Ecosummit Zoom 7 July 2021
This is our last online event before the summer break and Ecosummit Berlin. Let’s connect fundraising startups and active investors at Ecosummit Zoom 7 July 2021, our 15th online event, co-hosted by Gerard Reid and Bart Markus. The agenda presents 12 amazing speakers briefing us on mobile batteries, ecargo bikes, energy flexibility, energy marketplaces, hydrogen production, low-cost fuel cells, energy innovation in Israel, thermal energy storage and smart green corporate venturing: Sebastian Berning (Instagrid, Series B), Hans Cool (Eneco Ventures), Tom Mason (Bramble Energy, Series B), Beres Seelbach (Ono, Series B), James Quinn (Faradion, Series B), James Johnston (Piclo), Richard Lohwasser (Lition Energy, Growth Round), Eran Levy (Enel Innovation Hub Tel Aviv), Doron Brenmiller (Brenmiller Energy), Robert Trezona (IP Group), Johann Boukhors (Engie New Ventures) and Andrés Galnares (H2Site, Series A). 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 co-invest, cooperate and build big startups with big impact.
Read moreRelayr raises $23M Series B from Munich RE/HSB Ventures, KPCB and Munich Venture Partners
The Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 and the insurance industry are coming together. Berlin-based IoT startup Relayr raises $23M (€20.7M) Series B from Munich RE/HSB Ventures, KPCB and Munich Venture Partners. It turns out that the industrial insurance company Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB), since 2009 part of Munich RE, has started to embrace IoT a while ago to make their life easier and insurance business smarter. In a nutshell, HSB insures manufacturing companies against the risk of equipment breakdown and other reasons for suboptimal factory performance. By making the machines smart and connecting them to the Relayr cloud, their health status can be monitored online. If the automated machine data analysis identifies any problems, the malfunctioning machines can be repaired or replaced before it is too late and the production line has to be put on hold without knowing why.
Read moreEcosummit rocks Amsterdam on 7 July 2016 at Rockstart
This year we bring Ecosummit for the first time to Amsterdam because we like the city and believe it is a good business idea. During the last few months we worked very hard to make it happen and digged deep into the Dutch smart green innovation community. We got a lot of positive response from old and new Ecosummit friends and also sent a few one-way emails into the local internet whose inbox owners don’t value our European startup platform as much as we do – not yet. This is going to change next week when Ecosummit rocks Amsterdam on 7 July at Rockstart, the famous Dutch startup accelerator founded in 2011 by the serial entrepreneur and Yoga enthusiast Oscar Kneppers and a few of his business buddies. Since 2014, Rockstart is an Ecosummit partner that showcases their smart energy portfolio every year on stage and Ecosummit TV. In March 2016, the lottery-funded impact VC DOEN Foundation invested in Rockstart because both organisations share the same vision that entrepreneurs are able to solve the big problems of our planet, society and economy.
Read morePedro Miranda talks about the smart green city strategy of Siemens
Ecosummit TV: At ECO14 London, our second conference at the LEED Platinum-certified Crystal, our host Pedro Miranda presents the smart green city strategy of Siemens and its key drivers. Electrification, automation and digital transformation have got a huge impact on the business of the German corporate and its customers. In fact, the digital and physical world are merging to continuously create better and more resource efficient solutions taking advantage of the latest smart technologies. Many companies are working hard to be part of the Internet of Things. According to Pedro, digital growth is exponential and the amount of data generated by humans and machines doubles every 2 years. In smart green cities, smart buildings are connected to the smart grid while the energy and data flow bi-directionally from the producer to the consumer and back to the producer. At the Crystal, Pedro and his team know everything that’s going on thanks to the omniscient building management system they put in place.
