- 18
- October
2016
Sonnen raises €76M Series D led by Envision Energy and targets IPO
This is a massive financing round. In fact, it is the biggest equity round raised by any Ecosummit startup so far because Sonnen‘s €76M Series D is pure equity. Christoph Ostermann pitched for the first time at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012 when he was still working on his Series A. Having secured €20M in three prior funding rounds, the total venture capital raised now amounts to €96M. The new investors are the Chinese wind turbine maker Envision Energy and the family office of Thomas Pütter, ex-CEO of Allianz Capital Partners. At the same time, GE Ventures that were announced as a new investor in June 2016 and the early investors Ecapital, SET Ventures, Munich Venture Partners and Inven Capital all participated in the Series D, too. Make no mistake, Sonnen is a well-funded and licensed utility that challenges all incumbent utilities by inventing new energy services and making electricity free for owners of PV and battery systems.
Read more- 20
- March
2016
Smart green angel Frank Thelen invests in Lilium Aviation to fly an electric plane
Ecosummit TV: Electric aviation is the future of aviation. Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Wiegand pitched Lilium Aviation at ECO15 London on 6 October 2015. On 7 March 2016, the famous German smart green angel Frank Thelen invested in Lilium Aviation buying 15% of the company. The Munich-based startup is supported by Climate KIC and develops an electric plane that can take off and land vertically due to tiltable electric engines. The plane has a beautiful design, will travel at 400 km/h and achieve an all-electric range of 500 km. The first manned flight is planned in 2016 and the commercial rollout starts in 2018. The Lilium jet costs €300K and can already be pre-ordered online – Tesla style. We think Lilium Aviation is one of the hottest and most innovative smart green startups in Europe. For sure, Elon Musk will love it, too.
Read more- 7
- 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).
Read more- 3
- 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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