- 6
- 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- 9
- February
2022
Instagrid raises €29M Series B led by Energy Impact Partners
The Instagrid success story continues and reaches the next level. In February 2020, we wrote a groovy story on the €8.5M Series A and how Sebastian Berning and Andreas Sedlmayr launched their mobile battery startup and met their lead investor SET Ventures at Ecosummit Berlin 2019, our 10-year anniversary. Today, we’re happy to break the news that Energy Impact Partners (EIP) leads Instagrid’s massive €29M Series B as the only new investor. With $2B AUM EIP itself is pretty massive, too. Hans Kobler and Matthias Dill invest in Instagrid both from their US and EU funds as they plan to share returns and the mobile battery business opportunity with their global LPs. The Ludwigsburg-based startup provides portable green power to professionals and mobile lifestyle optimisers in all kinds of offgrid situations, including construction sites, ubiquitous events, smart forests or sustainable picknicks in the park enhanced by electric BBQs and powerful sound systems.
Read more- 8
- February
2022
Sunvigo raises €10M Series A led by Eneco Ventures
Finding the perfect lead investor is the most important milestone in venture capital financing rounds. In March 2021, we introduced Sunvigo to Eneco Ventures and started another promising relationship. As a result, our ecoportfolio company has successfully closed its €10M Series A led by the corporate VC arm of the Dutch utility. The second new Series A investor is Sparta Capital, a London-based multi-strategy fund with $500M assets under management (AUM) focused on smart green investments decarbonising our economy. The seed investors Übermorgen Ventures, Ecosummit and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), as well as a private real estate investor that joined in summer 2021, also make follow-on investments in the A round. The Cologne-based startup is a smart solar utility that bundles PV system, battery, asset financing, installation, operations, maintenance and insurance into one simple power contract and electricity tariff for homeowners in Germany, a very useful value proposition when energy prices are skyrocketing.
Read more- 21
- August
2021
Alantra’s new Klima fund invests in Mainspring
Smart green energy startups in Europe raising Series B or later rounds now have one more financial VC to go to in Madrid. The new late stage VC fund is called Klima (climate in German), focuses on hardware and software startups accelerating the energy transition and achieved its first closing at €80M on 7 June 2021. Klima’s capital is committed by powerful Spanish LPs including the listed investment bank and asset manager Alantra (€18M commitment), the gas corporate Enagás (€30M), the state-owned bank Instituto de Crédito Oficial (€15M), the renewable energy developer Capital Energy (€2M), the German family office Blueworld Group and other undisclosed institutional investors. On 12 July 2021, Klima announced its first investment in Sillicon Valley-based Mainspring, expanding their $95M Series D to $108M together with other investors entering the massive round at the last minute. GP Lucille Bonnet will pitch Klima at Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021.
Read more- 10
- August
2021
Wirelane raises €18M Series B led by Abacon Capital
Ubiquitous electric mobility and EV charging play an important role to save our climate and planet and this is the decisive decade to limit global warming to 1.5°C. By 2030, Transport & Environment’s Road2Zero scenario forecasts a need for 2.9 million public EV chargers in the EU. Just-in-time, Wirelane raises €18M Series B (€12.1M fresh capital and €5.9M converted loans) to accelerate its growth and contribute to rolling out more EV charging stations. The B round is led by Abacon Capital, the investment arm of the Büll family office in Hamburg. Early investors in Wirelane include Vito Ventures, HTGF and Coparion. Founded in 2016, Wirelane employs 40 emobility experts in Munich and Berlin and targets €5M+ revenues in 2021. Among the B2B customers are BMW and Vattenfall.
Read more- 25
- September
2020
Fresh capital for Eliq, Accure, Zolar, Energyworx, Voltstorage, Hydrogrid, Minibems and an exit for Fos4x
Several smart green startups recently raised capital and it’s about time to celebrate the active investors such as Inven Capital, SET Ventures and Engie New Ventures and the successful founders that closed new financing rounds during the global Covid-19 pandemic that’s hitting us now with its second wave as mercilessly as climate change will do during the next decades. 4 out of 8 startups that we cover below pitched at Ecosummit in the past, including Eliq, the Swedish app for smart energy consumers. The other 4 will be presented soon, starting with the first pitch of the new German battery intelligence provider Accure at Ecosummit Zoom 7 October 2020. Learn more about how Eliq, Accure, Zolar, Energyworx, Voltstorage, Hydrogrid, Minibems and Fos4x accelerate the energy transition and why European utilities should work together with these innovators rather sooner than later to foster sustainability and improve the lives of their customers.