Read morePaul Leibold pitches Adaptive City Mobility and its City Etaxi
Ecosummit TV: Paul Leibold pitches Adaptive City Mobility and its City Etaxi at ECO14 Berlin. The capital efficient strategy for developing a new electric vehicle is a value web of strong partners that contribute technology, people and capital to co-develop a new car and co-create a new market. That’s exactly what Paul did when he brought together Vispiron, Roding, BMZ, Heinzmann and Fraunhofer ESK in 2012 to work on his dream of an electric taxi optimised for smart green cities. The partners jointly invested €10M and received funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The City Etaxi is a lightweight 3 seater that supports battery swapping and reaches 80 km/h. Now Paul looks for investors and ambitious city managers that want to support pilot projects with connected etaxi fleets.
Read moreEcosummit Berlin 2015 takes place on 19-20 May 2015 at the Radialsystem
Ecosummit TV: We are very happy to announce our 9th conference Ecosummit Berlin 2015 taking place on 19-20 May 2015 at the Radialsystem – the best event location in Europe’s leading smart green city for startups. As a warm up, we share the opening of ECO14 Berlin on Ecosummit TV. Last year, the theme of Ecosummit was Accelerating Smart Green Startups. We believe that everybody should think and act like an accelerator trying to reduce capital and time to market while growing the team and revenues faster. This is what our industry needs: Faster startups and bigger exits. While a fast and small exit that results in an aquihire for the buyer may be a good thing, what VCs and LPs really want are big exits by big startups that have big economic and ecological impact. To make big exits happen, founders and their investors have to constantly work on the 4 success factors of startups: People, capital, product and customers. Only if you have the best team, enough capital, a competitive product and lots of happy customers, you are able to become a global market leader. At ECO15 Berlin on 19-20 May 2015, we will continue to work together on accelerating smart green startups aiming at big exits.
Read morePhilipp Bouteiller presents the urban tech republic Berlin TXL
Ecosummit TV: The existing airport Tegel keeps on running and the opening date and budget of the new airport remain a big mystery. However, Philipp and his team already have a plan for the future use of Berlin TXL. The urban tech republic shall be a centre for urban technologies and the companies making them. As cities are so important when it comes to consuming resources and creating wealth, we all agree that citizens should work hard on the smart green city transition. Inventing and producing new urban solutions within the city boundary is a beautiful idea and makes a lot of sense. Philipp has a deep passion for attracting smart green industries to Berlin and will be happy to talk to small and big companies about relocating. The conversion of an old airport into a new urban tech republic will take one generation. We just hope that it will start soon.
Read morePhilipp Rode of LSE talks about smart green cities
Ecosummit TV: According to Philipp Rode, Executive Director at LSE Cities, cities are leading the next economy as we already surpassed 50% urbanisation. Having surveyed 90 cities, Philipp identifies the key sectors driving cities’ economic growth as being green transport, renewable energy, green building retrofits, new green buildings, energy distribution and green goods and services. Cities can learn from each other because they are very different. As for energy, the city of Munich owns 100% of the local utility Stadtwerke München and, as a result, is able to set the goal of 100% renewables in 2025 and manage the transition of local energy generation and distribution following a long-term strategy. It also turns out that cities are willing to collaborate and try out new ideas to facilitate the smart green transition. That sounds like an open invitation for startups to participate in the urban transformation.
Read moreDetlef Pohl pitches Siemens Venture Capital
Ecosummit TV: Detlef Pohl pitches Siemens Venture Capital at ECO13 London. The cities of the future have to be sustainable, competitive and livable to attract the best companies and citizens. Therefore, cities need intelligent infrastructure that integrates buildings, mobility, water supply, waste management and security while minimising the carbon footprint. Siemens not only provides a myriad of new technologies for smart green cities but also venture capital and project financing for the development and deployment of such technologies. The ability to offer customised financing solutions drives the sales of smart green innovation. It’s useful to be a corporate and have a big balance sheet. As for venture capital, Siemens is an investor in the EV charging network Chargepoint that recently raised $22.6M and operates over 17.000 charging stations.
