- 29
- August
2022
Enphase Energy acquires GreenCom Networks and Lunar Energy acquires Moixa
Exciting exit times for the Ecosummit community and joyful reasons to celebrate 2 happy endings of the famous startup investor relationship: On 29 August 2022, Enphase Energy announced its acquisition of GreenCom Networks and, on 24 August 2022, Sunrun announced that Lunar Energy acquired Moixa. Both exits are very similar: 2 US-based public solar energy companies are buying European startups to grab established software products, local teams and customers and accelerate their market expansion on the continent. GreenCom Networks first pitched at Ecosummit Berlin 2016 and Moixa at Ecosummit London 2014 and both smart green startups had many Ecosummit investors in their cap tables.
Read more- 5
- March
2015
Jay Marathe of Cartagena Capital takes startups from fundraising to successful exits
Ecosummit TV: Startups and VCs alike share the need for more and better exits. While we believe that Pan-European co-investing is an important success factor for achieving good exits, we acknowledge that exits are challenging and often are facilitated by corporate finance advisors representing the sell or buy side. In this context, Jay Marathe of Cartagena Capital talks about taking startups from fundraising to successful exits at ECO14 Berlin. The timing of the exit is key. Startups should constantly listen to the market for strong exit signals: competitors get acquired, customers place huge orders or buyers have lots of cash and start calling. At the same time, it makes sense to continue fundraising and creating value until you reach key valuation milestones and have a nice selection of LOIs from multiple buyers on the table. A recent exit is the $100M acquisition of AlertMe by British Gas, their biggest customer and one of their VCs. This transaction also enabled the second exit of SET Ventures.
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- 15
- December
2013
Rene Savelsberg pitches the investment strategy of Chrysalix SET
Ecosummit TV: Rene Savelsberg pitches the investment strategy of Chrysalix SET at ECO13 London. The Amsterdam-based smart green VC was founded in 2007 and invests in technology companies that are in the early growth stage and have a sustainable impact on the future use of energy. As their first SET Fund I of €40M is fully allocated, Rene and his general partners (GPs) are raising their second SET Fund II targeting €100M. This fund size enables a larger portfolio and management team as well as investing more capital per startup in multiple follow-on rounds without dilution. VCs typically want to increase rather than decrease their position in the best performing startups in their portfolio.
Read more- 5
- 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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