- 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- 20
- January
2015
Holger Ulland pitches O-Flexx
Ecosummit TV: Waste heat is a very big but rarely used energy resource. Being back at Ecosummit, Holger Ulland pitches O-Flexx at ECO14 Berlin. The smart green startup develops and manufactures in their Duisburg-based 1 MW factory thermoelectric generators that convert heat to electricity. The thermoelectric generators can be used in the steel, automotive and locomotive industries as well as for heating systems and autonomous sensors. The first customers are SMS Siemag (steel plants) and Bombardier (diesel locomotives). O-Flexx is backed by Emerald Technology Ventures and NRW Bank whom they met at ECO12 Berlin. O-Flexx has got a very strong IP portfolio, first revenues and is currently fundraising to accelerate its growth.
Read more- 19
- January
2015
Silvan Rath pitches ParkTAG
Ecosummit TV: Parking is big: every drive starts and ends in a parking space. Moreover, cars are parked 95% of the day and 30% of urban traffic is caused by drivers looking for parking. Having developed a mobile solution to the parking problem, Silvan Rath pitches ParkTAG at ECO14 Berlin. ParkTAG operates a social parking community that enables car drivers to find available parking places with their smartphones. The ParkTAG app uses the built-in sensors of the device to track user movement and learns automatically when the user is parking a car or vacating a parking space and driving away. The Berlin-based early stage startup was founded in 2014 and is backed by High-Tech Gründerfonds, Germany’s leading seed investor. ParkTAG’s capital efficient business model is to license its smart parking technology to partners that market it to their customers.
Read more- 15
- January
2015
Paul 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 more- 15
- December
2014
WeSustain raises €4M Series B from VNT Management, HTGF, KfW and MBG
Ecosummit TV: Every company in every industry has to go green and make and sell sustainable products. At the same time, smart green investors take sustainability reports very seriously when making investment decisions. In September 2014, the EU Commission issued their long-awaited directive for mandatory sustainability reports for companies with more than 500 employees that has to be translated into national law within 2 years. Now Enterprise Sustainability Management (ESM) software providers like WeSustain are en vogue. CEO Manfred Heil expects the market to triple within the next 4 years. Customer references like Daimler, Commerzbank and Allianz as well as reseller Telekom will help the well positioned German startup and its team of 20 employees to grow even faster than the market.
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- 12
- December
2014
George Hanna pitches Qinous
Ecosummit TV: George Hanna pitches Qinous at ECO14 Berlin. Qinous develops smart energy storage and management systems for offgrid and ongrid applications starting at 30 KW and going up to the MW scale by combining a large number of battery systems. Qinous acts as a solution provider that makes the system in Berlin and then ships it to the customer ready for installation. Being independent of the underlying battery technology, there is a strong focus on thorough battery testing as part of the design and production process. Founded in Q4 2013, the smart green startup raised their seed round from Investitionsbank Berlin in Q1 2014 and sold the first system in Q2 2014. That’s what we call fast execution. Next year, Qinous plans to raise their Series A from strategic investors and is very interested in getting to know the best smart green VCs in Europe.
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- 22
- September
2014
Alexander Zosel gives an update on the development of their electric Volocopter VC200
Ecosummit TV: Alexander Zosel gives an update on the development of their electric Volocopter VC200 at ECO13 London. E-volo was founded in 2011, was funded by the founders with €450K and raised €1.2M in an amazing crowdfunding round on Seedmatch in November 2013. Moreover, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy granted €2M to contribute to the multi-company project development budget. The first unmanned test flight of the 2-seater VC200 was carried out on 17 November 2013 in Karlsruhe. Currently, E-volo works on the temporary certification from the German aviation authority for their ultralight aircraft (maximum takeoff weight of 450 kg) to start manned test flights. Initially targeting the aerial sports market E-volo has the vision to become a global market leader for urban aviation in the next 10 years. Risk-friendly VCs that love high-tech made in Germany and electric aviation should get in touch with Alex. Full disclosure: Ecosummit is one of E-volo’s crowd investors.
