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- November
2020
Fresh capital for Skeleton, Tibber, The Fctr E, Tier, Dance, Greenbird, Pexapark, Dryad and Clim8
European smart green startups in energy, mobility and cities are en vogue among global investors and have recently closed new financing rounds. It’s about time to celebrate their progress and give you a quick summary of 9 transactions that have impressed us: Skeleton Technologies €41.3M Series D, Tibber $30M Series B, The Fctr E €10M Series A, Tier Mobility $250M Series C, Dance Mobility €15M Series A, Greenbird €5M Series B, Pexapark €6M Series B, Dryad Networks €1.8M Seed and Clim8 Invest £2.4M Seed Extension. Read on to learn why we think that these startups provide a lot of growth, environmental impact and financial return potential. We also note a growing number of serial entrepreneurs with exits who prefer to build a sustainable startup next to maximise their impact until 2030. That’s a really positive and inspiring trend.
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- September
2019
Smart green VCs you should know
There are many smart green VCs in Europe and the US that back startups in energy, mobility, buildings, cities, materials, food and circular economy to create impact as well as environmental, financial and strategic returns for their fund investors (LPs). In the VC food chain, early stage investors prefer to invest, at lower valuations and higher risk, in the Seed, Series A and Series B financing rounds of young startups working on product market fit and traction (users, customers, revenues). On the other hand, late stage VCs like shorter holding periods and time-to-exit and, consequently, advanced startups with more than €5M revenues, experienced management teams and fast growth. The existence of KPIs, ideally going up over time, makes the life of every investor easier. Facing climate change, technology revolution and global competition, the majority of corporates have adopted corporate venturing and open innovation strategies in order to invest in and do business with startups. The result are different investment strategies and sometimes competing portfolios that startups should know before pitching. Let’s co-invest and meet at Ecosummit Berlin.
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.
Read more- 15
- April
2015
Christoph Ostermann pitches Sonnenbatterie at ECO14 London
Ecosummit TV: Christoph Ostermann pitches Sonnenbatterie at ECO14 London. Since then a lot has happened to the famous solar storage startup from Bavaria. Just 2 days ago, Sonnenbatterie was chosen in New York as New Energy Pioneer 2015 by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. In December 2014, Sonnenbatterie raised €7.5M Series B from Munich Venture Partners, SET Ventures and Ecapital, bringing up the total capital raised to €10.5M. With 2014 revenues of €15M, Sonnenbatterie turns out to be very capital efficient. Moreover, a new management team was hired including COO Oliver Koch (Paramount Solar, acquired by Solarcity), CTO Hermann Schweizer and US Country Manager Boris von Bormann, a very smart and well connected German living on the West Coast for 25 years. In fact, Sonnenbatterie USA will officially launch at Intersolar San Francisco on 14-16 July 2015 and currently works on adapting their battery system to the local market and finding strong production and distribution partners. Christoph plans the Series C in 2016 and wants to bring in American co-investors while keeping the HQ in Germany for the foreseeable future.
Read more- 2
- December
2014
Knut Hechtfischer pitches Ubitricity at Ecosummit Berlin 2014
Ecosummit TV: Although he didn’t leave our sponsor dinner as the first guest the night before, Knut Hechtfischer delivered his best pitch at ECO14 Berlin so far. Ubitricity has got a great story that is acknowledged by an increasing number of VCs and industry experts. This year Ubitricity entered Cleantech Group’s 2014 Global Cleantech 100 – next to 7 more startups that pitched at Ecosummit in the past. Moreover, the Berlin-based smart green startup won EDF Germany as strategic investor and has got a product ready for market. Ubitricity wants to make smart charging affordable by enabling mobile metering in the virtual power grid. They bring together electric mobility and mobile electricity in a very simple, yet powerful way. The key idea is to put the intelligence into the charging cable. This allows for a cost reduction of 90% when installing smart sockets (thin charging stations) in street lights, garages and any other place you can imagine. In 2015, Ubitricity rolls out in Germany and we are curious to see how EV drivers, fleet operators, municipalities and utilities adopt this smart charging service.
Read more- 30
- October
2014
Ecosummit 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 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- 31
- July
2014
Anna Yukiko Bickenbach interviews happy participants at Ecosummit Berlin 2014
Ecosummit TV: Ecosummit TV moderator Anna Yukiko Bickenbach interviews happy participants at Ecosummit Berlin 2014 – our fifth Ecosummit in Berlin that took place on 3-4 June at the one and only Radialsystem. This Ecosummit TV video features Hans Maenhout (Finindus), Alexander Bigge Lidgren (Swedish Energy Agency), Robert Czaja (Tesla), Gina Domanig (Emerald Technology Ventures), Christian Huder (Freelance Consultant), Alexander van Os (Yellow&Blue), Nils Aldag (Sunfire), Jay Marathe (Cartagena Capital), Björn Petersson (Ecosummit Ambassador), Eva Bjorseth (Oceanshore Ventures), Andriy Shmyhelskyy (CareToSave) and Jan Michael Hess (Ecosummit). We look forward to hosting our next smart green innovation conference Ecosummit London 2014 on 7-8 October at the Crystal. Come and join us.
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- 30
- July
2013
Philipp Schroeder pitches Sonnenbatterie from Bavaria
Ecosummit TV: Philipp Schroeder pitches Sonnenbatterie at Ecosummit Berlin 2013. The German cleantech startup is actually called Prosol Invest Deutschland but the brand they are building is Sonnenbatterie. The smart green product they make and sell like hotcakes is the Tesla of residential energy storage. The solar battery is a smart storage solution with a built-in smart meter that you connect to your PV system and the Internet to actively manage your local energy production and consumption. By using a mobile app the homeowner may easily decide whether to feed-in or consume the homemade electricity. Sonnenbatterie is backed by eCapital and their sales curve has the shape that makes VCs very happy. Founded in 2010, Sonnenbatterie launched in 2011 and has already got €15M in their order book in 2013, with 6 more months to go. At ECO13 Berlin, Sonnenbatterie won Ecosummit Award Jury Bronze in recognition of their business potential and milestones reached. We expect a busy phone line with calls from late stage cleantech VCs trying to get in.
Read more- 12
- September
2011
Cleantech Paradise Going Green Silicon Valley 2011
California here I come. 2 days after our Ecosummit Lounge I will hop on a plane to San Francisco. My target is the Cleantech paradise that Tony Perkins, Founder of AlwaysOn, unites at Going Green Silicon Valley 2011 which takes place on 27-28 September in San Francisco. Having joined Going Green East in March 2010 in Boston, I know what to expect: The best Cleantech VCs and startups the West Coast has on offer, everybody totally wired and inspired to save the world, grow disruptive companies and make big returns on investment.
Read more- 3
- May
2011
Elon Musk – Super hero of the smart green economy
Elon Musk turns 40 this year and is already the super hero entrepreneur of the smart green economy. Being an engineer he believes entrepreneurship means applying logic and critical thinking to a given problem in order to develop the best new solution. Elon likes to reinvent and reengineer problems on a big scale, especially transportation on the road and in space and production of clean energy. Next to being CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors, Elon is also CEO and CTO of SpaceX and Chairman of Solar City.
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