Read more- 4
- February
2020
Mobile battery pioneer Instagrid raises €8.5M Series A led by SET Ventures
They take mobile electricity where it has never gone before. Their goal is smart green electrification without local CO2 emissions. Their solution is replacing stinky diesel gensets with silent mobile batteries. Today Instagrid makes a big step forward and celebrates the closing of its €8.5M Series A led by SET Ventures and joined by Segnalita Ventures, part of the Swarovski family office which also owns Tyrolit, Germany’s early stage power house HTGF and the Frankfurt-based family office blueworld.group. At the same time, this transaction boosts our Ecosummit track record of successfully matching startups and investors. In fact, Instagrid and SET Ventures met for the first time at Ecosummit Berlin 2019. While this sounds very romantic, the A round is a major milestone for every startup and the beginning of a long-lasting relationship with many board meetings and follow-ons until the M&A or IPO exit.
Read more- 12
- December
2019
Envelio raises €6M Series A from Ecapital, HTGF and Demeter
Today Envelio announced the successful closing of its €6M Series A led by Ecapital and joined by the existing investors HTGF and Demeter that both increased their share more than pro rata. Envelio is an Ecosummit startup as we like it. Co-founded in 2017 by 5 PhDs and researchers at RWTH Aachen, the German smart grid startup first pitched at ECO18 Berlin and then opened its Series A on 15 May 2019 on stage at Ecosummit Berlin. This was the start of 2 busy days for Envelio’s Founder CEO Simon Koopmann running through a myriad of hot VC meetings including the first deal flow conversation with Ecapital’s Hannes Schill.
Read more- 22
- May
2017
EcoIntense rounds up 22 million euro cash injection
One Peak Partners and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital are on board. Together, the private equity firms invest 22 million euros in Berlin-based EcoIntense. The late stage software startup has been cashflow positive since 2012 and even debt free since 2014. But “it’s almost like an old saying: you should have a financing round, when you don’t need any cash,” Markus Becker, Co-founder of EcoIntense explained his reason for raising capital anyhow.
Read more- 19
- January
2015
Silvan Rath pitches ParkTAG
Ecosummit TV: Parking is big: every drive starts and ends in a parking space. Moreover, cars are parked 95% of the day and 30% of urban traffic is caused by drivers looking for parking. Having developed a mobile solution to the parking problem, Silvan Rath pitches ParkTAG at ECO14 Berlin. ParkTAG operates a social parking community that enables car drivers to find available parking places with their smartphones. The ParkTAG app uses the built-in sensors of the device to track user movement and learns automatically when the user is parking a car or vacating a parking space and driving away. The Berlin-based early stage startup was founded in 2014 and is backed by High-Tech Gründerfonds, Germany’s leading seed investor. ParkTAG’s capital efficient business model is to license its smart parking technology to partners that market it to their customers.
Read more- 15
- December
2014
WeSustain raises €4M Series B from VNT Management, HTGF, KfW and MBG
Ecosummit TV: Every company in every industry has to go green and make and sell sustainable products. At the same time, smart green investors take sustainability reports very seriously when making investment decisions. In September 2014, the EU Commission issued their long-awaited directive for mandatory sustainability reports for companies with more than 500 employees that has to be translated into national law within 2 years. Now Enterprise Sustainability Management (ESM) software providers like WeSustain are en vogue. CEO Manfred Heil expects the market to triple within the next 4 years. Customer references like Daimler, Commerzbank and Allianz as well as reseller Telekom will help the well positioned German startup and its team of 20 employees to grow even faster than the market.
Read more- 28
- April
2014
Christina di Sano pitches Smart Hydro Power
Ecosummit TV: Christina di Sano pitches Smart Hydro Power at ECO13 London. Founded in 2010, Smart Hydro Power develops a kinetic hydro power turbine that uses the movement of rivers to produce clean energy. The hydro power plants are targeted at offgrid communities that up to now had to rely on costly and dirty diesel generators. Their first product is a 5 KW turbine with built-in debris protection that costs €12.5K. Smart Hydro Power is backed by Ecapital and High-tech Gründerfonds and won the Ecosummit Award 2012 Gold medal. The German startup is currently fundraising and interested in talking to a new lead investor.
