A portfolio company of Netherlands-based venture firm Chrysalix Set, which is backed by utilities Delta and Essent, won first prize at the Ecosummit clean-tech conference in Berlin last week. Sefaira, which makes software for use by architects to quickly calculate the energy consumption of buildings during the design process, was awarded €3000.
The award was collected on behalf of Sefaira by Rene Savelsberg, chief executive of Chrysalix Set, who is also on the board of Sefaira. “The other directors couldn’t make it tonight as they are out chasing down customers,” explained Savelsberg.
The awards were decided by a panel of 33 judges including Global Corporate Venturing’s managing director Tim Lafferty, choosing between a short list of 43 start-ups from 11 countries. “The last time I collected an award on behalf of a portfolio company it went on to a very successful exit with over 100% IRR (electric vehicle battery maker Epyon was sold to ABB in 2011) so I hope this is a good sign,” quipped Savelsberg.
Chrysalix Set has raised €20m of its second fund, which aims to close at around €100m. “It is what I call a wet commitment, in that we are already investing from the fund – the Sefaira investment came from that fund,” said Savelsberg. Chrysalix Set is part of a global network with affiliates in Canada, which French energy company EDF has invested in, and in China.
The second prize of €2,000 went to smart heating app creator Tado and the third prize of €1,000 was awarded to residential energy storage company Prosol Invest for its Solar Battery product. A parallel public vote on Facebook produced different results, awarding the top prize to Pirika, an app from Japan which encourages the public to pick up litter. Bravo Motors and Oricane came second and third respectively in the Facebook vote. Josefine Ahl, chief operating officer of Sweden-based Oricane, which creates green software to significantly reduce the processing time of big data, said “the Facebook voting was really a lot of fun, and good marketing for us.”
Jan Michael Hess, founder of Ecosummit said “This is our 5th year bringing together green startups with investors in Germany and now I’m looking forward to our first London event, at the new Siemens urban sustainability center The Crystal.” The theme of the London event, taking place October 15/16 and supported by Global Corporate Venturing, will be Sustainable Cities.
Full details of the 43 nominated clean-tech start-ups for Ecosummit Berlin competition is here.