On December 7th, our biggest yearly startup event is coming up. Get ready for Investors Day & BETAPITCH Global, this year accompanied by Future Mobility Camp! One day – three events, this will be a startup EXTRAVAGANCE! Pack your business cards and make sure to have your elevator pitch ready – you’ll need it.
After a full day of action at our Investors Day and then hearing all our local BETAPITCH winners pitch, we’ve found our winners of BETAPITCH Global 2016.
Our sponsoring partners Siemens, Kloeckner, CleanTech and Holvi will be getting right in on the action this Saturday, holding 1:1 meetings, serving up knowledge for fireside chats and sharing knowledge & experience on panel talks. Plus, they’ll be mixing and mingling during Investors Day. This is your chance to get to know them! Without further ado, we’ll let our sponsors introduce themselves.
Germany is one of the world’s leading innovators in sustainable technology, and it’s no surprise that Berlin is fast becoming a hub for cleantech startups. So where do they do business, build prototypes, and hang out? At the CleanTech Innovation Center (that’s CIC for short!).
From inspiring mentoring programs to impressive partnerships with the U.S, we’ve heard a lot about what CIC has to offer. We were definitely curious, so we spoke with CIC project director Andrea Hötzeldt to find out more!
Hey Andrea, nice to meet you! Can you tell us more about the CleanTech Innovation Centre? Where did the idea to start this project come from?
The CleanTech Innovation Centre is actually the brainchild of politician Christian Gräff, who had been working hard to establish a CleanTech Business Park in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. As part of this plan, the idea had always been to create a space nearby dedicated to startups working on exciting cleantech projects.
We found our perfect match with GSG Berlin, who became our partner for CIC. Back in 2014, the Economic and Business Development Office Marzahn-Hellersdorf officially agreed with GSG Berlin to operate the CleanTech Innovation Center in a public-private partnership, and so the space was born!
What spaces and services do resident cleantech startups have access to at CIC?
We’re more of a small coworking space with family vibes. Everybody knows each other, which is something you don’t get in a larger, more anonymous space. We’ve got 280 square meters coworking space and 330 square meters workshop space for startups to create innovative solutions and build prototypes.
Startups can sign up for a fixed workspace for an all-inclusive price of just 99€ a month in the first six months, and 129€ per month (plus VAT) thereafter. This includes free access to the workshop, plus our conference room, kitchenette, lounge and wifi of course! Startups also have the option to book their own telephone connections, LAN connections, and secure private workshop storage for equipment. In short, everything a cleantech startup could need.
What are some of the special features of CIC that cleantech startups benefit from?
At CIC, we’ve created a great mentoring program for our startups as they develop and expand their companies, whether they are specialized in solar energy, energy efficiency or smart grid. We’ve built up strong partnerships with the U.S. and even offer an exchange program to NewYork. Startups at the CIC also benefit from the close proximity to the CleanTech Business Park – Berlin’s largest industrial park for production-driven companies from the cleantech industry. On top of all this, CIC entrepreneurs have the opportunity to use unsold space in the Business Park for demonstration purposes.
We’d love to hear a bit more about the startups at CIC – can you give us a rundown of your members?
Sure! CIC is home to the following startups:
indielux UG is a startup that sells photovoltaic equipment designed for installation on balconies using a universal holding fixture. This allows households to produce a portion of the electricity they need, without having to rely on a roof surface or plot of land for solar panels.
Skypoint-e engineers airborne technology and is working on the development of tethered aircrafts. These have a wide range of applications, as mobile service points for a self-sufficient energy supply system, a wireless network with a large range and can even serve as observation points for a specific area from a height of between 300 and 500 metres, which is very useful in agriculture.
shoutr labs developed the shoutr.Boxx, a system for location-specific digital content dissemination and distribution of digital goods. This product is able to send large volumes of data including video and multimedia to smartphones in the surrounding area. This invention saw the founder team win the 2014 CeBIT Innovation Prize. shoutr labs is now working on conquering the clean technology market.
Deutsche Technologie Manufakturen GmbH (DTM) generates electricity from ‘hidden’ fuels, or secondary fuels which can otherwise only be converted to electricity with a lot of technical effort. DTM develops, manufactures and sells standardised, containerised installations that allow energy to be generated from hidden fuels in the 35 kW and 100 kW output range. DTM also offers engineering services for cutting-edge technologies in areas including selective laser melting, combustion systems and micro gas turbine technology.
Euro-K GmbH is also working in the micro gas turbine space, an area where this young company has a technological edge. Euro-K aims to use their expertise in micro gas turbines, which have outstanding operating efficiency, low exhaust emissions and offer optimal integration into existing processes, to create the energy converters of tomorrow.
How can startups apply to join CIC?
Send an email request to innovation@cleantechpark.de and tell us who you are in a few words. We’ll get back to you immediately and to arrange a visiting appointment so you can check out our location. Green startups from all over the world are welcome. We are not in Mitte, we are not in Kreuzberg, but we have a great location, friendly staff and an open minded startup community to offer. Plus, our prices can’t be beat. Join us and work with us for a sustainable future!
Many thanks to CleanTech Innovation Center for all their support for BETAPITCH Global & Investors Day this year. We couldn’t have done it without you!
As a startup, it’s difficult to get picked up by the media in a meaningful way. Why is that? Well, even you’re a tech genius or business prodigy who loves pitching to investors, pitching to the media is a whole different ballgame. All too often, startups fall prey to misunderstandings about how the media landscape functions, how to approach the people behind it, and why you should approach them at all.
Friendsurance is one of these grown-up startups that absolutely nailed it when getting in big sums of investment. In the last year only, they raised 15,3 million US dollar in total by various investors led by Horizons Ventures, and on October 15th their co-founder Sebastian Herfurth will speak on our panel ‘How to deal with big investment’ – alongside founders from Orderbird (Bastian Schmidtke), Incapptic (Rafal Kobylinski) and Jobspotting (Robin Haak).
With only 2 weeks left until the event, the team is working hard to ensure that this year’s event will be the biggest and best yet! We’re currently adding the last few names to our program, we also recently released a guide to getting the most out of our BETAPITCH Global & Investors Day. We’ve invited many relevant and interesting investors, VC’s and accelerator teams, and we got in over one hundred ticket applications from startups! We’re doing our very best to make sure that they all get their tickets as soon as possible. Are you in a startup and haven’t you applied for your ticket yet? You can do so until October 6th – only a few days left!
In August we told you that Investors Day & BETAPITCH was bigger and better than ever this year. You’re about to find out how serious we were. We’re proud to announce our program for October 15th. Here’s your guide to getting the most out of it!
With the BETAPITCH Global final fast approaching, we took a further look into those startups who were successful enough to secure themselves a spot! Our finalists
