Tomas Kemtys, Contrarian Ventures - 55

06/10/20 • 41 min

I first met Tomas at an eMobility event in the UK a few years ago. His passion and enthusiasm, as well as the fact his firm, Contrarian Ventures are one of the most active cleantech VCs out there at the moment, made him an ideal person to share the views of the VC at this challenging time. The good news is deals are being done, and money is there to be deployed across the investor community. We share some passions about cleantech, emobility and working with awesome founders and entrepreneurs.About Tomas Kemtys: Tomas Kemtys is a Partner at Contrarian Ventures, having joined the firm in February 2019. He is responsible for overall fund strategy including fundraising, deal sourcing and execution, structuring, investment process and thesis building as well as recruiting, amongst others. Tomas sits on a number of Boards of Contrarian Ventures portfolio companies. Prior to Contrarian Ventures, he was an investment banker with Centerview Partners, a leading independent New York based investment banking and advisory firm. Having worked out of London, Tomas has focused mostly on healthcare and consumer retail but has also worked on transactions in energy, industrials and other sectors. He has executed transactions across various countries including UK, USA, Israel, Jordan, South Africa and others. Other relevant experiences include various positions in BNP Paribas, Société Générale and British Petroleum. Tomas is an alumnus of Finance program in ESADE Business School in Barcelona.About Contrarian VenturesContrarian Ventures is an early-stage European Venture Capital fund focusing on a major transition in energy sector. Contrarian Ventures is building the firm that defines this new energy category in Europe, where Seed and Series A funding gap is the most acute in the energy and electric mobility Sectors. The fund has already invested in 15 companies across the globe including the UK, Norway, France, the USA, Lithuania, Estonia and Israel. The team is comprised of investment professionals located in the UK, the Netherlands and Lithuania. Aside from the core activity of the Fund – investing, Contrarian Ventures has also founded a number of initiatives that is contributing to the fostering of energy community in Europe. Some of the initiatives include Energy Tech Summit, Energy Tech Network, Bye Fossil Fuels monthly newsletter and many others.Social linksTomas Kemtys on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomas-kemtys-0920ba22/C

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Previous Episode

Juraj Ulehla, Voltia – Episode 54

After last week’s episode we return to the ground but stay with eMobility. Last mile deliveries have never been more needed, as we’re currently so reliant on home deliveries. It’s also fair to say cities, mayors and citizens are quite liking the clean air and lack of both air and noise pollution, I can only expect the successes of Voltia and others in this space will continue. That said, when I first spoke to Juraj some time ago, it was his entrepreneurial story that stood, out. We discuss both in this episode.About Juraj UlehlaJuraj Ulehla, a former investment banker who specialized in risk management when working for international banks, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Voltia. He holds a PhD from the University of Economics Bratislava. Prior to leading Voltia, Juraj focused on solar power plant development and was instrumental in building up Voltia’s predecessor Greenway Operator (GWO), together with his co-founder and co-investor Peter Badik, who heads Voltia’s sister company Greenway Infrastructure (GWI).About VoltiaVoltia is a European e-mobility specialist based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Launched in 2015, with the mission to help make commercial e-mobility effective and affordable, it supports OEMs by broadening the usability of their mass-market electric LCV models. Voltia’s approach is to add value in terms of application-specific re-design for different purposes. It provides development know-how, vehicle structure engineering, prototyping, production set-up, and sales & marketing support. It has clients in 11 European countries. More than 500 Voltia e-vans already operate successfully in large urban environments, such as London, Paris, Nice, Dortmund, Tallinn or Bratislava.Social linksJuraj Ulehla on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jurajulehla/Voltia Website: https://www.voltia.com/Voltia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/voltia/Voltia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Voltia_comEPISODE LINKSEmissions free deliveries in London using the Voltia electric van https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGrQjyZ_1sMSteve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography Paperback https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005J3IEZQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0124PP3AA/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0Contact via the website, or Twitter. If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about

Next Episode

Ben Pullen, Generation.e – 56

Ben is typical of most of us cleantech entrepreneurs, swimming against the tide and trying to bring the world with us. He shares his story from university, through business and personal triumph and tragedy, to the future of smart mobility and cleantech events, conferences and networking, via some super fun Tesla roadtrips.About Ben PullenBen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Generation.e which is a unique and impactful business which blends audiences and experiences to inspire transformation to smarter mobility for the creation of better connected and sustainable societies. This is achieved through epic adventures, thought leader summits and experiential public awareness campaigns.Ben set up the first ever commercial electric vehicle road trip in Dubai in 2017. This quickly expanded across the Middle East and Europe, and by the end of 2019 the event was launched in South Africa. In addition to the road trips, Ben has set up a B2B summit called ‘Smarter Mobility’. Smarter Mobility Africa was launched in South Africa in 2019, Smarter Mobility World in March 2020, and Smarter Mobility Europe in July 2020. To date: 7 electric vehicle road trips complete, 9 mobility conferences and summits, 45+ charging points installed, 1000+ electric vehicle test drive experiences and event attendance from senior level government, business, industry leaders, influencers, and the general public. The initiatives are making huge impressions. An episode focusing on Ben's work and the Emirates EVRT was broadcast on the highly renowned show, Robert Llewellyn’s Fully Charged Show and other exposure across mainstream media includes The Economist, Sky News, CNBC, Forbes, and recently in the UN Environment.Ben has an instinct for seeking opportunity, taking action and being at the forefront of this rapidly growing industry. His determination has led to commendable growth and positive impact through his business in its four years of operations: Over 85 partners secured, over 11,000 followers and 60+ million impressions generated through social media. Social linksBen Pullen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benpullenergy/Generation.e Website: https://generationehq.com/Generation.e on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/generationehqEPISODE LINKSSmarter Mobility Europe https://generationehq.com/smarter-mobility-europe/Clifton Suspension Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Suspension_BridgeFollow us online, write a review (please) or s