Read moreMads Jensen pitches Sefaira
Ecosummit TV: Mads Jensen pitches Sefaira at ECO13 London. Buildings are complex systems which integrate many interdependent smart green technologies including building materials, orientation, air ventilation, glazing, insulation, shading, heating, cooling and lighting. To optimise this system Sefaira makes software for high performance building design and enables architects to analyse their designs until they are perfect in terms of energy footprint and cost of operations. Founded in 2009, the UK-US startup launched in 2012 and convinced over 200 architecture firms to use the software in their building design process. Sefaira raised €13M ($18M) from Chrysalix SET, Braemar Energy Ventures and Hermes GPE and won the Ecosummit Award 2013 Gold medal. We like the way Sefaira fosters smart green cities and are happy that Mads joined our Ecosummit Advisors.
Read moreClaire Cockerton presents the future city accelerator Level39
Ecosummit TV: Claire Cockerton presents the future city accelerator Level39 at ECO13 London. Based in Canary Wharf and backed by the Canary Wharf Group, Level39 is a technology accelerator specialised in fostering startups in the financial, retail and smart green city industries. While Level39 does not invest, they provide affordable office space which in some cases may be sponsored by a corporate. Moreover, the accelerator facilitates coaching sessions with mentors and business relationships with local companies that act as pilot customers for bringing new services to the market. Level39 welcomes startups from all over the world that want to touch down in the Docklands to co-invent the city of the future.
Read morePedro Pires de Miranda envisions the smart green urban future for Siemens
Ecosummit TV: Siemens is not Apple. While Steve Jobs envisioned a new HQ from outer space for 12.000 employees, Pedro Pires de Miranda just wanted a smart green city technology showcase, conference centre, public exhibition and cutting edge sales office for the Siemens competence centre Cities. 18 months and €60M later, The Crystal opened doors in September 2012 and already upgraded more than 120.000 visitors to a new understanding of our urban future. 2 weeks ago we celebrated Ecosummit London 2013 at Siemens’ new urbanity palace.
Read moreJan Michael Hess opens Ecosummit London 2013
Ecosummit TV: Jan Michael Hess opens Ecosummit London 2013. Our 6th cleantech conference took place on 15-16 October at the Crystal, the urban sustainability HQ of Siemens in the Docklands. 150 participants came together to discuss smart green cities and to pitch new solutions and investment opportunities. The Crystal is the perfect location for Ecosummit London. Moreover, the LEED Platinum building is a role model for other corporates that want to co-invent the urban future and invest in a long-term technology showcase and marketing tool. Our highlight was the Ecomobilité Ventures Flinc deal announced at ECO13 London. After the NRW Bank O-Flexx investment, this is already the second deal facilitated by Ecosummit.
Read moreRobert Gallenberger and Matthias Vandepitte present Gimv
Ecosummit TV: Robert Gallenberger and Matthias Vandepitte present Gimv at ECO13 Berlin. The Brussels-based VC is a listed company with €1.8B of assets under management and 90 employees in 4 offices. Recently, Gimv reorganised into 4 investment platforms of which Smart Industries and Sustainable Cities are most relevant for startups active in cleantech and resource efficiency. Gimv supported Ecosummit Berlin 2013 as sponsor and not only looked for new dealflow but also showcased the portfolio company Govecs at the conference. McPhy Energy (ECO12 Berlin) and PE International are also part of the portfolio. Gimv prefers to invest in startups with a proven business model and revenues to help them expand into new markets inside and outside of Europe.
Read moreEcosummit London 2013 happens on 15-16 October at the Crystal
This is our preview of Ecosummit London 2013, our 6th cleantech conference that we hold for the first time in London. The agenda is online and presents 58 speakers including 31 startups and 15 sponsors. The growing list of participants features a promising startup and VC density. 2 embedded Ecosummit TV videos show my introduction of ECO13 London and my opening of ECO13 Berlin. With 2 weeks to go, there is plenty of time to get your ticket and join us at the Crystal, the perfect location for our smart green family reunion. A unique experience for the participants will be the cable car pitch overviewing The Thames and Canary Wharf. Finally, it is our pleasure to share the dates of our next 4 events in Berlin and London in 2014 and 2015 for which we look for long-term sponsors and partners.
