- 8
- June
2021
Lumenaza raises €6.5M Series B from First Imagine and Tom Wolf
Smart green utility-in-a-box: Today Lumenaza announces the successful closing of their €6.5M Series B, led by First Imagine and the family office of Tom Wolf. The existing investors Future Energy Ventures and IBB Ventures made follow-on investments while EnBW New Ventures exited after a holding period of 5 years. The new capital enables the Berlin-based startup to accelerate its growth and international expansion and further develop its energy-as-a-service platform and services. Lumenaza is specialised in enabling new utilities and energy communities. Customers include E.ON, SMA and Envision Digital and partners include Greencom Networks. The software-as-a-service startup pitched at Ecosummit Berlin 2014 for the first time and, recently, at Ecosummit Zoom 3 November 2020 and Ecosummit Zoom 21 April 2021.
Read more- 19
- November
2020
Fresh capital for Skeleton, Tibber, The Fctr E, Tier, Dance, Greenbird, Pexapark, Dryad and Clim8
European smart green startups in energy, mobility and cities are en vogue among global investors and have recently closed new financing rounds. It’s about time to celebrate their progress and give you a quick summary of 9 transactions that have impressed us: Skeleton Technologies €41.3M Series D, Tibber $30M Series B, The Fctr E €10M Series A, Tier Mobility $250M Series C, Dance Mobility €15M Series A, Greenbird €5M Series B, Pexapark €6M Series B, Dryad Networks €1.8M Seed and Clim8 Invest £2.4M Seed Extension. Read on to learn why we think that these startups provide a lot of growth, environmental impact and financial return potential. We also note a growing number of serial entrepreneurs with exits who prefer to build a sustainable startup next to maximise their impact until 2030. That’s a really positive and inspiring trend.
Read more- 6
- September
2019
Smart green VCs you should know
There are many smart green VCs in Europe and the US that back startups in energy, mobility, buildings, cities, materials, food and circular economy to create impact as well as environmental, financial and strategic returns for their fund investors (LPs). In the VC food chain, early stage investors prefer to invest, at lower valuations and higher risk, in the Seed, Series A and Series B financing rounds of young startups working on product market fit and traction (users, customers, revenues). On the other hand, late stage VCs like shorter holding periods and time-to-exit and, consequently, advanced startups with more than €5M revenues, experienced management teams and fast growth. The existence of KPIs, ideally going up over time, makes the life of every investor easier. Facing climate change, technology revolution and global competition, the majority of corporates have adopted corporate venturing and open innovation strategies in order to invest in and do business with startups. The result are different investment strategies and sometimes competing portfolios that startups should know before pitching. Let’s co-invest and meet at Ecosummit Berlin.
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