- 7
- September
2021
Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021
It is our big pleasure to invite you to Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021, our invitation-only 100% physical conference optimised for outdoor networking – exactly what we missed the most during the pandemic. The amazing agenda presents 83 speakers including 52 startups. We’re super grateful for the support of our wonderful 38 sponsors. Check out our 183 participants and join us to start arranging your meetings at Ecosummit Berlin with the help of Linkedin. Private tickets are available for €2.000 + VAT for investors and €1.000 + VAT for startups and may be ordered by email. If you like the deal, please send us an email to request your invitation to Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021 telling us who you are and why you want to take part. We look forward to hosting you and accelerating smart green startups together. It’s going to be magic.
Read more- 17
- May
2017
Restore, Visedo, Greenergetic, Freshland, Hydrogenious and Cleverciti win Ecosummit Award 2017 in Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit Berlin 2017 was our best event ever. 275 participants came to the Radialsystem to be part of Europe’s leading conference for smart green startups, investors and corporates. Our flagship event was supported by 30 sponsors and presented 95 speakers including 61 startups on stage. During the last few days we published all Berlin videos on Ecosummit TV and linked them next to each speaker in the agenda. A highlight of Ecosummit Berlin is the Ecosummit Award that brings fame and fortune to 6 new startups every year. 37 judges screened 34 nominees from 10 countries and voted online before the conference. And the 3 winners in the late stage startup category (> €2M revenues 2016) are: Gold (€1.5K prize money) for Restore from Belgium, Silver (€1K) for Visedo from Finland and Bronze (€500) for Greenergetic from Germany. And the 3 winners in the early stage startup category (< €2M revenues 2016) are: Gold (€1.5K) for Freshland from Denmark, Silver (€1K) for Hydrogenious from Germany and Bronze (€500) for Cleverciti from Germany. Congratulations to the founders for convincing the Ecosummit judges of your growth potential. And thanks so much for joining us, it was a real pleasure hosting you.
Read more- 5
- December
2016
Lilium raises €10M Series A from Atomico to commercialise its electric VTOL jet
On-demand urban air transportation is the next big thing according to Daniel Wiegand, CEO and Co-Founder of Lilium. The German aviation startup develops an electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft called Lilium jet since 2015. Today, Atomico invests €10M Series A and Niklas Zennström joins the board. Daniel and his team of 35 employees have the vision to make urban aviation electric, silent and available for everyone with the help of airtaxis and other aviation services. Uber also shares the vision that urban mobility should go vertical and is already working on matching pilots and passengers that want to bypass street-level congestion and traffic jams. In October 2016, the Californian mobility giant unveiled Uber Elevate in a 97-page must-read whitepaper. It would be no surprise if they soon co-invested in Lilium as übercool VTOL jets are the missing link to launch Uber in the air.
Read more- 2
- November
2016
Relayr raises $23M Series B from Munich RE/HSB Ventures, KPCB and Munich Venture Partners
The Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and the insurance industry are coming together. Berlin-based IoT startup Relayr raises $23M (€20.7M) Series B from Munich RE/HSB Ventures, KPCB and Munich Venture Partners. It turns out that the industrial insurance company Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB), since 2009 part of Munich RE, has started to embrace IoT a while ago to make their life easier and insurance business smarter. In a nutshell, HSB insures manufacturing companies against the risk of equipment breakdown and other reasons for suboptimal factory performance. By making the machines smart and connecting them to the Relayr cloud, their health status can be monitored online. If the automated machine data analysis identifies any problems, the malfunctioning machines can be repaired or replaced before it is too late and the production line has to be put on hold without knowing why.
Read more- 23
- November
2015
Christian Reitberger and Jan Michael Hess chat about smart green angel investing
Ecosummit TV: We need more smart green angels in Europe. At the same time, angels should get better at co-investing in smart green startups and creating value during the holding period. With this motivation Christian Reitberger and Jan Michael Hess chat about the art of smart green angel investing at ECO15 Berlin. Christian is a VC and angel at the same time. This double role is possible as Wellington Partners stopped doing new investments in resource efficiency and, as a result, there is no conflict of interest. While many angels stay in the background, Christian gets a lot of dealflow because there is a general shortage of early stage investors and many people just know him. During the last years, he made 12 angel investments including 1 exit and 1 write-off. His active portfolio contains Romo Wind and Electrochaea.
