Ecosummit accelerates smart green London on 11 October 2016 at CodeNode

We believe that startups need corporates and corporates need startups. Startups need corporates as development partners, customers, distribution channels and investors to make better products and grow faster. At the same time, corporates need startups to sell new products to their customer base and survive the global competition. By connecting the companies that should be connected, Ecosummit accelerates startups, investors and corporates with a focus on smart green energy, mobility and cities. Our unique conferences are a physical marketplace enabling personal meetings and long-term relationships in a relaxed and productive atmosphere. Our next Ecosummit takes place on 11 October 2016 at CodeNode in the City of London. The agenda features 35 startup pitches and the conference will be recorded for our YouTube channel Ecosummit TV. Check out our participants, get your tickets and join us. Let’s warm up with a few innovation stories that will be elaborated at ECO16 London.

Every corporate should have a single point of contact for startups – usually a team of extrovert managers – that can easily be identified online. The open innovation and corporate venturing units should be integrated as both are looking for the same startups. Moreover, buyer seller relationships and joint development agreements are more common than investments and often the first step for an investment later on. Then your favourite corporate executive may call and go like this: “Hey buddy, we have done good business together and came to the conclusion that your startup is awesome. That’s why we would like to invest – now!” In fact, we are very curious to learn from Detlef Pohl about next47, Siemens’ new business unit that integrates all global startup activities and launches in October. next47 plans to invest €1B over the next 5 years in external and internal startups active in decentralised electrification, connected mobility, artificial intelligence, autonomous machines and blockchain applications. European utilities are interested in the same technologies. Inken Braunschmidt introduces innogy‘s new strategy for building the smart green utility of the future and Leonie Baneke provides insight into open innovation and corporate venturing at Eneco.

Christoph Ostermann comes back to Ecosummit and explains how sonnen transforms into a solar utility by combining PV energy, storage and balancing power into a new decentralised energy service. sonnen has sold 13.000 batteries globally so far. In September 2016, the new sonnenFlat was launched in Germany offering free electricity to all members of the sonnenCommunity that own a PV system and sonnenBattery. The sonnenFlatrate is offered in 2 packages. If you have a 5,5 kW PV system and a 6 kWh sonnenBattery, you may consume up to 4.250 kWh of electricity per year without paying extra. The second package is based on a 7,5 kW PV system and an 8 kWh sonnenBattery providing up to 5.500 kWh of free electricity per year. To join the service customers install the sonnenFlat Box, a smartphone-in-a-box that communicates with the sonnenBattery at home and the sonnen control centre in the cloud. sonnen is paid by the grid operator for providing balancing power capacity for short-term grid stabilisation. With this money sonnen finances the sonnenFlat. The sonnenFlat will be introduced in other countries for which the global startup from Bavaria is currently raising a big financing round.

It so happens that ECO16 London unites many more energy and mobility startups that want to do business with corporates and are currently fundraising. From Germany we expect the mobile electricity provider Ubitricity, the smart storage startup Qinous, the industrial energy management enabler ENIT Systems and the wireless power company Blue Inductive. The UK startups include Open Utility, Open Energi, Upside Energy, Powervault, Demand Logic, HomeTree and The Curve. Opinum comes from Belgium, Ubik Solutions and Wisemile fly in from Estonia and GridOn and Raycatch demonstrate innovation made in Israel. Our long-term partners Swedish Energy Agency and Climate-KIC each present a startup showcase featuring 5 promising startups. Both accelerators have established as very important dealflow sources for investors and corporates during the last years. Finally, we recommend that you watch Anna Yukiko Bickenbach interviewing happy participants on Ecosummit TV and look forward to hosting you at Ecosummit London 2016.