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- 3
- December
2013
Smart green dealflow: E-volo crowdfunding, Lock8, Yetu, Thermondo and Zim Plant Technology exit
5 startups that pitched at Ecosummit conferences in the past celebrate new funding rounds. Within 3 days, 9 hours and 52 minutes electric aviation pioneer E-volo raised €1.2M in a record-breaking crowdfunding event on Seedmatch. Just in time, the Karlsruhe-based cleantech startup managed the first unmanned flight with the prototype of their green Volocopter VC 200 (see video below). Ecosummit contributed €1K and joined a group of 750 fearless crowd investors that agree that this worldwide innovation is ready for take off. With the help of E-volo Seedmatch established firmly as Germany’s leading crowdfunding platform for startups having raised over €10M for 50 projects since August 2011.
Read more- 20
- May
2013
Smart green dealflow: Ubitricity, Saperatec, Skeleton, Waste2Chemical, O-Flexx and Romo Wind
Financing cleantech startups is a tough game these days. You need a strong team, product market fit and, even better, customers and revenues. In this difficult market environment, it is a great pleasure to report that 6 smart green startups managed to raise new venture capital: Ubitricity (around €3.5M, Germany), Saperatec (€3.3M, Germany), Skeleton (€2.2M, Estonia), Waste2Chemical (undisclosed, Netherlands), O-Flexx (€2.4M, Germany) and Romo Wind (€4.8M, Switzerland). The active cleantech VCs include Earlybird, IBB, NRW Bank, HTGF, eCapital, Dutch Greentech Fund, Emerald, Yellow&Blue, ABB and b-to-v. Let’s take a closer look at the startups and their new investors.
Read more- 14
- March
2013
Juergen Finke presents Evonik corporate venturing
Ecosummit TV: More and more corporates create their own venture capital business units to support external innovation that is relevant to their core business. One of the new kids on the block is Evonik, the German specialty chemistry group with €14.5B revenues and 33.500 employees in 2011. At Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012, Juergen Finke unveils the investment strategy of Evonik Corporate Venturing. Having started at the beginning of 2012, Evonik dedicated a €100M fund, made 3 fund investments (HTGF, Pangea and Emerald) to run up the learning curve and is working on their first direct startup investments. If your startup matches the strategy and expertise of one of Evonik’s business units, go and talk to Juergen. Smart green corporate venture capital may be your best choice.
Read more- 28
- February
2013
Markus Becker pitches sustainability software startup EcoIntense
Ecosummit TV: Markus Becker pitches EcoIntense at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. The Berlin-based smart green startup develops sophisticated software for health, security and environmental management (HSE). EcoIntense was founded in 2007, has got 35 employees, doubled its revenues 2 years in a row and now enjoys profitability. EcoIntense’s customer list is really impressive and features Siemens that uses EcoWebDesk in 3 of their 4 business units. Having reached so many milestones, Markus is interested in talking to late stage financial or corporate VCs that can add strategic value.
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- 26
- July
2012
Manfred Heil pitches WeSustain which helps companies optimise their sustainability performance
Ecosummit TV: Manfred Heil, Co-Founder and CEO of WeSustain, pitches the German Green IT startup at Ecosummit Berlin 2012. WeSustain provides a web-based software platform that supports the internal and external processes of sustainability management. WeSustain’s software helps companies measure, improve and communicate their sustainability performance.
Read more- 16
- July
2012
Algae startup Subitec raises €4.5 Million Series A from eCapital, Fraunhofer, HTGF and KfW
The upcoming German algae startup scene celebrates its first venture capital investment. The lucky startup is Stuttgart-based Subitec that successfully closed its Series A financing round led by eCapital. Subitec’s algae factories consist of patented vertical photobioreactors that use little space and energy while producing high yield. CEO Peter Ripplinger who pitched Subitec at Ecosummit Berlin 2011 wants to use the fresh money to grow the team, expand the lab and pilot facilities and internationalise the business. The main target market is the US where the demand for innovative algae technologies is the strongest.
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