Read more- 13
- October
2015
Skeleton Technologies, Solarkiosk and Grundgrün win ECO15 London Award
Ecosummit London 2015 was our third conference at the Crystal and it turned out to be our best conference so far in the smart green capital. 160 happy and relaxed participants came together on 6-7 October 2015 to enjoy 46 startup pitches from all over Europe and celebrate smart green innovation. Our panel about fostering the cooperation between impact investors and VCs to tap into new sources of capital for smart green startups received a lot of applause – as did the panels about early stage, late stage and corporate venturing. To further grow next year we are moving Ecosummit London 2016 to CodeNode in the heart of Tech City and concentrate the action on 11 October 2016. Moreover, we announced Ecosummit Berlin 2016 on 26-27 April 2016 at the Radialsystem and Ecosummit Amsterdam 2016 on 7 July 2016 at Rockstart. During our high-speed ECO15 London Award ceremony on 6 October 2015 we announced the 3 winners Skeleton Technologies, Solarkiosk and Grundgrün.
Read more- 15
- April
2015
Smart green accelerator panel featuring Startupbootcamp, Climate-KIC, Rockstart and Swedish Energy Agency
Ecosummit TV: Accelerating smart green startups should be the key motivation for everybody working with startups on a day-to-day basis, not only accelerators, but also angels, VCs, corporates and service providers. At ECO14 Berlin, we discuss the art of faster startup development with Alex Farcet (Startupbootcamp), Franka Birke (Climate-KIC), Yme Bosma (Rockstart) and Bigge Lidgren (ex-Swedish Energy Agency, now Cleantech Invest). A typical accelerator programme lasts 90 to 180 days with intensive mentoring on product development, customer development, fundraising and team building. Private accelerators like Startupbootcamp and Rockstart follow the business model of investing €20K for 8% of equity at a rather low valuation. Then they work hard to create value, increase the startup’s valuation and attract follow-on investments. Public accelerators like Climate-KIC and Swedish Energy Agency usually do not take equity and rather provide grants and soft loans. A key challenge for all accelerators is to attract coachable founders that are, at the same time, very talented and skilled at building successful startups. Only then do the accelerators get returns on their investments.
Read more- 14
- December
2014
Eternal Sun raises €2M Series A from Vermec
How can you guarantee the performance of solar panels over a long period of time, let’s say 20 years? By simulating sunshine and testing the solar panels in a controlled lab environment with powerful and energy efficient lamps, e.g. Heliospectra LEDs. Chokri Mousaoui (CEO) and Stefan Roest (CTO) co-founded Eternal Sun in 2011 after they developed their first solar simulator prototype at Delft University of Technology. As their second and third prototype were already paid by pilot customers, the founders managed to reach product market fit very quickly and bootstrap their smart green startup to €1M revenues in 2014 while keeping a clean 50:50 cap table until their Series A. In July 2011, they moved into the incubator YesDelft where they are still located. The role of TU Delft and its ecosystem cannot be overestimated as 9 out of 11 employees were educated at the university. We first saw Chokri pitching in front of the Climate-KIC accelerator jury at Utrechtinc on 5 July 2012. 2 months later, we went together on the first Climate-KIC USA Startup Tour to Silicon Valley, Washington and Boston. Then Stefan came to Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012 in November to look for investors.
Read more- 4
- August
2014
The real problem of energy efficiency is that it is uncool
Ecosummit TV: Steven Fawkes lectures on energy efficiency in the built environment at ECO13 London. According to IEA‘s efficient world scenario, energy efficiency would add $35 trillion to the global GDP by 2035 if it was implemented well. How do we achieve the full potential of energy efficiency? As for buildings, we need more accurate building performance models, advanced materials such as smart windows and integrated design that merges green architecture with smart technologies for lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation. As energy efficiency projects often are rather small, they should be aggregated into multi-site programmes. At the same time, investor confidence has to be fostered to drive more capital into energy efficiency. Steven currently works on bringing the Investor Confidence Project to Europe to make large energy efficiency projects ready for investors with the help of standardisation and quality assurance. However, the real problem of energy efficiency is that is uncool. We need more stuff like Nest and Philips Hue. Hey, startups, let’s invent new products to make energy efficiency cool, sexy and successful.
