- 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- 5
- October
2021
Roofit.solar raises €7.85M Series A led by BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures
The Tesla solar roof now has a strong competitor in Europe. Today, Roofit.solar announces its €7.85M Series A (€6.4M new capital and €1.45M converted loans) led by BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures and supported by an outstanding group of Estonian co-investors. The co-investor syndicate includes the family office of Priit Piilmann (largest shareholder of Viru Keemia Grupp), Taavet Hinrikus (Co-founder of Wise, recently listed on LSE) and Sten Tamkivi (ex-General Manager at Skype Estonia), Spring Capital and Helmes Investments. We’re super happy about this transaction because Ecosummit advised the 3 co-founders of Roofit.solar during the 9-month fundraising process and successfully introduced the German lead investor BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures, the main piece in the Series A puzzle.
Read more- 24
- August
2021
Installion raises €4M Series A led by Eneco Ventures
The energy transition is a hands-on job because somebody has to install all the hardware needed for making, storing and charging solar energy at the customers’ premises. It turns out that finding a good installer can be anything from very tough to simply impossible. In other words, installation is the bottleneck if we want to reach 100% renewables. For the founders among us it’s an obvious startup opportunity. Installion is the installation service provider for the energy transition helping utilities and other solar companies with qualified manpower onsite and on time. On 25 February 2021, we introduced Installion to Eneco and other smart green VCs to find the best lead investor, the main piece in the Series A puzzle. After watching Florian’s online pitch at Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2021, Eneco was hooked and due diligence started. The deal closed end of July and today we’re breaking the news that Eneco Ventures invests a ticket of €3.2M leading Installion’s €4M Series A. At the same time, Ecosummit gets 1 assist on the startup VC matchmaking scoreboard which proves our value and track record.
Read more- 18
- May
2021
Ecosummit Zoom 2 June 2021
Founded in 2010, our mission is maximising our impact until 2030, the global deadline for carbon neutrality. Our goals are 100% electric mobility, 100% renewable energy and 100% sustainable cities. We’re zooming in again on fundraising startups and active investors at Ecosummit Zoom 2 June 2021, our 14th online event, co-hosted by Christoph Ostermann, Gerard Reid and Bart Markus. The agenda presents 11 inspiring speakers: Davor Sutija (Nexwafe) launching Series C, Sergey Ogorodnov (Voltaware) launching Series B, Duncan Grierson (Clim8) launching Series A, Cathal Hughes (BP Launchpad), Mike Popham (Stryde), Anna Björklou (Epishine), Franck Raynaud (MyBus) launching Series A, Peter van Giessel (Shell Ventures), Jochem de Graaf (Travis) launching Series A, Samuel Jansson (Utilifeed) launching Series A and Julia Padberg (SET Ventures). Please get in touch if you want to pitch at Ecosummit to accelerate your startup, fund or portfolio. Get your tickets and join us. Let’s automate sustainability in every industry and build big startups with big impact.
Read more- 24
- February
2021
Ecosummit Zoom 21 April 2021
On my 50th birthday, we meet online to celebrate together the smart green founders and investors writing success stories while saving our climate and planet. It is our pleasure to invite our friends and customers to the very special Ecosummit Zoom 21 April 2021 which is free and invitation-only, just like any other good birthday party. First, 5 impactful speakers unmute themselves to share good news: Ernesto Garnier (Einhundert), Christoph Frei (Emerald Technology Ventures), Christian Chudoba (Lumenaza), Matthias Dill (Energy Impact Partners) and Thomas Goette (Greenpocket). Afterwards, Rune Theill introduces the Rockstart Energy Showcase 2021 featuring 9 new portfolio companies: Bhaskar Deol (eDRV), Roby Moyano (Bia), Joury de Reuver (Soolutions), Christopher Jackson (Advanced Infrastructure), Golam Sadeghnia (OKTO), Rolf Bastiaanssen (Starke Energy), Mads Emil Dalsgaard (Klimate), Christoph Buchli (Helio) and Erik Nijveld (TechnologyCatalogue). Finally, we enjoy a distributed birthday party to foster our friendship and cooperation. Please send us an email to request your invitation to Ecosummit Zoom 21 April 2021. It’s time to make smart green business and have some fun.
