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- October
2012
Solarcity files for IPO to build global smart green utility
“Our goal is to become the largest provider of clean distributed energy in the world.” Elon Musk, super hero of the Smart Green Economy, is doing it again. As Chairman and biggest shareholder, Elon prepares for his third IPO after PayPal (2002) and Tesla Motors (2010) and positions Solarcity as the smart green utility of the future. Solarcity just filed for its long-awaited Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ by registering the Form S-1 with the SEC. While IPO date, volume and share price are to be defined, reading this investment prospectus is highly recommended. Update: On 27 November 2012, the price range ($13 to $15) and the volume (10.065.012 shares) was announced (S-1 Amendment 27.11.12).
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- July
2012
Norbert Verweyen showcases RWE Effizienz, the smart green utility speedboat of RWE
Ecosummit TV: Norbert Verweyen, Managing Director of RWE Effizienz, showcases the strategy of his smart green utility speedboat which is able to launch new products more quickly than the mother ship RWE. Making money with energy efficiency is a big challenge for utilities and it’s a smart move of RWE to create their own startup with a lot of freedom to try out new ideas in the market. RWE Effizienz can be a good distribution channel for startups that have useful products at competitive prices. If you are active in electric mobility, home automation or decentralised generation you should get in touch with Norbert and his team.
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- June
2012
Hans Streng shares the emobility strategy of ABB
Ecosummit TV: Hans Streng, SVP and General Manager of EV Charging Infrastructure at ABB, sold Epyon, which was incubated by Yes!Delft, to ABB and summarises his startup experience: “The true nature of a cleantech startup is how you manage continuous fluctuations and disruptions. Business changes on a day-to-day basis. The closer you get to the Internet domain, the faster the changes come. The closer you move to the CAPEX domain, the bigger the changes are.” At ECO12 Berlin, Hans presents ABB’s emobility strategy and talks about working with a small startup team inside a big corporate.
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- June
2012
Fabienne Herlaut presents the corporate VC Ecomobilité Ventures
Ecosummit TV: Fabienne Herlaut is the Managing Partner of the French corporate VC Ecomobilité Ventures that has 4 very powerful limited partners: SNCF, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Total and Orange. Fabienne presents her new €30M fund at Ecosummit Berlin 2012 and shares her investment strategy into smart green startups working on new technology and business models for sustainable mobility. I strongly recommend that you talk to Fabienne if you are an ambitious ecomobility startup with an international strategy that wants to take advantage of the added value of this promising group of corporates.
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- December
2011
Ecosummit Lounge TV featuring Flinc, Nachbarschaftsauto, Ubitricity, Airbase and Changers
This Ecosummit TV episode was recorded at our second Ecosummit Lounge Berlin on 6 December 2011 at InnoZ, Berlin’s exciting epicentre for electric mobility and smart green city. InnoZ is located on the Euref Campus which aims at developing the smart green model city of the future. We enjoyed a high-voltage evening of intense Smart Green Business Networking with 5 smart green startup pitches, Ursprung, finger food and all that Jazz. The startups presenting were Flinc, Nachbarschaftsauto, Ubitricity, Airbase and Changers.
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- November
2011
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.
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- May
2011
Elon Musk – Super hero of the smart green economy
Elon Musk turns 40 this year and is already the super hero entrepreneur of the smart green economy. Being an engineer he believes entrepreneurship means applying logic and critical thinking to a given problem in order to develop the best new solution. Elon likes to reinvent and reengineer problems on a big scale, especially transportation on the road and in space and production of clean energy. Next to being CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors, Elon is also CEO and CTO of SpaceX and Chairman of Solar City.
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- April
2011
Third German Electric Vehicle Congress 8-9 June 2011 in Bonn
The 3rd German Electric Vehicle (EV) Congress takes place on 8-9 June 2011 in Bonn in the former Bundestag, indeed a spectacular conference venue. After attending the 2nd EV Congress last year, I was invited to join the programme advisory board by Michael Carus, CEO of the organiser Nova Institute. Nova Institute is a research and consulting firm that is ususally focused on renewable resources, bio feedstock and biodegradable materials. Together with IAV, the automotive engineers that have 4.000 employees, Nova once again put together an exciting programme looking into the future of mobility.
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- April
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Young Future Mobility Leaders – Panel
At Ecosummit 2011, Jan Michael Hess (Ecosummit) moderated the panel Young Future Mobility Leaders with (from the left) Konrad Erzberger (Tamyca), Michael Kuhn (car2gether, Daimler Business Innovation), Beres Seelbach (Lautlos), Klaus Dibbern (Flinc) and Knut Hechtfischer (Ubitricity). We all agreed that the Sharing Economy will change the automotive industry.
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- April
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Konrad Erzberger – Tamyca – P2P Car Sharing
Konrad Erzberger pitches his German startup Tamyca to investors at Ecosummit 2011. Tamyca offers peer-to-peer car sharing in Germany. This means that the shared cars are owned by private people and not professional fleet operators. The trick is an insurance tariff that covers any damage happening when you rent your car to another driver to make some money. Tamyca is first mover in Germany but already has 2 competitors. The business model is executed in several other countries by competitors, too. We believe it’s a hot business model and worth investing in.
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- April
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Gregor Matthies – Bain & Company
At ECO11, the consultant and automotive expert Gregor Matthies, Partner, Bain & Company, gave a well-prepared overview of the Electric Mobility market. It turns out that German car makers are not leading the development of new EVs which I personally regret. At the same time, this offers new business opportunities for startups that want to develop new electric future cars and sell them later to the OEMs.
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- December
2010
Sustainable Social Mobility with Car and Ride Sharing
Based in Spain’s Basque country, Hiriko is the first company to build the electric City Car developed by MIT’s Medialab. Hiriko sounds Japanese but it is in fact a mix of Basque and Spanish: hiri = urban, ko = short for coche (car). Hiriko’s networked urban cars are designed to be used only as shared cars. Imagine a future where you can take any car when you leave your home or office. Imagine a future where all shared cars are electric. That’s where we have to be.
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