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- February
2015
Nils Aldag pitches Sunfire
Ecosummit TV: Nils Aldag pitches Sunfire at ECO14 Berlin. The Dresden-based late stage startup makes very efficient solid oxide electrolysers and fuel cells using the same technology platform. Last year Sunfire won Ecosummit Award 2014 Silver and entered Cleantech Group’s 2014 Global Cleantech 100. Sunfire has got 80 employees and is backed by Electranova Capital, Total Energy Ventures, Bilfinger Venture Capital and KfW. Their impressive list of customers includes ThyssenKrupp and Vaillant. Upon request Nils will share more customers that prove Sunfire’s enormous market traction that may lead to €10M revenues in 2015. Nils currently raises their next financing round and welcomes new strategic and financial investors that believe in Sunfire’s growth potential in the global hydrogen market.
Read more- 28
- January
2015
Yüksel Sirmasac pitches Rockethome
Ecosummit TV: Smart energy and smart home, empowered by the Internet of Things (IoT), are hot markets that continue to attract a growing number of startups. One of the established German smart home enablers with a strong focus on usability is Rockethome that was founded in 2010 in Cologne. At ECO14 Berlin, Yüksel Sirmasac gives a company update and pitches Rockethome. The startup provides a software platform for smart home services that connects all kinds of devices and applications. The Rockethome solution is already licensed to 40 telcos and city utilities in 6 countries. Rockethome has got 35 employees, doubles revenues every year and is backed by Born2grow, a seed fund managed by Zukunftsfonds Heilbronn, and KfW. Now Yüksel is interested in talking to new financial and strategic investors that can help grow the business.
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- 1
- October
2013
Thomas Goette pitches Greenpocket
Ecosummit TV: Thomas Goette pitches Greenpocket at ECO13 Berlin. In particular, Thomas talked about their multi-level benchmarking tool that is based on smart meter data and allows to compare energy consumption data and receive recommendations for optimisation.The smart green startup from Cologne is backed by NRW Bank, Schwetje Digital (Betafabrik), Rheinland Venture Capital and KfW. Founded in 2009, Greenpocket has 30 employees and provides a powerful software platform for smart metering and smart home management. Greenpocket has got over 40 utilities and telcos as customers in Germany, Austria, Spain and UK.
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.
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- October
2012
Smart green dealflow: SolarFuel, Govecs, Tiramizoo, Sortech and Evodos
5 smart green startups that are connected to Ecosummit in various ways successfully raised new venture capital during the last months: Power to Gas pioneer SolarFuel (€7.5M, Germany), electric scooter maker Govecs (€10M, Germany), bike messenger platform Tiramizoo (undisclosed, Germany), sustainable cooling provider Sortech (undisclosed, Germany) and algae harvester Evodos (undisclosed, Netherlands). Let’s take a closer look at the products and business models of the startups and their new investors.
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- 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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- May
2012
Greenpocket raises €3.5 Million Series B led by NRW Bank
Greenpocket from Cologne raised €3.5M in their Series B financing round led by NRW Bank, the development bank owned by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Greenpocket’s existing investors also participated and include Schwetje Digital (Betafabrik), Rheinland Venture Capital and KfW. The smart green startup was founded in 2009, has 40 employees and provides a powerful software platform for smart metering and smart home management. Greenpocket has 30 utilities as customers in Germany, Austria, Spain and UK. The CEO Thomas Goette pitched his startup at Ecosummit Berlin 2012 and you can watch Thomas on Ecosummit TV. We also did an interview with Thomas to learn more about the financing and Greenpocket’s international strategy.
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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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