding Novaled which is heading for NASDAQ as well as Heliatek. His new startup that currently looks for smart green VCs invents OLED Microdisplays which are super energy efficient as you put them directly in front of the eye. Karl Leo is a role model for Europe’s university professors and we are happy that he joined Ecosummit 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!

From Ego to Eco – Gerd Leonhard talks about Sustainable Capitalism at ECO12

Ecosummit TV brings to you the first video of Ecosummit 2012 (ECO12), our third Smart Green Business Conference which took place on 22-23 March 2012 in Berlin. Futurist Gerd Leonhard, CEO of The Futures Agency, talks about Sustainable Capitalism and why we have to move from Ego to Eco. People and corporations alike should be sustainable by default in everything they do. The Internet enables a decentralised sharing economy in which we share energy and all other resources collaborating instead of competing. A new form of sustainable capitalism is the only way forward into a smart green future.

ECO12 Award Facebook Winners, Agenda, Participants and Tickets

18 days to go until Ecosummit 2012 takes place on 22-23 March. We are making good progress and have important news. We nominated 52 smart green startups from 9 countries for the ECO12 Award. Facebook voting was officially closed on 1 March 2012 and we are happy to announce the Ecosummit Award 2012 Facebook Winners: BlaBlaCar from France wins Gold with 4.595 votes, Carpooling.com from Germany wins Silver with 2.728 votes and MyCO2 from France wins Bronze with 634 votes. We are very impressed and want to thank everybody for voting. The Ecosummit Award 2012 Jury Winners sharing the prize money will be announced at the ECO12 Award Party on 22 March. The ECO12 agenda and participants are online and present many good reasons to get your ticket and join our Smart Green Innovation Festival in Berlin.

Ecosummit 2012 becoming Europe’s leading Smart Green Innovation Forum

The ECO12 Agenda is online. 30 smart green startups are nominated for the ECO12 Award.

Press Release – Berlin, 13 February 2012: Ecosummit 2012 (ECO12) takes place on 22-23 March in the Radialsystem in Berlin. The 3rd edition of the international smart green business conference gathers around 400 executives of startups, investors, corporates and utilities. ECO12 focuses on cleantech, renewable energy, electric mobility, smart green city and venture capital. Already 30 smart green startups are nominated for the ECO12 Award.

Ecosummit 2012 wird führendes Forum für Smart Green Innovation in Europa

Die ECO12 Agenda ist online. 30 intelligente grüne Startups sind für den ECO12 Award nominiert.

Pressemitteilung – Berlin, 13. Februar 2012: Ecosummit 2012 (ECO12) findet am 22. und 23. März im Radialsystem in Berlin statt. Die dritte Auflage der internationalen Konferenz für Smart Green Business erwartet rund 400 Manager von Startups, Investoren, Konzernen und Energieversorgern. Auf dem ECO12 geht es um Cleantech, erneuerbare Energien, Elektromobilität, Smart Green City und Venture Capital. Bereits 30 intelligente grüne Startups aus 6 Ländern sind für den ECO12 Award nominiert.

3 Smart Green Startups from Germany Poised to Conquer the Global Market

As a warmup for ECO12, I would like to present 3 smart green startups from Germany that are in a unique position to be successful on the global Cleantech market. They have unique technology, achieved major milestones and look for strategic investors, partners and clients to enter new markets and grow faster. Let’s take a closer look at SolarFuel (Power to Gas), Heliatek (Organic Photovoltaics) and Flinc (Realtime Ride Sharing). All 3 startups are nominated for the ECO12 Award and join Ecosummit 2012 on 22-23 March in Berlin.

ECO12 Update: Wirtschaftswoche, ClimatePartner, Startups, Speakers and Laing playing live

Ecosummit 2012, our third international Smart Green Business Conference for startups, VCs, corporates and utilities, makes fantastic progress: We confirmed 36 speakers, 15 sponsors, 18 partners, 45 jury members and 24 award nominees. New ECO12 Media Partner is the leading German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche. ClimatePartner sponsors our carbon offset to make ECO12 climate neutral. 5 startups are ECO12 Silver Sponsors and join our startup demo area. And we signed the Berlin-based electronic a capella band Laing to play live at the ECO12 Award party on 22 March. Many good reasons to buy your ticket or (re)consider sponsoring our Smart Green Business Network and Conference.

Call for Ecosummit Ambassadors to join ECO12

Ecosummit Ambassadors are planetfriendly university graduates with international background who aim at a career in the Smart Green Economy to solve our global climate, resource and economic problems. The ECO12 organisers need 20 Ecosummit Ambassadors to support us before and during ECO12. We are grateful for your applications and selected 20 ambassadors coming from India, Malaysia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Sweden, Zimbabwe, USA, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Spain, Indonesia, Poland, UK and Germany. The deal is simple: As ambassador you get a free ECO12 ticket and work 50% of your time in important jobs such as registration, speaker management, networking angel, participant service, microphone runner and cloakroom. Please do not send further applicatiions. Now is a good time to meet our new ECO12 Ambassadors – your future teammates.

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.

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.

SolarFuel pioneers Power to Gas technology and new multi-billion Euro market

Yesterday I joined the Power to Gas (P2G) conference organised by Bundesnetzagentur and Fraunhofer IWES. It was a fantastic event, I learned a lot and a couple of things are clear to me now. The German startup SolarFuel is the global Power to Gas first mover. In fact, SolarFuel is capable of providing an integrated P2G solution and insanely well positioned to conquer the new multi-billion Euro market of storing renewable energy as renewable methane (synthetic natural gas) and coupling the electricity and gas networks to create the smart green super grid.

Ecosummit Lounge Berlin 6 December 2011

Ecosummit and InnoZ, Berlin’s exciting epicentre for electric mobility and smart green city, joined forces to invite you to a high-voltage evening of intense Smart Green Business Networking. Our second Ecosummit Lounge Berlin takes place on 6 December 2011 and is co-hosted by InnoZ’s Intelligent City Salon. From 18:00-23:00, we will enjoy 5 smart green startup pitches, Ursprung, finger food and all that Jazz. The Ecosummit Lounge is free – our Santa Claus present – but invitation-only. Please ping us to request your personal invitation code.