Ecosummit Berlin 2017: An ecosystem for a growing smart green startup community
275 startups and investors flocked to Ecosummit Berlin 2017 to pitch their ideas, to network and to discuss a common vision for the future. Under the motto “Smart green unicorns made in Europe”, a total of 95 speakers took to the stage – including 61 startups, all looking for funding or partners to help their ideas grow. “Our investors are all innovative, creative and share our vision,” Christoph Ostermann from Sonnen explains. “And that is very important from my point of view.” The young German company offers solar energy storage for private homes, and allows private solar energy producers to share excess energy within the so-called sonnenCommunity. Sonnen is not far from becoming a unicorn itself. “Our revenue in 2016 was 42 million euros and we increased our capital by 76 million euros last year,” says Ostermann. And while he is not currently looking to raise new capital, he loves attending the Ecosummit to meet with current investors and potential partners. “Five of our seven investors are here this year, and over the years, I initially met all five investors at Ecosummit, who ended up investing in our Series A, B, C and D.”
Read moreKiwigrid raises Series C to build global energy IoT platform
Kiwigrid raises a double-digit million Euro Series C from Aqton, Stefan Quandt’s family office that also invested in Heliatek’s Series D, Innogy and LG Electronics to build a global energy IoT platform. The Dresden-based smart green startup won the ECO16 Gold Award in the late stage category and has got over 105 employees. High-Tech Gründerfonds, Germany’s largest seed investor with 80% public money, and Innogy Venture Capital, the old corporate VC fund of Innogy that is in its divestment period, sold their shares completely and celebrate a financial exit with positive returns.
Read moreSonnen 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.
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