- 14
- July
2020
Ecosummit Zoom 2 September 2020
We accelerate smart green startups, investors and corporates in energy, mobility and cities to save our climate and planet. The 5th Ecosummit Zoom takes place on 2 September 2020, 10:00-12:00 and 15:00-17:00 Berlin time. Gerard and Jan co-host 18 passionate speakers including many fast growing and capital efficient startups that are launching new Seed, Series A or B financing rounds. Further highlights are the preview of Volta Zero, the first 16-tonne electric truck for sustainable cities, a briefing on EON’s CVC strategy after the acquisition of Innogy, the amazing new solar wafer technology of NexWafe as well as updates from our angel portfolio companies Dendra Systems and Solar for Schools. The secret success factor of Ecosummit Zoom is the test pitch that we practice and optimise with each individual speaker in advance. Please get in touch if you want to speak at our monthly online events and get your tickets to join us. Let’s automate sustainability in every industry and build big startups with big impact.
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- 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.
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- February
2020
Solar data manager Solytic raises Series A from EWE and Vattenfall
Data is key and enables new business models. The more data you have the better. This is also true in the solar industry and that’s why solar data manager Solytic is a hot startup these days. We’re happy to break the news that Solytic celebrates the first closing of its Series A raising almost €5M from new investor EWE and existing investor Vattenfall, 2 of the top 5 utilities in Germany. As a result, Vattenfall owns a bit more than 20% and EWE a bit less than 20%. The A round was also joined by 3 business angels led by ex-Goldman Sachs banker Frank Oliver Lehmann. EWE’s impressive investment manager Justin Müller met Solytic’s Enrico Ohnemüller and Vattenfall’s Alexander Hain on 16 May 2019 at Ecosummit Berlin and learned that Solytic was planning a new round. As EWE is transforming into a smart green utility that believes in the power of data and wants to grow its renewable energy business, the Berlin-based startup immediately looked like a good strategic fit and smart investment. In fact, Solytic is open to talk to new investors providing strategic value because the next financing round is already planned.
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- February
2020
Epilot raises Series A from Enercity after meeting at Ecosummit
At Ecosummit deals get done. We saw the need for bringing new climate tech to the global market a long time ago. Thus we already have 10 years track record of matching smart green startups with investors. Here’s one more success story about a fast growing energy e-commerce startup and a transforming city utility that met for the first time at Ecosummit Berlin 2019 to explore common ground with the help of coffee. Good deals take time. 9 months later, on 11 February 2020, Epilot announced at E-world the closing of its Series A in which Enercity invests a significant but undisclosed amount of growth capital to buy a 25,1% stake in Epilot’s cap table. After finishing our startup tour running around Germany’s leading energy trade fair, we joined Epilot’s lively stand party to celebrate the deal closing, interview the co-founders and enjoy a few Kölsch together.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- April
2017
ONZO: Treating home energy like high finance
ONZO’s cloud-based analytics are powering into domestic energy markets. Emerging from the buzzing London tech scene in 2007, the company first focused on hardware, creating a clip-on power meter with wireless display. However, in 2012 the rapid roll out of smart meters led them to sell off the hardware business to Scottish utility SSE. Steven Daniels, one of the private equity investors, took the reins as CEO and the company re-started as a pure energy analytics company floating in the cloud.
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- April
2017
Visedo is the rising star of the Finnish cleantech scene
To get out of fossil fuels and enable a global energy transition all industries must be electrified and powered by renewable energy. Founded in 2009 in Lappeenranta, the high-tech epicentre of Finland’s Far East, Visedo is an early mover when it comes to electrifying marine vessels such as ferryboats and barges and heavy duty vehicles and machines used in mining, construction and transport. Visedo makes customised electric propulsion systems to convert vessels and vehicles to fully electric or hybrid machines with zero or low emissions. After raising a €13.5M Series C in December 2016 from Emerald, VNT Management, Sinituote, Tesi, Green Campus Innovations and others, Visedo is now the rising star of the Finnish cleantech scene enjoying sustainable traction.
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- 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- 13
- May
2016
Climate-KIC showcases Coolar, Prosumergy, MotionTag, Pendula and Orkess at ECO16 Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Malte Schneider presents the Climate-KIC startup showcase at ECO16 Berlin. Since 2012, Climate-KIC Germany partners with Ecosummit and, since 2013, they showcase 5 startups each year that are currently supported by the Climate-KIC Accelerator, Europe’s largest cleantech accelerator. In 2016, Coolar, Prosumergy, MotionTag, Pendula and Orkess went on stage to deliver high-quality pitches and their Ecosummit TV videos are embedded below. Over the years, Climate-KIC has become a very important smart green dealflow source for angels and early stage investors. Congrats to the Climate-KIC team for the great work they do to foster smart green startups in Europe.
Read more- 3
- May
2016
Kiwigrid, Mobisol, Kebony, Lumenaza, BEN Energy and Electrochaea win Ecosummit Award 2016 in Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit’s mission is to accelerate smart green startups, investors and corporates with our events and Ecosummit TV. In fact, we accelerated our video production, too, and already uploaded 20 videos mixed live at ECO16 Berlin to YouTube. Last week, 250 happy participants temporarily populated the Radialsystem and enjoyed an amazing conference that was packed with lots of business and investment opportunities. In the evening of the first conference day, 26 April 2016, we announced the 6 new winners of the Ecosummit Award 2016. 58 nominees from 13 countries created public startup profiles on Ecosummit Market and were judged by 43 judges during the online voting before the conference. The 3 ECO16 Award winners in the late stage startup category (> €2M revenues 2015) are: Kiwigrid winning Gold and €1.5K prize money, Mobisol receiving Silver and €1K and Kebony scoring Bronze and €500. The 3 ECO16 Award winners in the early stage startup category (< €2M revenues 2015) are: Lumenaza winning Gold and €1.5K prize money, BEN Energy earning Silver and €1K and Electrochaea collecting Bronze and €500. Congrats to all the winners for convincing our judges that your smart green startup rocks.