Read more- 21
- September
2014
Rune Wendelbo pitches Graphene Batteries from Norway
Ecosummit TV: Graphene is a very promising material that won the Nobel prize in 2010. CTO Rune Wendelbo pitches Graphene Batteries from Norway at ECO13 London. The Oslo-based startup targets the market for batteries in transportation that is forecasted to be $21B in 2020 and develops the active material on the cathode, a key component that represents 25% of the value of the battery. Rune and his team claim that their Graphene-LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) composite for the cathode promises increased energy density, lifetime, safety as well as non-toxic production. On a lab scale Graphene Batteries achieved proof of concept but they still need to demonstrate that their manufacturing process is scalable. To establish the pilot production Rune wants to raise $2.2M and thinks that an exit to a chemical corporate with a strong position in the battery business could happen within 3 years.
Read more- 13
- September
2014
Eugen Mayer pitches Power Plus Communications
Ecosummit TV: Eugen Mayer pitches Power Plus Communications (PPC) at ECO13 London. The Mannheim-based late stage startup provides broadband powerline (BPL) communication systems in electricity networks and is very active in the smart grid and smart meter rollouts in Germany and UK, their 2 most important markets. Applications such as smart street lighting could communicate over PPC’s powerline technology, too. PPC is a fabless startup with 50 employees that is backed by Climate Change Capital, British Gas and Siemens Venture Capital. Power Plus Communications seems to be well positioned to benefit from the growing smart grid market and we are curious to see who will eventually buy this company.
Read more- 29
- August
2014
Felix Krause pitches Milk the Sun
Ecosummit TV: Felix Krause pitches Milk the Sun at ECO13 London. Since their launch at ECO12 Berlin the German startup made a lot of progress in a very short period of time. Milk the Sun rolled out globally their online marketplace for PV systems that matches old investors (sellers) and new investors (buyers) of existing or planned PV assets by creating a so-called secondary market. More than 1 GW in PV projects looking for new investors are listed on the web-based platform. This brings liquidity to a large but intransparent market where feed-in-tariffs and investments are valid for 20 years. In January 2014, Milk the Sun raised a seed round from Gründerfonds Münsterland (managed by Ecapital) and co-investor Howaldt Energies. As Milk the Sun is cash-flow positive since 2013 we expect a lot more interest from European cleantech VCs in their next round.
Read more- 28
- August
2014
Josef Brunner tells the growth story of JouleX and his successful exit to Cisco
Ecosummit TV: Serial entrepreneur Josef Brunner tells the growth story of JouleX and his successful $107M cash exit to Cisco in 2013. Josef founded JouleX in Munich in 2009 and was backed by Target Partners from early on. Being a 100% energy management software startup that helps companies save OPEX by switching off unused IP devices, Josef and Olaf Jacobi, his board member at Target Partners, quickly decided that the headquarter should be transferred to the US while keeping the software development team in Germany. As a US company it is easier to sell to American customers, raise more money for faster startup development and ultimately sell to an American buyer. Tom Noonan, Co-Founder of Internet Security Systems that he sold to IBM in 2006, invested in JouleX and joined as CEO in 2010. From there it was all about managing fast growth and winning new customers that enjoy instant savings without setup fees while JouleX enjoys a 30% share of the money saved. Josef appreciates the professional integration processes at Cisco who are very experienced buyers due to a long history of successful acquisitions – JouleX was Cisco’s acquisition number 166. Now you may talk to Josef if you need a smart green software business angel.
Read more- 27
- August
2014
James Johnston pitches Open Utility
Ecosummit TV: James Johnston pitches Open Utility at ECO13 London. The London-based smart green startup was accelerated by Bethnal Green Ventures in 2013 and recently entered Open Data Institute‘s startup programme. Open Utility creates an online marketplace for buying and selling distributed renewable energy. The idea is that energy consumers can buy electricity directly from local energy producers. However, wholesale energy markets were never designed for millions of independent producers. As a first step, Open Utility launched their website to help electricity producers sell their export power by getting quotes for a PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) from utilities. We believe that Open Utility’s vision of a peer-2-peer energy marketplace makes a lot of sense and recommend that you put the startup on your watchlist, too.
Read more- 16
- August
2014
Susana Quintana-Plaza presents the co-investment strategy of EON
Ecosummit TV: Susana Quintana-Plaza presents the co-investment strategy of EON at ECO13 London. Since 2013 the German utility has been very active as a corporate co-investor in the US and Europe having made 9 direct investments including Opower, Sungevity, Bloom Energy, Orcan Energy (ECO14 Award Bronze) and, most recently, Berlin-based heating system online retailer Thermondo. EON also made 1 fund investment into the American VC Westly Group to quickly learn the trade. With 35 million customers and revenues of €122.5B in 2013, EON co-invests with the aim of rolling out the startups’ products to their customer base to help generate new revenues. This means that startups should have a competitive product and revenues to get EON excited about a participation. The next opportunity to pitch to Susana and her team is ECO14 London on 7-8 October.
