Meet One Of The Investors Investing 300 m Euro For Europe’s Green Deal To Become Reality

03/16/23 • 34 min

Deep Tech Germany - Startups and Venture Capital

Executive Summary

The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is a venture capital fund consisting of both public and private investors. It focuses on driving the transformation to a bio-based, sustainable economy throughout Europe. This venture underlines the EU's commitment to its Green New Deal and sets higher standards for venture capital projects. Backed by venture capital, those companies funded must not only demonstrate economic growth potential but also uphold principles of environmental, social, and governance through their work. This fund stands as one part of a larger and definitive effort by the EU to become carbon neutral by 2050.

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The General Partner

Michael is one of the three founders and General Partners of the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF). The German entrepreneur wrote and executed the business plan of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the most active early-stage fund in Europe, investing in innovative technologies and business models since 2005. As the first managing director, he led HTGF until 2019. Michael has 25 years of experience in investment and management in the venture capital industry.

The ECBF

The European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) is an impact investment fund. Initiated by the European Union, it contributes alongside others as a financial instrument to achieve the goals of the European Commission's (EC) EU Green Deal.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the main investor in the ECBF with EUR 100 million. Additional funds were invested by another public investor, NRW.BANK, as well as numerous private investors such as Nestlé, Neste, Corbion, BÜFA, Koehler Group, Volkswohlbund, Hettich, Invest NL, Telos, Heino, and more.

The fund invests the available capital of 300 Mio. euros in ambitious and visionary companies that advance the bio-economy and circular economy with innovative technologies or business models and thus have a sustainable impact on the European economy. The goal is to accelerate the growth of bio-economy companies and create pan-European, global players. The goal of generating a very high return on investment is directly linked to this and is on the same level as the impact goal.

The regional focus of the investments includes the EU-27 countries and the 16-Horizon2020 associated countries.

Current Portfolio

The current portfolio includes (amongst others) the following companies:

Peel Pioneers

ProLupin

Aphea.Bio

Nuritas

Elicit Plant

InOvo

Protix

Biosyntia

Trapview

Pitch the ECBF

ECBFs Vision is to build up a prosperous economy realigned with nature. To get there they aim to identify the most promising investment targets in the European Bioeconomy, with both good financial returns and a huge impact on the environment. Thus, ECBF is interested in connecting with entrepreneurs, investors, and business promotion stakeholders with robust business networks in the bioeconomy. Find all requirements and the email to pitch in our show notes on our medium blog.

Hiring!

You can learn more about the investor, that is still hiring (link on our blog).

Find all links, show notes, and the email to pitch them on our medium blog here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/meet-one-of-the-investors-investing-300-m-for-europes-green-deal-to-become-reality-b6b0fa27a01

Topics Discussed in this Interview

#innovation #startup #startups #startupradio #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurship #business #motivation #success #entrepreneurship #businessowner #believe #positivevibes #innovation #techstartups #germany #startupinvesting #startupnews #startupcompany #greenstartups #venturecapital #investor #bioeconomy #bio #economy #startupinvestor

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Executive Summary

Subscribe Here

We are always sharing new resources with you. Find all of our options below.

We want to make sure that we provide what's best for your growing team, so please take a look at these additional ways in which can help!

https://linktr.ee/startupradio

Our Sponsor Startupraven

The best way to find investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up here: https://startupraven.com/

The General Partner

The ECBF

The regional focus of the investments includes the EU-27 countries and the 16-Horizon2020 associated countries.

Current Portfolio

The current portfolio includes (amongst others) the following companies:

Peel Pioneers

ProLupin

Aphea.Bio

Nuritas

Elicit Plant

InOvo

Protix

Biosyntia

Trapview

Pitch the ECBF

Hiring!

You can learn more about the investor, that is still hiring (link on our blog).

Topics Discussed in this Interview

Mentioned in this episode:

Startupraven.com

Startupraven.com ...

Previous Episode

This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — February 2023

Welcome to our February 2023 wrap-up with the important news from the startup scenes in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 30 minutes or less 🙂.

We follow our top-down structure in the news: First the top news, then we look with a bird’s eye view at the startup ecosystem in the German language countries, dig deeper by looking at interesting startup cities and end with general news. And for those of you who are really serious about startups, there is even a collection called: Stay ahead of the curve where we share interesting reads, articles, studies, and podcasts.

Welcome to our startup news wrap-up for February 2023 by Startuprad.io with Chris from New York City and Joe from Frankfurt. We recorded this news episode on February 21st, 2023.

All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode. Find all links to the quoted news on our Medium blog, link below.

Our Highlights:

Rising interest rates are leading to an interest rate war between the neobrokers. We covered the troubled company Windeln.de, which is now liquidated. Farewell! Moonfare extended it’s Series C funding to more than 130 m US$, but we are not sure who invested in the last batch, since a fund is mentioned, that was also founded by Moonfare’s founder. The City of Mainz goes live with its quest to become a world-class biotech hub. N26 was reportedly in advanced talks to buy dutch broker Bux, but buxed out shortly before the closing. AAAAAAnd, we like to end on a high note: Raising is in the process of reclaiming its unicorn status with new funding. We have also some event recommendations for you and discounts from 20% to 100% for the events listed in our show notes.