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- April
2016
Inven Capital announces €20M investment in Tado at Ecosummit Berlin 2016
Ecosummit TV: Our smart green innovation community is making deals and sharing breaking news at Ecosummit. During their ECO16 Berlin presentation, Petr Mikovec and his Inven Capital team announce their €20M investment in Tado, one of the fastest-growing smart green startups in Germany. The Munich-based late stage startup provides climate control services to households by controlling heating and air conditioning systems. Tado was founded in 2011, pitched at Ecosummit Berlin 2012 for the first time and grew their team to 100 employees. Inven originally contacted Tado in 2015 and wanted to join the last round but it was too late. Eager to get into the deal, Inven today invests alone at a higher valuation than Tado’s last financing round of €15.2M in October 2015. The existing shareholders Siemens Venture Capital, Statkraft Ventures, Target Partners, Shortcut Ventures and BayBG did not participate again and accepted dilution. Christian Deilmann, CEO of Tado, comments: “We currently have a lot of traction growing at 400% annually in 12 European markets, USA and Singapore. Although we are well-funded thanks to our last round in autumn 2015, Inven Capital presented a great opportunity to strengthen our position in Central and Southeastern Europe and further accelerate our growth and innovation leadership. Our goal is an IPO in a couple of years.”
Read more- 20
- March
2016
Smart green angel Frank Thelen invests in Lilium Aviation to fly an electric plane
Ecosummit TV: Electric aviation is the future of aviation. Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Wiegand pitched Lilium Aviation at ECO15 London on 6 October 2015. On 7 March 2016, the famous German smart green angel Frank Thelen invested in Lilium Aviation buying 15% of the company. The Munich-based startup is supported by Climate KIC and develops an electric plane that can take off and land vertically due to tiltable electric engines. The plane has a beautiful design, will travel at 400 km/h and achieve an all-electric range of 500 km. The first manned flight is planned in 2016 and the commercial rollout starts in 2018. The Lilium jet costs €300K and can already be pre-ordered online – Tesla style. We think Lilium Aviation is one of the hottest and most innovative smart green startups in Europe. For sure, Elon Musk will love it, too.
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- January
2016
Fast-growing solar e-commerce startup Greenergetic attracts investment from RWE
Ecosummit TV: Selling PV systems online is a great business idea for a smart green startup. You can grow at Internet speed and drive the Energiewende by spreading renewable energy. If you want to build your startup in a capital efficient way with a small burn rate, it is also a good idea to minimise your customer acquisition costs by adopting a B2B business model and working with distribution partners. This is exactly what CEO Florian Meyer-Delpho and his co-founders did in 2012 when they launched Greenergetic as a white label portal for utilities to sell PV systems to their customers. At ECO15 Berlin in May, Florian pitched Greenergetic to increase investor demand for their €2M financing round (see Ecosummit TV video below). On 15 December 2015, RWE Vertrieb, the German sales company of RWE with 4 million customers and €12B revenues, announced their minority investment in Greenergetic. While the terms of the deal are undisclosed, we assume that Florian managed to raise a bit more than he was looking for given that Greenergetic expected €5M revenues in 2015.
Read more- 13
- October
2015
Skeleton Technologies, Solarkiosk and Grundgrün win ECO15 London Award
Ecosummit London 2015 was our third conference at the Crystal and it turned out to be our best conference so far in the smart green capital. 160 happy and relaxed participants came together on 6-7 October 2015 to enjoy 46 startup pitches from all over Europe and celebrate smart green innovation. Our panel about fostering the cooperation between impact investors and VCs to tap into new sources of capital for smart green startups received a lot of applause – as did the panels about early stage, late stage and corporate venturing. To further grow next year we are moving Ecosummit London 2016 to CodeNode in the heart of Tech City and concentrate the action on 11 October 2016. Moreover, we announced Ecosummit Berlin 2016 on 26-27 April 2016 at the Radialsystem and Ecosummit Amsterdam 2016 on 7 July 2016 at Rockstart. During our high-speed ECO15 London Award ceremony on 6 October 2015 we announced the 3 winners Skeleton Technologies, Solarkiosk and Grundgrün.
Read more- 27
- July
2015
Andreas Spiess pitches Solarkiosk at ECO15 Berlin
Ecosummit TV: Andreas Spiess pitches Solarkiosk at ECO15 Berlin. The Berlin-based smart green startup operates Solarkiosks designed by Graft in emerging markets and targets people living in offgrid communities at the Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP). By the end of 2015, 200 Solarkiosks will be online in 7 countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Nigeria). Founded in 2011, Solarkiosk has got over 60 employees, raised more than €10M and will be fundraising in 2016 looking for the best impact investors and VCs that believe in the tremendous business opportunities in emerging markets. Solarkiosk’s ultimate goal are 300.000 Solarkiosks in Africa, Asia and South America. Solarkiosk is one of the most exciting startups in Europe and a superb impact investment opportunity.
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