Read more- 31
- July
2014
Anna Yukiko Bickenbach interviews happy participants at Ecosummit Berlin 2014
Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit TV moderator Anna Yukiko Bickenbach interviews happy participants at Ecosummit Berlin 2014 – our fifth Ecosummit in Berlin that took place on 3-4 June at the one and only Radialsystem. This Ecosummit TV video features Hans Maenhout (Finindus), Alexander Bigge Lidgren (Swedish Energy Agency), Robert Czaja (Tesla), Gina Domanig (Emerald Technology Ventures), Christian Huder (Freelance Consultant), Alexander van Os (Yellow&Blue), Nils Aldag (Sunfire), Jay Marathe (Cartagena Capital), Björn Petersson (Ecosummit Ambassador), Eva Bjorseth (Oceanshore Ventures), Andriy Shmyhelskyy (CareToSave) and Jan Michael Hess (Ecosummit). We look forward to hosting our next smart green innovation conference Ecosummit London 2014 on 7-8 October at the Crystal. Come and join us.
Read more- 18
- May
2014
Laurits Bach Sorensen pitches Microshade
Ecosummit TV: Laurits Bach Sorensen pitches Microshade at ECO13 London. Microshade’s solar shading technology is integrated into glass facades and roof structures and significantly reduces the energy used for cooling and ventilation. Thus it reduces the OPEX of the building and enables an attractive ROI. The Danish startup was founded in 2003, has got 10 employees, is backed by Chrysalix SET and recently did a strategy pivot by focusing on the retrofit market as well as large commercial buildings with a lot of glazing surfaces. Now Laurits wants to raise $2.5M to accelerate growth and prove the superior economics of their solar shading solution on a large scale.
Read more- 4
- May
2014
Trued Holmquist pitches ATC Industrial Group from Sweden
Ecosummit TV: Trued Holmquist pitches ATC Industrial Group from Sweden at ECO13 London. ATC develops a self-learning home energy management system called Scypho. Targeting single family houses the system uses neural network technology to provide comfort on demand to the end users. Scypho controls the heating and cooling system of the building using a gateway, sensors and smartphones as user interface and enables energy cost savings of up to 30%. Up to now ATC has been active in Sweden and wants to raise €2.5M to grow faster and enter new international markets. In the future, Scypho will be extended to serve as a smart home platform that integrates more services such as lighting control or intelligent demand response. As the smart home marketplace is quite crowded already, it will be interesting to watch which startups outrun the competition.
Read more- 4
- May
2014
Franz Salzmann pitches Lock8 – the Airbnb for bicycles
Ecosummit TV: Franz Salzmann pitches Lock8 at ECO13 London. Their bikes got stolen frequently at Oxford University. To solve this problem, Franz Salzmann and his co-founder Daniel Zajarias-Fainsod developed Lock8, a sensor smart, GPS tracked and online bicycle lock. The Lock8 app locates available bicycles and functions as the wireless key for the smart lock – all you need to build a global Airbnb for bicycles. Berlin-based Christophe Maire (Atlantic Internet) invested early, followed by a couple of million Euro from Horizons Ventures in Hong Kong and Otto Capital. Lock8 is a cool product that works well on Kickstarter to aggregate pre-orders and safe cycling enthusiasts. All set for a successful market launch.
Read more- 28
- April
2014
Martin Mohr pitches Ecoduna from Austria
Ecosummit TV: Martin Mohr pitches Ecoduna at ECO13 London. Founded in 2009, the Austrian startup develops algae production systems and is one of the global technology leaders. Ecoduna already makes money in the food supplement market with high-value Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. Algae production will be price competitive in the food market in 2 years, the plastics market in 4-5 years and the energy market in 8-12 years. Ecoduna’s vertical photobioreactors are supposed to be better than the competition as they work in a continuous, software-controlled process with neither too much nor too little light. In 2013, Ecoduna opened their own algae production plant in Austria. A large number of partners is in the pipeline to install more industrial production capacity. Get in touch with Martin if you also believe in the long-term business opportunity of smart algae production and commercialisation.