Let’s talk startups:

Our Enablers This recording is supported by HTAI and the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen

Look for our dedicated sub-podcast in partnership with them: Tech Startups Germany on our https://linktr.ee/startupradio

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Top News

Neobrokers Just Started — What May Be An Interest Rate War (Chris)

After german unicorn Trade Republic had a smashing success with offering 2% interest for money deposited there now also fellow unicorn Scalable offers even 2,3%, BUT only from 100k € on and only if you are a subscriber (4.99/month)

Farewell Windeln.de

We have often talked in our news about the precarious position of windeln.de. Now it is finally liquidated

Who Extended Moonfare’s Series C?

Moonfare is a fintech from Germany, allows individuals to invest in Private Equity Funds, founded by former KKR Germany Head Steffen Pauls. They cap their Series C extension round at about $15M, bringing its Series C funding to $130 million+ the Berlin-based fintech allows HNWI, family offices, banks, and their advisor's access to top-tier private markets investments. BUT German business magazin Manager Magazin reports that for this extension the only investor mentioned by name is one that Mr. Pauls has co-founded.

You can find his profile at 7 Global Capital here on their website as Managing Partner and Founder.

City of Mainz Starts to Invest some of Their Billions in the BioTech Hub

You may remember that we told you the story of Mainz? A lovely city with a normal annual budget of 100 million Euros, the capital of one of Germany’s states. Since they are also the headquarters of BioNTech they got flooded with tax revenues as soon as the corona vaccine was rolled out. They showed more than 1 bn € profit as a city in 2021 alone and they want to invest the money to become a world-class biotech hub. Now the company they want to use to drive this initiative is operational: biomindz | Newly established company to promote Mainz as hub for life science and biotechnology now operational and supporting the city of Mainz.

Here is the interview with the person in charge of the BioTech Hub:

The City of Mainz Just Started on Its Way to Becoming a World-Class BioTech Hub

N26 Bux(ed) Out?

According to a press repo...

Next Episode

EXCLUSIVE: Ampere.Cloud Raised 5M € Series A Funding

Executive Summary

In this exclusive piece, the green startup ampere.cloud announced they raised 5 million Euros in venture capital for their Series A round to help achieve their goal of becoming the operating system for renewable energy. Their solution helps automate operations and monetize green assets for asset owners and managers. The funding round was led by Point 9 Capital and includes investors like Helloworld.vc, Vireo Electrification Fund, Silence Fund, business angels, and existing investors invested as well.

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The Founder

Frederik is CBDO & Co-Founder of Berlin-based green tech startup ampere.cloud, a software and hardware company that helps run renewable energy sources. He holds a bachelor's in microsystems technology and M Sc. from WHU. He was formerly a freelance web developer and worked on news station Welt N24 as a front-end developer. He co-founded ampere.could in 2019 (together with Erik Nitschke and Florian Strunck).

"For us, getting to know the investors personally was essential."Frederik Merz, CBDO & Co-Founder ampere.cloud

The Startup

The co-founders met at audibene, where two founders were employees and Frederik freelanced. They developed a new idea since a friend of the cofounder, Florian, built an operations and maintenance company for photovoltaic installations. They build a customized solution for this company, which later became - generalized in 2019 ampere.cloud. Ampere.cloud is a Berlin-based green tech startup primarily focused on software for renewable energy production (think PV installations of any size, wind parks, ...). They also have a small hardware part for their software to work. The company originates from specialized software to manage photovoltaic installations, which was later broadened to include all kinds of renewable energy sources.

The software product is called cloud.vision for running renewable energy producers, where they can optimize their portfolio and automate their processes. They offer an operating system for monitoring, operations, and maintenance of renewable energy.

Their physical product is the Power Plant Controler, an IoT gateway to extract energy from and remote control production for flexibility and grid stability. The device also runs functions without an internet connection (edge computing).

The Series A Funding

The startup closed its Series A funding, with Point 9 Capital as the lead investor. Existing investors participated, and new investors joined, including Helloworld.vc (esp. Rodrigo Martinez), Vireo Electrification Fund, and Silence Fund (esp. Borja Moreno de los Rios). In the new funding also, three new business angels joined in. They will use the funds to scale their sales and marketing, internationalization, and product R&D to maintain a competitive advantage and become the operating system for renewable energy.

Join ampere.cloud

The startup is hiring. You can learn more about the open positions in our blog post.

All Links and Show Notes

Here is our blog post: https://medium.com/startuprad-io/exclusive-ampere-cloud-raised-5m-series-a-funding-ca3c7876afc4

Topics Discussed in this Interview

In this interview, we are talking about

#edgecomputing #cloud d #renewableenergy #energy #startup #seriesa #funding #greentechnology #greentech #greentechstartup #iot #pv #photovoltaics #windmills #startups #techstartups #startupradio #entrepreneurship #startupstory #startupstories #germany #berlin #saas

Mentioned in this episode:

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Deep Tech Germany - Startups and Venture Capital - Meet One Of The Investors Investing 300 m Euro For Europe’s Green Deal To Become Reality

Transcript

[0:00] Startup read that I owe you were podcast and YouTube blog coverage.

[0:13] Music.

[0:19] Hello and welcome everybody this is Joe from startuprad.io today I bring you another interview but this time with, an investor therefore I would like to welcome Michael the founder and general partner of the European Circle up by area economy fund also called ECB F and, I think in the interview I will just refer to as the fantasy hey Michael are you dude thanks nice a