- 16
- January
2023
Aerones raises $30M Series A led by Lightrock and Haniel
We love this startup since we got to know it in April 2021. Applying the power of robotics to make the wind industry more efficient is a great idea. Our ecoportfolio company Aerones raises $30M Series A led by Lightrock and Haniel with participation of new investor Blume Equity. Aerones is based in Riga (Latvia), develops and manufactures a family of smart robots and provides their robot-enabled services for the maintenance of wind turbines with a team of 200 employees to more than 100 customers in 20 countries including Vestas, GE, Siemens Gamesa, NextEra and Enel. The goal is to minimise downtime when wind turbines are inspected, cleaned, coated or repaired. In fact, Aerones’ services are 6 times faster, 40% more efficient and a lot safer for humans that don’t need to climb up wind turbines because the robots do. This enables huge cost savings in the $30B wind turbine maintenance market that is forecasted to grow to $50B by 2028.
Read more- 22
- June
2022
Ecosummit Berlin 23-24 June 2022
We want to live in 100% sustainable cities powered by 100% renewable energy and 100% electric mobility. Founded in 2010, Ecosummit accelerates smart green startups in energy, mobility and cities to save our climate, decarbonise our economy and electrify our planet. Our events are startup markets enabling fundraising, lead and co-investing, corporate venturing, open innovation and M&A. Ecosummit Berlin 23-24 June 2022 takes place at Spindler & Klatt, Köpenicker Strasse 16-17, 10997 Berlin, the best smart green startup conference in the perfect location for sunshine and outdoor networking. Get your tickets and join us. Ecosummit is a European platform supported by 55 sponsors from 17 countries. The agenda features 108 speakers including 67 startups. Check out our amazing list of 300 participants and start arranging your meetings with the help of Linkedin. All participants must be fully COVID-19 vaccinated/recovered. We serve vegetarian/vegan food, excellent wines, good music and 2 dinner parties. Extend your stay for the weekend, bring your families and enjoy our special programme for Ecosummit participants, included in the conference ticket, on Saturday, 25 June 2022: We celebrate the Ecosummit Afterparty on the island Lindwerder, Havelchaussee 43, 14193 Berlin in the Havel, Grunewald from 15:00 until late. Let’s accelerate smart green startups together to maximise our impact until 2030.
Read more- 3
- March
2022
Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2022
Climate change, pandemic, war – if we work together globally, we can solve all our problems and save our planet for future generations. Putin’s terrible war in Ukraine kills people and endangers peace, freedom and democracy in the whole world. It also has a huge impact on our climate and the energy transition. Now we must stop burning fossil fuels and reach 100% renewable energy autonomy a lot faster than originally planned. Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2022 takes place at 10:00-12:00 Berlin time and is a free event for fundraising startups and active investors. Rather than selling tickets we kindly ask you to make a donation to your preferred humanitarian aid organisation (e.g. Aktionsbündnis Katastrophenhilfe in Germany) to support the people and economy in Ukraine.
Read more- 9
- February
2022
Instagrid raises €29M Series B led by Energy Impact Partners
The Instagrid success story continues and reaches the next level. In February 2020, we wrote a groovy story on the €8.5M Series A and how Sebastian Berning and Andreas Sedlmayr launched their mobile battery startup and met their lead investor SET Ventures at Ecosummit Berlin 2019, our 10-year anniversary. Today, we’re happy to break the news that Energy Impact Partners (EIP) leads Instagrid’s massive €29M Series B as the only new investor. With $2B AUM EIP itself is pretty massive, too. Hans Kobler and Matthias Dill invest in Instagrid both from their US and EU funds as they plan to share returns and the mobile battery business opportunity with their global LPs. The Ludwigsburg-based startup provides portable green power to professionals and mobile lifestyle optimisers in all kinds of offgrid situations, including construction sites, ubiquitous events, smart forests or sustainable picknicks in the park enhanced by electric BBQs and powerful sound systems.
Read more- 8
- February
2022
Sunvigo raises €10M Series A led by Eneco Ventures
Finding the perfect lead investor is the most important milestone in venture capital financing rounds. In March 2021, we introduced Sunvigo to Eneco Ventures and started another promising relationship. As a result, our ecoportfolio company has successfully closed its €10M Series A led by the corporate VC arm of the Dutch utility. The second new Series A investor is Sparta Capital, a London-based multi-strategy fund with $500M assets under management (AUM) focused on smart green investments decarbonising our economy. The seed investors Übermorgen Ventures, Ecosummit and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), as well as a private real estate investor that joined in summer 2021, also make follow-on investments in the A round. The Cologne-based startup is a smart solar utility that bundles PV system, battery, asset financing, installation, operations, maintenance and insurance into one simple power contract and electricity tariff for homeowners in Germany, a very useful value proposition when energy prices are skyrocketing.
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