Read moreElectric aviation pioneer Alexander Zosel pitches E-volo
Ecosummit TV: Alexander Zosel pitches E-volo at ECO13 Berlin. The German cleantech startup develops an electric helicopter that will revolutionise urban aviation within the next 10 years. The Volocopter is developed by a consortium of companies and universities that received a €2M grant from the German government. Moreover, the German aviation authority defined a new class of aircraft specifically for the Volocopter. As of today, E-volo plans a slow market entry with a pre-series of 10 Volocopters in 2015. As the new electric helicopter category is a potential multi-billion market opportunity, E-volo will soon realise that they need to raise substantial amounts of venture capital to guarantee high-quality production on the ground as well as safety in the air. For now, they continue their startup rock’n’roll pioneering electric aviation and inventing new PR stunts.
Read moreLeopold von Bismarck pitches Tado from Munich
Ecosummit TV: Leopold von Bismarck pitches Tado at ECO13 Berlin. The Munich-based startup provides a smart green heating management service that helps consumers save up to €300 per year. At €99 annual subscription fee, this is a fair deal that makes economic and ecological sense. Customers connect a small hardware box to their central heating system and control it with a smartphone app. Backed by Target Partners and Shortcut Ventures, Tado is one of the most promising cleantech startups in Germany. At the same time, they are a very good case study to learn how cleantech and Internet grow together by making things smart and connecting them to their users. Thus your heating system goes green by operating less, only when it is really needed. The expert jury of the Ecosummit Award 2013 also thought that Tado is on a roll and sent them home with a silver medal and some useful prize money.
Read moreCall for cleantech startups to pitch at Ecosummit London 2013
We call all cleantech startups in Europe to pitch at Ecosummit London 2013 on 15-16 October at the Crystal, the urban sustainability HQ of Siemens in the Docklands. ECO13 London is our 6th international cleantech conference and brings together Europe’s leading startups, VCs and corporates to accelerate smart green innovation. The theme of ECO13 London is Smart Green City. The best 5 startups, that never pitched at Ecosummit before, win a free 8-minute pitch on the Ecosummit stage and in front of the Ecosummit TV cameras. If you do not win but qualify for a pitch, we invite you to buy a startup ticket to pitch (50% of current ticket price). Please apply by creating a profile on Ecosummit Market and sending us your investor presentation as soon as possible. All applications are processed on a first come, first serve basis. Get ready for your cable car pitch and join us at ECO13 London.
Read morePieter Bots pitches Geo-En that uses geothermal energy for smart green buildings
Ecosummit TV: Pieter Bots pitches Geo-En at Ecosummit Berlin 2013. The Berlin-based cleantech startup provides a near surface geothermal energy solution to heat and cool smart green buildings. Backed by eCapital, IBB and Pieter Bots himself, Geo-En finalised various new projects in Hamburg, Berlin and other cities in the first half of 2013. Geo-En’s solution is quite unique as it uses very little space and usually works with only one borehole underneath or very close to the building. The systems recently installed cost between €60K and €600K and have an amortisation period of 3 to 20 years depending on energy prices and system configuration. Now Pieter looks for new smart green investors that support Geo-En’s international expansion.
Read moreEcosummit London 15-16 October 2013 – join our smart green city conference at the Crystal
Ecosummit TV: We want to live and work in a Smart Green City. And we like London. The smart green capital is an important cleantech hub, provides access to the UK market and serves as the bridge to America. Therefore, we are very proud to invite you to Ecosummit London 2013, our 6th cleantech conference for startups, investors and corporates. ECO13 London will be held on 15-16 October at the Crystal, the new urban sustainability headquarter of Siemens in the Docklands. Take a look at our short Ecosummit TV video and get ready for your cable car pitch. ECO13 London explores the city of the future and your company should be part of it.
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