- 6
- September
2023
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 4-5 June 2024.
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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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- April
2015
Johan Reynaert presents the European Investment Fund and shares their LP lessons learned
Ecosummit TV: Johan Reynaert presents the European Investment Fund (EIF) and shares their LP lessons learned at ECO14 London. EIF is the biggest fund investor in Europe and a major LP in 16 sustainability VC funds such as Munich Venture Partners, Environmental Technologies Fund, Demeter, Capricorn, VNT Management, Aster Capital, Emertec, WHEB and Icos Capital. According to Johan, sustainability as an asset subclass within venture capital is maturing. GPs and LPs have learned from the past and nowadays focus on capital efficiency, value creation and cooperation with corporates in their startup portfolio. A new trend – that we just discussed with Johan’s colleague Patric Gresko at the Cleantech Forum in Florence – is the interaction of impact investors and smart green VCs. The deep integration of impact investing into the investment strategy and portfolio management enables VCs and startups to tap into a lot of new capital from family offices and other impact investors.
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.
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- August
2013
Torsten Wipiejewski pitches cleantech VC VNT Management from Finland
Ecosummit TV: Torsten Wipiejewski pitches VNT Management at ECO13 Berlin. The Finnish cleantech VC was founded in 2002 and raised 3 funds with a total of €157M under management. The European Investment Fund is one of the LPs that committed €25M to VNT’s Power Fund III. Their large portfolio of 16 cleantech startups is mainly focused on renewable energy and electrical systems. As all of the partners of VNT have got an industrial and engineering background, they prefer to invest in startups that they deeply understand and can really add value to. If you make cleantech hardware and deal with power electronics, VNT Management is for you. However, they sometimes make an exception, so don’t be shy to send over your investor presentation. Torsten and his partner Harri are very relaxed and look forward to getting to know the best cleantech startups in Europe.
Read more- 3
- February
2013
Smart green dealflow: Sunfire, Greenergetic, Sonnenbatterie, LEDeXCHANGE, Valopaa and Friedola Tech
6 smart green startups successfully raised new venture capital recently: Power to gas and fuel startup Sunfire (seven-figure, Germany), PV online retailer Greenergetic (undisclosed seed, Germany), residential storage provider Sonnenbatterie (undisclosed, Germany), retrofit LED provider LEDeXCHANGE (€500K seed, Germany), LED lighting company Valopaa (€2M, Finland) and recycled plastics manufacturer Friedola Tech (€31M, Germany). The active cleantech VCs include Bilfinger Venture Capital, eCapital, High-Tech Gründerfonds, VNT Management, Silver Lake Kraftwerk and Kleiner Perkins.
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