Read more- 12
- February
2021
Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2021
We focus on connecting fundraising startups and active investors to foster 100% electric mobility, 100% renewable energy and 100% sustainable cities. Ecosummit Zoom 10 March 2021 is co-hosted by Christoph Ostermann (ex-Sonnen), Gerard Reid (Alexa Capital) and Bart Markus (GAP Technology Holding). The agenda features 10 exciting speakers including 3 CVCs with portfolio pitches: Nils Aldag (Sunfire) building a global hydrogen powerhouse, Jan Lozek (Future Energy Ventures) managing Europe’s largest energy startup porfolio, Nick Woolley (ev.energy) optimising EV charging, Erin Hallock (BP Ventures) investing in game-changing energy startups, Tom Anderson (Grid Edge) providing AI for building energy systems, Nicolas Milerieux (Encevo) redefining smart energy corporate venturing, Arnaud Legrand (Energiency) enabling energy intelligence for manufacturing, Davor Sutija (NexWafe) advancing solar wafer deeptech, Florian Meyer-Delpho (Installion) scaling the installation service provider for the energy transition and Janice Goodenough (Hydrogrid) developing the autopilot for hydropower plants. Please get in touch if you want to pitch at Ecosummit Zoom to accelerate your startup, fund or portfolio. Now it’s your turn to get your tickets and join us.
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- 16
- September
2020
Dendra raises $10M Series A led by Airbus Ventures
Today is a good day for our climate and planet. Smart ecosystem restoration plays a key role in our global effort to minimise climate change and accelerate the transformation to a low carbon economy. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to automate ecosystem restoration by bringing together plant science, AI, drones and human creativity to decrease the costs and increase the accountability of biological carbon sequestration. Our Ecosummit angel portfolio company Dendra Systems raises $10M (€8.4M) Series A from Airbus Ventures, At One Ventures, Future Positive Capital and Lowercarbon Capital. Nicole Conner (Airbus Ventures) and Tom Chi (At One Ventures) join the board to support CEO and Co-Founder Susan Graham and her diverse team of ecologists and technologists in building a big startup with big impact.
Read more- 10
- March
2020
Energiency raises €4.5M Series A led by Encevo
Ecosummit startups are startups that pitched at least once at Ecosummit. Ecosummit investors are investors that have at least one Ecosummit startup in their current portfolio. Today the Ecosummit startup Energiency announces its €4.5M Series A led by the Ecosummit investor Encevo. At the same time, we get one more assist because CEO Arnaud Legrand first met VC Analyst Quentin Dupraz at Ecosummit Paris on 6 March 2018. The French startup and the Luxembourg utility speak the same language and quickly found out that they not only understand each other but also have similar ideas for developing joint business opportunities in the industrial energy market. As Nicolas Milerioux and his team are on the mission to expand corporate venturing and open innovation, Energiency turned out to be a really good match for Encevo’s strategy and portfolio.
Read more- 9
- February
2020
Smart tank inventor Mixergy raises £3.6M Series A led by Foresight Williams
The new era of smart hot water tanks is here. Tanks that optimise energy consumption and accelerate the integration of renewables into the grid, putting more money into consumers’ pockets and offering grid balancing services with the help of demand response. Mixergy is that future of smart hot water tanks, on course to take over the UK domestic market and beyond. They started this year on a positive note, having raised a £3.6M Series A on 13 January 2020 led by Foresight Williams and backed by all previous investors including Centrica Innovations and IP Group, both regular sponsors of Ecosummit.
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- 29
- November
2017
SET Ventures announces Limejump investment at Ecosummit London
It is our common goal to build big startups that have big impact. Co-investing strengthens the investor syndicate and enables startups to grow faster. Following this goal, Amsterdam-based SET Ventures announces their new investment in Limejump at Ecosummit London. ECO17 London took place last week at the magnificent LSO St Luke’s, attracted 140 participants and presented 38 startups, most of them actively fundraising. In fact, SET Ventures transfers another €3M to Limejump doubling their Series A which was led by Statkraft Ventures in July. This is the first co-investment of SET Ventures and Statkraft Ventures but it may not be their last one given that they have the same investment strategy and different competences and networks.
Read more- 5
- December
2016
Lilium raises €10M Series A from Atomico to commercialise its electric VTOL jet
On-demand urban air transportation is the next big thing according to Daniel Wiegand, CEO and Co-Founder of Lilium. The German aviation startup develops an electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft called Lilium jet since 2015. Today, Atomico invests €10M Series A and Niklas Zennström joins the board. Daniel and his team of 35 employees have the vision to make urban aviation electric, silent and available for everyone with the help of airtaxis and other aviation services. Uber also shares the vision that urban mobility should go vertical and is already working on matching pilots and passengers that want to bypass street-level congestion and traffic jams. In October 2016, the Californian mobility giant unveiled Uber Elevate in a 97-page must-read whitepaper. It would be no surprise if they soon co-invested in Lilium as übercool VTOL jets are the missing link to launch Uber in the air.
