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- September
2023
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 4-5 June 2024.
Read more- 28
- January
2015
Alexander van Os pitches Yellow&Blue
Ecosummit TV: Smart green energy is the only way to go. The energy market is changing rapidly thanks to technological and business model innovation coming from all directions. This creates a lot of investment opportunities for smart green VCs such as Yellow&Blue. Funded with €40M by the Dutch utility Nuon (Vattenfall Group), the Utrecht-based VC looks for capital efficient startups that make the energy value chain cleaner and more flexible with a focus on smart grid and energy efficiency. Alexander van Os and his partners are famous for their successful exit of Entelios to Enernoc in February 2014. At ECO14 Berlin, Yellow&Blue showcased their portfolio company ROMO Wind that optimises the performance of wind turbines and is currently fundraising again.
Read more- 16
- February
2014
Enernoc buys Entelios – did this cleantech exit happen too fast?
On 14 February 2014, Enernoc buys Entelios, Germany’s demand response pioneer. The Munich-based startup was founded in July 2010 by serial entrepreneurs Oliver Stahl, Tom Schulz and Stephan Lindner. With a holding period of 3 years since the first VC investment this is definitely a fast cleantech exit. But this exit may have happened too fast given that demand response is the killer app of the smart grid, a massive global market opportunity and a capital efficient option to accelerate the Energiewende (energy transition). In the end, smart demand wins over stupid supply even though it is hard to convince all market participants. And before we forget: congratulations to the Entelios team.
Read more- 23
- June
2013
Smart green corporate venture capital panel with Eon, Aster, Electranova and Entelios
Ecosummit TV: Tim Lafferty of Global Corporate Venturing moderates the smart green corporate venture capital panel featuring Susana Quintana-Plaza (E.ON), Alexander Schlaepfer (Aster), Philippe Ringenbach (Electranova) and Tom Schulz (Entelios). Being an important pillar of the open innovation strategy of multinationals, corporate venture capital is a big trend as 500 new CVC units were created in the last 3 years. At least 10% of the CVCs are active in one or several of the cleantech sectors. Next to money, CVCs offer strategic value through market access and technological expertise.
Read more- 16
- September
2012
Call for cleantech startups to pitch at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012
We call all cleantech startups to pitch at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012 on 14-15 November at the Langen Foundation, Germany’s most beautiful private museum designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. ECO12 Düsseldorf is our 4th international conference and brings together startups, VCs, corporates and utilities to accelerate smart green innovation. So far we confirmed 15 sponsors and 43 speakers including 26 startups. Startups can win a free 8-minute pitch and get in front of Europe’s leading cleantech VCs and Corporate VCs. Please apply by sending us your investor presentation as soon as possible, application deadline is 7 November 2012. Bonus: All startups at ECO12 Düsseldorf get the Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate Edition for free.
Read more- 23
- August
2012
What cleantech startups and VCs in Europe and USA can learn from each other
Ecosummit TV: Europeans don’t think big enough. Michael Linse (KPCB), Pascal Mauberger (McPhy Energy), Oliver Stahl (Entelios) and Bart Markus (Wellington) discuss the differences between the cleantech startup and VC business in USA and Europe. There are many things we can learn from each other. On average, US cleantech startups get 4 times more capital than European ones. This has to do with the different environment in terms of market size, capital availability and competition.
Read more- 10
- June
2012
Tom Schulz presents how Entelios brings demand response to the market
Ecosummit TV: Tom Schulz, Co-Founder and COO of Entelios, pitches the German demand response management startup at ECO12 Berlin. According to the Smart Energy Demand Coalition, intelligent cooperation between consumption, transmission, distribution and generation acting as equal partners in the electricity market is at the heart of the smart grid. Entelios sits between the demand side and the supply side and balances both by aggregating and shifting electricity demand away from peak hours, or rather peak minutes.
Read more- 25
- July
2011
Alexander von Frankenberg introduces High-Tech Gründerfonds, Germany’s leading Seed VC
Alexander von Frankenberg, Managing Director of the German seed VC High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), presents the fund at ECO11 and shares his lessons learned during 5 years of seed funding the German High-tech startup ecosystem. HTGF makes every 2nd seed deal in Germany and currently has 18 portfolio firms in the Cleantech industry. At ECO11, 6 HTGF Cleantech portfolio companies were on stage: Entelios, Subitec, ZIM Plant Technology, Next Kraftwerke, Ecointense and Wesustain.
Read more- 24
- July
2011
Smart Green Dealflow – Recent Deals in our Ecosummit Network
It’s about time to honour some recent deals that have been closed by Cleantech VCs and startups that belong to our Ecosummit community. We take a look at the portfolios of the leading VCs in Europe and share some selected news with you. Our first Smart Green Dealflow article features: JouleX, pvXchange, Entelios, Inge, Neura, Schnell Motoren and Pyrum. Let us know if you have more smart green deals we should cover.
Read more- 16
- April
2011
Ecosummit TV – ECO11 – Thomas Schulz – Entelios
Thomas Schulz, Co-Founder and COO of Entelios, presents the concept of reducing peak power applying Demand Response in Smart Grids at ECO11. Serving utilities and commercial companies with demand response means reducing the amount of peak power needed by managing the energy behaviour of consumers and producers over the network. Founded in 2010, Entelios is the German copycat of Enernoc in the US that went public in 2007 and currently has a market cap of $424M.
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