- 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.
Read more- 17
- May
2017
Restore, Visedo, Greenergetic, Freshland, Hydrogenious and Cleverciti win Ecosummit Award 2017 in Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit Berlin 2017 was our best event ever. 275 participants came to the Radialsystem to be part of Europe’s leading conference for smart green startups, investors and corporates. Our flagship event was supported by 30 sponsors and presented 95 speakers including 61 startups on stage. During the last few days we published all Berlin videos on Ecosummit TV and linked them next to each speaker in the agenda. A highlight of Ecosummit Berlin is the Ecosummit Award that brings fame and fortune to 6 new startups every year. 37 judges screened 34 nominees from 10 countries and voted online before the conference. And the 3 winners in the late stage startup category (> €2M revenues 2016) are: Gold (€1.5K prize money) for Restore from Belgium, Silver (€1K) for Visedo from Finland and Bronze (€500) for Greenergetic from Germany. And the 3 winners in the early stage startup category (< €2M revenues 2016) are: Gold (€1.5K) for Freshland from Denmark, Silver (€1K) for Hydrogenious from Germany and Bronze (€500) for Cleverciti from Germany. Congratulations to the founders for convincing the Ecosummit judges of your growth potential. And thanks so much for joining us, it was a real pleasure hosting you.
Read more- 12
- January
2016
Fast-growing solar e-commerce startup Greenergetic attracts investment from RWE
Ecosummit TV: Selling PV systems online is a great business idea for a smart green startup. You can grow at Internet speed and drive the Energiewende by spreading renewable energy. If you want to build your startup in a capital efficient way with a small burn rate, it is also a good idea to minimise your customer acquisition costs by adopting a B2B business model and working with distribution partners. This is exactly what CEO Florian Meyer-Delpho and his co-founders did in 2012 when they launched Greenergetic as a white label portal for utilities to sell PV systems to their customers. At ECO15 Berlin in May, Florian pitched Greenergetic to increase investor demand for their €2M financing round (see Ecosummit TV video below). On 15 December 2015, RWE Vertrieb, the German sales company of RWE with 4 million customers and €12B revenues, announced their minority investment in Greenergetic. While the terms of the deal are undisclosed, we assume that Florian managed to raise a bit more than he was looking for given that Greenergetic expected €5M revenues in 2015.
Read more- 28
- April
2013
Florian Meyer-Delpho pitches solar e-commerce startup Greenergetic
Ecosummit TV: Florian Meyer-Delpho pitches Greenergetic at ECO12 Düsseldorf and believes that the market is ready for their solar e-commerce business model thanks to grid parity. Greenergetic develops an online portal to bring PV and smart home solutions directly to residential end customers. Houseowners can plan, finance and order their preferred PV system online. The Bielefeld-based cleantech startup also offers a whitelabel solution for utilities that are increasingly interested in selling solar systems to their customer base. Backed by eCapital and following the role model of Solarcity, Greenergetic is about to launch their new portal very soon.
Read more- 3
- February
2013
Smart green dealflow: Sunfire, Greenergetic, Sonnenbatterie, LEDeXCHANGE, Valopaa and Friedola Tech
6 smart green startups successfully raised new venture capital recently: Power to gas and fuel startup Sunfire (seven-figure, Germany), PV online retailer Greenergetic (undisclosed seed, Germany), residential storage provider Sonnenbatterie (undisclosed, Germany), retrofit LED provider LEDeXCHANGE (€500K seed, Germany), LED lighting company Valopaa (€2M, Finland) and recycled plastics manufacturer Friedola Tech (€31M, Germany). The active cleantech VCs include Bilfinger Venture Capital, eCapital, High-Tech Gründerfonds, VNT Management, Silver Lake Kraftwerk and Kleiner Perkins.
Read more- 5
- November
2012
Smarter, greener, leaner – startups accelerate the Energiewende at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012
9 days to go until ECO12 Düsseldorf. The perfect moment to do some serious pattern recognition and talk about the cleantech startups to be featured on stage – and Ecosummit TV. Our second conference this year enjoys again a very high startup density: 26 startups present new solutions for accelerating the Energiewende (energy transformation). The Internet of things and cleantech grow together. More and more green startups develop smart hardware products that have an IP address. The startups pitching at Ecosummit control cars, helicopters, charging stations, PV systems, wind generators, batteries, street lights, homes and even entire cities over the Internet. Smarter, greener, leaner – that’s the way we want them.
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