Read more- 8
- November
2016
Statkraft Ventures teams up with ETF Partners and leads $5M Series A in Greenbird from Norway
Ubiquitous smart meters are a key infrastructure component for the smart green utilities of the future because they generate a lot of valuable data and enable new energy services and dynamic pricing. In fact, it is a surprise that smart meter rollouts happen rather slowly in most countries due to slow regulators and hesitant utilities that are not yet ready to make substantial upfront investments in millions of smart meters that may bring more economic benefits to consumers than to the utilities themselves. Luckily, the Nordic countries and their resident startups have a headstart. Today, Düsseldorf-based corporate VC Statkraft Ventures leads the $5M Series A in Greenbird teaming up with London-based ETF Partners who were on the top of their potential co-investor list. The Norwegian energy IoT startup is Statkraft’s second investment this year after DEPsys from Switzerland in June.
Read more- 11
- October
2016
SET Ventures announces investment in Energyworx at Ecosummit London 2016
Our smart green innovation community is making more deals and sharing breaking news at Ecosummit. During today’s ECO16 London presentation, Rene Savelsberg announces the new investment of SET Ventures in Energyworx, the Dutch software provider for energy data analytics and management for utilities. SET Ventures joins the existing investor HenQ to complete Energyworx’ Series A in which both VCs co-invested a couple of million Euros and made additional capital reserves for follow-on investments. Energyworx is the first investment since the Amsterdam-based smart energy VC reached the first closing of SET Fund II at €60M in February 2016. With the software skills of HenQ and the energy experience and network of SET Ventures Energyworx is now poised to accelerate its growth and win new utility customers in Europe and America.
Read more- 14
- December
2014
Eternal Sun raises €2M Series A from Vermec
How can you guarantee the performance of solar panels over a long period of time, let’s say 20 years? By simulating sunshine and testing the solar panels in a controlled lab environment with powerful and energy efficient lamps, e.g. Heliospectra LEDs. Chokri Mousaoui (CEO) and Stefan Roest (CTO) co-founded Eternal Sun in 2011 after they developed their first solar simulator prototype at Delft University of Technology. As their second and third prototype were already paid by pilot customers, the founders managed to reach product market fit very quickly and bootstrap their smart green startup to €1M revenues in 2014 while keeping a clean 50:50 cap table until their Series A. In July 2011, they moved into the incubator YesDelft where they are still located. The role of TU Delft and its ecosystem cannot be overestimated as 9 out of 11 employees were educated at the university. We first saw Chokri pitching in front of the Climate-KIC accelerator jury at Utrechtinc on 5 July 2012. 2 months later, we went together on the first Climate-KIC USA Startup Tour to Silicon Valley, Washington and Boston. Then Stefan came to Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012 in November to look for investors.
Read more- 2
- December
2014
Sonnenbatterie raises €7.5M Series B from Munich Venture Partners, Chrysalix SET and Ecapital
Sonnenbatterie raises €7.5M in their Series B financing round from the co-investors Munich Venture Partners, Chrysalix SET and Ecapital. The Bavarian startup sold over 4.000 smart energy storage systems and is one of the fastest growing smart green startups in Germany. We like Sonnenbatterie since their first pitch at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. In January 2013, Ecapital invested €3M in the Series A. At ECO13 Berlin, Sonnenbatterie won Ecosummit Award 2013 Bronze and Philipp Schröder, now at Tesla, performed a great pitch. Sonnenbatterie also joined our first Ecosummit London 2013. In March 2014, we co-hosted our first Ecosummit Advisor Workshop in the energy village Wildpoldsried. Among our advisors were Martin Kröner (MVP) and Rene Savelsberg (Chrysalix SET) and, as you can see, they went home more impressed than ever before. At ECO14 Berlin, Sonnenbatterie won Ecosummit Award 2014 Gold and Benjamin Schott jumped on stage. At ECO14 London, Christoph Ostermann pitched again after we enjoyed an incredible sponsor dinner at Home House and then got lost in London’s taxi underground. Now it is time to celebrate before doubling annual production and revenues in the years to come. Long live Sonnenbatterie and very big the exit shall be.
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.
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.
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