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- 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- 21
- May
2012
Climate-KIC Incubator Network Strengthens Early Stage Startups In Europe
Ecosummit TV: The closing panel of day 1 of Ecosummit 2012 in Berlin focused on supporting smart green entrepreneurs in the early stage of the startup process. The panel was presented by Climate-KIC, the European incubator network initiated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. Sebastian Matthes, technology section editor of our media partner Wirtschaftswoche, moderated a very informative conversation with Agnes von Matuschka (Center for Entrepreneurship at TU Berlin, University), Dr. Alexander von Frankenberg (High-Tech Gründerfonds, VC), Dr. Ingo Potthof (UnternehmerTUM Fund, VC) and Dr. Maximilian Horster (Climate Neutral Investments – South Pole Carbon, Startup). A couple of interesting issues came up during the panel discussion.
Read more- 14
- May
2012
Smart Hydro Power raises €2.7 Million Series A from eCapital
Smart Hydro Power successfully closed their Series A financing round raising €2.7M from the German Cleantech VC eCapital which values the startup at €8.4M premoney. The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds converted their loan in this round. As Smart Hydro Power also won the Ecosummit Jury Award 2012 convincing our 53 judges, this milestone is a welcome opportunity to interview the CEO Karl Kolmsee and his investors about the deal and the prospects of this unique young company. Moreover, this deal proves that we continue to bring the best smart green startups onto our Ecosummit stage. To celebrate, we are happy to publish Karl’s fantastic ECO12 pitch on Ecosummit TV just in time for this story.
Read more- 6
- May
2012
Thibaud Le Séguillon Presents Organic PV Startup Heliatek
Ecosummit TV: Thibaud Le Séguillon, CEO of Heliatek, presents his Organic PV startup at ECO12. OPV is the third generation of solar technology and Heliatek is the global leader. The Dresden-based startup recently announced another efficiency world record of 10.7%. The efficiency roadmap goes up to 15-20%. But the real advantage of Heliatek is low cost per kwh as well as very green manufacturing processes without toxic materials. Now Heliatek looks for €60M for their Fab 2. Thibaud on Ecosummit TV is just the perfect sales pitch for their new financing round.
Read more- 11
- April
2012
Smart Green Dealflow: Sefaira, Geo-En, Tado and WeSustain
Let’s toast to 4 smart green startups that successfully closed new funding rounds during the last months. Sefaira, Geo-En, Tado and WeSustain have all been on our Ecosummit stage and are active members of our Smart Green Business Network. Sefaira, Tado and WeSustain were also nominated for the Ecosummit Award 2012. Braemar Energy Ventures leads Sefaira’s €8.2M round with co-investors Chrysalix SET and Hermes GPE. eCapital and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft invest €4M in Berlin-based Geo-En. Target Partners seed finances Tado while NBank, MBG, KfW and High-Tech Gründerfonds back WeSustain. Let’s take a closer look at the startups and some of their new investors.
Read more- 23
- January
2012
Smart Green Dealflow: myTaxi, Comuto, Younicos, Solarkiosk, Smartblue and FFK
Taxi 2.0: myTaxi, a very useful mobility service of Intelligent Apps, today raised €10M from car2go (Daimler), T-Venture (Deutsche Telekom), Xing Founder Lars Hinrichs (Cinco Capital, Hackfwd) and KfW. myTaxi is the taxi centre for the Mobile Economy and the app is available for iPhone and Android. Interestingly, Robert Henrich, CEO of car2go, believes that “car2go and myTaxi do not compete but complement each other.” In fact, I partly disagree as one way car sharing actually enables short trips from A to B leaving the car behind, the same way taxis do.
Read more- 14
- November
2011
Smart Green Dealflow: HTGF, Better Place, Epyon, Heliospectra, Tiramizoo, Compositence, Novaled and Proterra
Finally, I find a bit of time to highlight some recent investment deals in our smart green ecosystem. We plan to write our Smart Green Dealflow more often, so please keep sending us your cleantech deal press releases. This time we cover High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Better Place, Epyon, Heliospectra, Tiramizoo, Compositence, Novaled and Proterra. These companies all work on the future of mobility and LED.
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- 28
- May
2011
Peter Ripplinger of Subitec has Algae Bioreactors producing Net Energy from Biomass
Peter Ripplinger, CEO of Subitec, pitches the promising algae factory startup at ECO11 in Berlin. Subitec uses flat-panel airlift (FPA) photobioreactors to produce designable algae biomass on industrial scale with low consumption of resources. Peter claims that net energy production is only possible with their FPA bioreactors. Subitec is powered by patents developed at the Fraunhofer Institute and backed by the High-Tech Gründerfonds.
Read more- 23
- May
2011
Manfred Heil pitches Enterprise Sustainability Management Startup WeSustain
Manfred Heil, CEO and Co-Founder of WeSustain, pitches the Enterprise Sustainability Management (ESM) startup to investors at ECO11 in Berlin. WeSustain provides a software-as-a-service suite that helps companies improve their sustainability management across all products, processes and divisions. Think of it as the SAP of sustainability.
Read more- 2
- February
2011
Meeting Germany’s Leading Seed Investor
Yesterday I was invited to participate in the High-Tech Partnering Conference 2011 (HTPC11) organised by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). In fact, @HTGF_ is Germany’s leading seed investor claiming a market share of 50%. Check this out: they make every second seed deal in Germany. HTGF has several exciting smart green startups in their portfolio, some of which will be featured at Ecosummit 2011 (ECO11). I believe that HTGF’s fund strategy focused on seed investments across the key high-tech industries is its secret of success and a role model for other countries that want to foster entrepreneurship. Disclaimer: HTGF is ECO11 Sponsor.
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