Read more- 28
- April
2014
Christina di Sano pitches Smart Hydro Power
Ecosummit TV: Christina di Sano pitches Smart Hydro Power at ECO13 London. Founded in 2010, Smart Hydro Power develops a kinetic hydro power turbine that uses the movement of rivers to produce clean energy. The hydro power plants are targeted at offgrid communities that up to now had to rely on costly and dirty diesel generators. Their first product is a 5 KW turbine with built-in debris protection that costs €12.5K. Smart Hydro Power is backed by Ecapital and High-tech Gründerfonds and won the Ecosummit Award 2012 Gold medal. The German startup is currently fundraising and interested in talking to a new lead investor.
Read more- 18
- March
2014
Alexander Bigge Lidgren presents Swedish Energy Agency and its cleantech portfolio
Ecosummit TV: At ECO13 London, Bigge presents the Swedish Energy Agency that turns out to be the most active funder of cleantech companies in the Nordics with over €120M invested in 2013 and 2012 respectively. As of October 2013, the Swedish Energy Agency had funded 53 energy-related companies with soft loans that either go to projects or directly to the companies. Only if the startup is a success and starts invoicing, the agency gets their money back. Ecofective, ATC Industrial Group and Ecospark are the 3 cases that joined ECO13 London. Clean Motion and their electric 3-wheeler Zbee and Sol Voltaics are also backed by the agency. If you are interested in innovation and dealflow from the Nordics, meet Bigge again at ECO14 Berlin.
Read more- 16
- February
2014
Bloomberg’s Michael Wilshire analyses clean energy investment activity and trends
Ecosummit TV: Michael Wilshire, Director of Analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), talks about clean energy investment activity and trends at ECO13 London. BNEF provides independent market intelligence to investors and researches into the massive clean energy industry with a focus on policy, technology, economics, finance and supply chains. Clean energy attracted $281B of new investments in 2012 of which a small but important portion is VC and PE driving innovation.
Read more- 16
- February
2014
Mats Pettersson pitches Ecofective from Sweden
Ecosummit TV: Mats Pettersson pitches Ecofective at ECO13 London. The Swedish-German startup focuses on energy cost savings in existing buildings by using their energy management system called EE2. Founded in 2009 as a consulting firm, Ecofective pivoted in 2012 to become a product company and sell a cost-effective solution for the mass market of multi-tenant and small office buildings. Moreover, Ecofective is getting ready for Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) as a mechanism to accelerate the rollout of their smart green building solution. EE2 enables cost savings of 13-25%, has been installed in over 120 buildings in Sweden and Germany and was approved by the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics.
Read more- 16
- February
2014
Mads Jensen pitches Sefaira
Ecosummit TV: Mads Jensen pitches Sefaira at ECO13 London. Buildings are complex systems which integrate many interdependent smart green technologies including building materials, orientation, air ventilation, glazing, insulation, shading, heating, cooling and lighting. To optimise this system Sefaira makes software for high performance building design and enables architects to analyse their designs until they are perfect in terms of energy footprint and cost of operations. Founded in 2009, the UK-US startup launched in 2012 and convinced over 200 architecture firms to use the software in their building design process. Sefaira raised €13M ($18M) from Chrysalix SET, Braemar Energy Ventures and Hermes GPE and won the Ecosummit Award 2013 Gold medal. We like the way Sefaira fosters smart green cities and are happy that Mads joined our Ecosummit Advisors.
Read more- 10
- February
2014
Claire Cockerton presents the future city accelerator Level39
Ecosummit TV: Claire Cockerton presents the future city accelerator Level39 at ECO13 London. Based in Canary Wharf and backed by the Canary Wharf Group, Level39 is a technology accelerator specialised in fostering startups in the financial, retail and smart green city industries. While Level39 does not invest, they provide affordable office space which in some cases may be sponsored by a corporate. Moreover, the accelerator facilitates coaching sessions with mentors and business relationships with local companies that act as pilot customers for bringing new services to the market. Level39 welcomes startups from all over the world that want to touch down in the Docklands to co-invent the city of the future.
Read more