- 21
- March
2016
Corporate VC panel featuring Baker Botts, Inven Capital, Siemens Venture Capital and Sonnen
Ecosummit TV: Startups need corporates and corporates need startups. At ECO15 London, Tim Lafferty (Global Corporate Venturing) moderates an exciting corporate VC panel featuring Neil Foster (Baker Botts), Petr Mikovec (Inven Capital), Michael Hochholzer (Siemens Venture Capital) and Oliver Koch (Sonnen). It is a good idea to get in touch and start building relationships with corporates in the early stage of the startup. Even if corporates tend to invest at a later stage in a syndicate with financial VCs and other corporates, the strategic alignment of interests between corporates and startups is a key success factor and needs time to be elaborated well. A corporate minority investment usually doesn’t lead to an acquisition. For example, Siemens acquires around 10% of their portfolio companies and this seems to be the industry average. The contractual relationship between startups and corporates should be designed in a smart way that guarantees the strategic and operative freedom of the startup. Every line in the term sheet is flexible if experienced entrepreneurs with good lawyers sit at the table and multiple investors are interested in participating in the startup: Rights of first refusal can be negotiated out and liquidation preferences should not be higher than 1x.
Read more- 28
- January
2015
Alexander van Os pitches Yellow&Blue
Ecosummit TV: Smart green energy is the only way to go. The energy market is changing rapidly thanks to technological and business model innovation coming from all directions. This creates a lot of investment opportunities for smart green VCs such as Yellow&Blue. Funded with €40M by the Dutch utility Nuon (Vattenfall Group), the Utrecht-based VC looks for capital efficient startups that make the energy value chain cleaner and more flexible with a focus on smart grid and energy efficiency. Alexander van Os and his partners are famous for their successful exit of Entelios to Enernoc in February 2014. At ECO14 Berlin, Yellow&Blue showcased their portfolio company ROMO Wind that optimises the performance of wind turbines and is currently fundraising again.
Read more- 9
- December
2014
Stephan Schulze and Konstantin Hanssen present Investitionsbank Berlin
Ecosummit TV: According to Stephan Schulze of IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Berlin is a smart green business location for startups that has changed tremendously during the last 25 years. In fact, we count more than 30 fundable smart green startups in Berlin of which 5 are backed by IBB: Ubitricity, Thermondo, Geo-en, ECF Farmsystems and Qinous. IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft was founded in 1997 as a 100% subsidiary of Investitionsbank Berlin, the business development bank of Berlin. Next to venture capital, IBB provides a lot of support to SMEs including grants, public loans, bank credits, guarantees and mezzanine capital. IBB is a well-connected local business partner that always keeps their door open for ambitious founders based in Berlin or planning to relocate.
Read more- 19
- August
2014
Call for startups to pitch at Ecosummit London 2014 on 7-8 October
Our second Ecosummit London takes place on 7-8 October 2014 at the Crystal. As in the past, we want to feature a lot of smart green startups on stage as this is what VCs and corporates really want – meeting innovative startups in a cool location in a time and cost efficient way. During our new Ecosummit Startup Showcase we promote startups from Europe that have raised less than €1M venture capital. We give away at least 10 free 5-minute pitch slots to fundable startups. To apply for a free pitch please create and update your startup profile on Ecosummit Market and email us your investor presentation as soon as possible (see guideline below). We announce the winners on a first come, first serve basis. Check the ECO14 London speakers to find out which startups are part of the showcase. Startups that have raised more than €1M and need more money and publicity can secure their pitch slot by buying a startup pitch ticket for £500,00 + VAT. Please contact us if you are interested and we send you a startup ticket discount code.
Read more- 15
- August
2013
Carsten Schneider of Osborne Clarke presents the German public investment grant for business angels
Ecosummit TV: Carsten Schneider is a Partner of the law firm Osborne Clarke in Cologne, Germany. At ECO13 Berlin, he gives an overview of the new German law called “Investitionszuschuss Wagniskapital” that was launched on 15 May 2013 and is managed by BAFA (Federal Office of Economics and Export Control). The law constitutes a public venture capital subsidy for private investors that get a 20% investment grant for their investments into startups. The target group are business angels (natural persons or their solely owned investment vehicles that are based in the EU). As many angel rounds consist of a syndicate of angels, a single investor may get this grant for investments of maximum €250K per year. Per startup investments of up to €1M per year will be supported. Eligible startups must have their headquarter in the EU, a registered office in Germany, less than 50 employees and maximum €10M revenues. While Carsten believes that this grant will have an impact on shareholder agreements, it is a very good initiative for angels and the startups they support.
Read more- 20
- May
2013
Ecosummit Award 2013 – 43 nominees from 11 countries – application deadline ends tonight
Ecosummit TV: Last year, we ran our startup award for the first time. 52 nominees from 9 countries participated in the Facebook and jury voting. This Ecosummit TV video documents the award ceremony of 2012 and features BlaBlaCar, Carpooling.com and MyCO2 (Facebook winners) as well as Smart Hydro Power, Heliatek and Carpooling.com (jury winners). This year, the Ecosummit Award 2013 promotes 43 nominees from 11 countries that will be judged by the 33 members of our expert jury. If you want to join the smart green startup race, hurry up, because the application deadline ends tonight at 24:00, Berlin time.
Read more- 14
- May
2013
Ecosummit in London: ECO13 Berlin, Market, Award, WHEB Partners and Friedola
Ecosummit TV: This is a short video recorded at our second Ecosummit Lounge London on 2 May 2013 at Taylor Wessing. It features very nice pictures of the city, another red bus going green for London and a preview of ECO13 Berlin, our 5th cleantech conference for startups, VCs and corporates. We also talk about the launch of Ecosummit Market, our new online platform for startups. Ecosummit Market is integrated with Ecosummit Award. 43 award nominees are busy mobilising votes on Facebook until 27 May. The application deadline for new startups to join the competition is 20 May.
Read more- 1
- April
2013
Ecosummit Award 2013 – call for smart green startups
Ecosummit Berlin 2013 takes place on 4-5 June and features Ecosummit Award 2013. The ECO13 Award brings fame and fortune to the best early and late stage smart green startups. Ecosummit Award is integrated with our new online platform Ecosummit Market. To apply for the award, please create a public startup profile on Ecosummit Market and click on “Apply for ECO13 Award.” The application deadline is 20 May 2013. 43 cleantech startups are nominated.
Read more- 27
- November
2012
Climate-KIC USA Startup Tour 2012 at Ecosummit Lounge Silicon Valley
Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit and Climate-KIC, the EU programme to foster cleantech entrepreneurship and education, joined forces to organise an evening of Smart Green Business Networking in California. The Ecosummit Lounge Silicon Valley took place on 6 September 2012 at the famous Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale. We enjoyed 2-minute pitches by the 13 European cleantech startups that participated in the Climate-KIC USA Startup Tour to Silicon Valley, Washington and Boston. On behalf of all startups on the tour, I would like to thank Climate-KIC for supporting us.
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