Read more- 15
- August
2014
Christian Deilmann pitches Tado that recently raised €10M for global expansion
Ecosummit TV: Christian Deilmann pitches Tado at ECO13 London. Since then the Munich-based smart heating startup launched in the UK, developed and kickstarted a smart cooling app – Christian’s original idea – and raised €10M from Target Partners, Shortcut Ventures and other unnamed investors to accelerate their growth and global expansion. Tado is Nest‘s best positioned competitor in Europe. In the last 3 years the team of 40 employees developed a scalable Internet of Things platform that supports 5.000 different types of heating systems and a growing number of air conditioning systems. In the future, Tado will connect other appliances in the smart home, too. In our opinion, a smart home rather needs only one open gateway that communicates with all online devices in the household. The question is who enters and controls the smart home first. It may well be Tado rather than Nest.
Read more- 31
- July
2014
Benjamin Kott pitches EnergyDeck
Ecosummit TV: Benjamin Kott, who used to manage green operations for Google in Europe, pitches EnergyDeck at ECO13 London. 40% of total energy is consumed by buildings and up to 30% of consumption is typically wasted. Moreover, 80% of today’s buildings will exist in 2050. This translates into £8B annual savings potential in the UK alone from increasing commercial building efficiency by 20%. EnergyDeck is an online platform for community-based resource tracking and building performance benchmarking and it includes a best practice database. Benjamin’s ultimate vision is a supplier marketplace that aggregates the best solutions in the market for optimising building efficiency. EnergyDeck is a young startup based in London that is backed by angels and public grants. Now EnergyDeck is fundraising again and invites investors who love software, buildings and energy efficiency and are able to add value on top of providing capital.
Read more- 13
- June
2014
Sonnenbatterie, Sunfire and Orcan Energy win Ecosummit Award 2014 at ECO14 Berlin
Ecosummit Berlin 2014 was so much fun. Following the sponsor dinner at our favourite Italian called Donath, we celebrated the 5th anniversary of Ecosummit Berlin on 3-4 June 2014 with 200 happy participants at the Radialsystem – Berlin’s top spot for startup conferences. The positive feedback we received is overwhelming and just more motivation to improve and grow Ecosummit even further. A highlight was the Ecosummit Award 2014. 49 nominees from 13 countries were rated by 39 judges before the conference. The 3 VC-backed smart green startups that have the highest chances for a successful exit are: Sonnenbatterie picking up Gold and €3K prize money, Sunfire receiving Silver and €2K and Orcan Energy winning Bronze and €1K. Let’s party and enjoy the first photos of ECO14 Berlin.
Read more- 18
- May
2014
Laurits Bach Sorensen pitches Microshade
Ecosummit TV: Laurits Bach Sorensen pitches Microshade at ECO13 London. Microshade’s solar shading technology is integrated into glass facades and roof structures and significantly reduces the energy used for cooling and ventilation. Thus it reduces the OPEX of the building and enables an attractive ROI. The Danish startup was founded in 2003, has got 10 employees, is backed by Chrysalix SET and recently did a strategy pivot by focusing on the retrofit market as well as large commercial buildings with a lot of glazing surfaces. Now Laurits wants to raise $2.5M to accelerate growth and prove the superior economics of their solar shading solution on a large scale.
Read more- 4
- May
2014
Trued Holmquist pitches ATC Industrial Group from Sweden
Ecosummit TV: Trued Holmquist pitches ATC Industrial Group from Sweden at ECO13 London. ATC develops a self-learning home energy management system called Scypho. Targeting single family houses the system uses neural network technology to provide comfort on demand to the end users. Scypho controls the heating and cooling system of the building using a gateway, sensors and smartphones as user interface and enables energy cost savings of up to 30%. Up to now ATC has been active in Sweden and wants to raise €2.5M to grow faster and enter new international markets. In the future, Scypho will be extended to serve as a smart home platform that integrates more services such as lighting control or intelligent demand response. As the smart home marketplace is quite crowded already, it will be interesting to watch which startups outrun the competition.
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