Participated · Equity · Dec 2020

GreenCom Networks, founded by Christian Feisst, is a Munich-based energy IoT provider with an office in France that builds a scalable residential home energy management platform. Its software integrates distributed assets including battery storage units, solar PV, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers to enable services like heating-as-a-service, energy flat rates, flexibility revenue, dynamic tariffs and energy communities. The platform already powers Centrica’s Home Energy Management services in the UK and connects and manages over 3 MW of decentralized energy asset capacity for a smart-city district of nearly 700 apartments in Cologne. The company says it will use the new funding to advance its technology to better digitally connect distributed assets and to expand international growth. GreenCom plans to deepen partnerships with inverter, heat pump and battery manufacturers, particularly to penetrate markets in Asia and drive broader adoption of its IoT platform. GreenCom Networks develops an Energy Information Brokerage Platform (EIBP) that integrates distributed energy assets (solar PV, battery storage, EVs, heat pumps) and enables optimisation and visualisation of home energy flows. The platform makes energy data available to utilities and manufacturers of energy-relevant devices. GreenCom positions its offering around consumer-focused services, describing the customer as the asset of the future and aiming to support a connected, low-carbon energy future. The company has worked with utilities and participated in the Free Electrons accelerator, which led to a deeper collaboration with innogy. Recent investments from innogy Innovation Hub and an earlier capitalisation round involving Centrica signal external utility interest and support for the company’s growth. The article highlights GreenCom’s role in enabling digitalisation and new energy business models for utilities and device makers. GreenCom Networks is a Munich-based home energy IoT provider that offers an Energy Internet of Things (IoT) platform for utilities, energy service companies and OEMs. Led by CEO Christian Feisst, the platform digitally connects and manages distributed energy devices for optimal homeowner usage and integrates assets from a wide range of vendors. It enables new energy services such as power, heat or mobility flat-rates, energy communities and monetization of device flexibility through virtual power plants. The company secured an undisclosed funding round led by Centrica with participation from SET Ventures, Munich Venture Partners and Cosmos. Idan Mor, Centrica Innovation Investment Director, will join GreenCom's supervisory board in conjunction with the investment. GreenCom intends to use the funds to further international expansion of its Energy IoT platform across the European market.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2020

Prolupin is an innovative plant-based protein company based in Grimmen, Germany, with core technology competence in producing lupine protein isolate at scale. Since introducing its Made with LUVE brand in 2015, the company has established a presence in the German-speaking retail market with non-dairy yoghurts, milks, ice cream and cream cheese. Prolupin manages the full value chain from lupine raw material sourcing to delivering branded consumer products to retail stores. The company sells both B2C branded products and pursues B2B opportunities. Management says the new financing will allow Prolupin to address the mass market, expand internationally and grow its plant-based offering in both B2C and B2B channels. Capricorn and Novax are described as bringing technology and B2B expertise and trade network resources to support that growth.

Participated · Series B · Sep 2018

Silicon Line develops and manufactures ultra-low-power optical link integrated circuits and modules that enable thin, lightweight, long high-speed cables and low-cost, high-volume assembly of active optical cables. The company supplies consumer electronics as well as commercial and industrial applications. It plans to use the new funding to ramp up production of its optical modules, upgrade its module factory in Hasselt, Belgium, hire additional design engineers and open local customer support offices in Asia. The round increased the company’s total funding to €23m. Led by CEO Ruud van der Linden, Silicon Line was founded in 2005 and is based in Munich with offices in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and the United States. Silicon Line develops ultra-low power optical link ICs (VCSEL drivers and TIAs) and integrated Optical Sub Assembly (OSA) solutions for multi-gigabit video, image, voice and data transport. Its product portfolio ranges from single-channel to four-channel drivers and TIAs with speeds from 20 Mbps to 12.5 Gbps and includes dedicated solutions for USB 3.0/3.1, HDMI 1.4/2.0, DisplayPort 1.3 and MIPI D-PHY. The company announced it raised €6.3 million from new and existing investors to finance the build-up of volume OSA manufacturing at the Corda Campus in Hasselt, Belgium. Management says the funds will accelerate implementation of next-generation high-speed optical connections needed for VR, IoT and 4K/8K displays and support industrialization and platform broadening. The capital is also intended to increase the company’s international expansion and market presence in the EU, China and the US where the company expects rapid sales growth. Silicon Line positions its ultra-low power consumption as a competitive advantage for consumer, datacom/telecom, industrial, security and medical applications.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2017

Luxexcel develops industrial 3D printing technology to manufacture ophthalmic-quality prescription lenses. Its Luxexcel Vision Platform combines an industrial-grade optical 3D-printer, lens-design software, ophthalmic-quality print materials, and workflow integration tools to enable labs and AR/VR manufacturers to produce customized lenses that meet industry standards. The company, founded in 2009, says it is the only company able to 3D-print ophthalmic lenses and that its process removes the need for polishing while enabling highly customized products. Industrial-grade printers are being installed in the USA and Europe this year. Luxexcel announced investments totaling €12.5M — €8.5M for core ophthalmic activities and an additional €4M dedicated to rapid expansion of platform functionality for AR/VR through co-development programs and partnerships. Planned AR/VR applications include smart glasses with embedded sensors, cameras and prescription correction, enabling personalized smart eyewear for professional, gaming and consumer use. LUXeXceL Group develops and commercially applies its patented Printoptical 3D‑printing process to produce functional optics and optical components without post‑processing. The one‑step “CAD‑to‑Optic” workflow prints optically smooth structures, giving designers greater freedom and enabling rapid turnaround from prototype to volume production. The company has focused initially on the LED lighting market, citing cost reductions and time savings as key value drivers. LUXeXceL positions its technology to address other optical markets as capabilities improve. The business has received industry recognition, winning the Deloitte Fast 50 2013 Most‑Disruptive‑Technology Award and the Belgium/Dutch Accenture Innovation Award 2013. LUXeXceL is headquartered in Goes, Netherlands.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2016

relayr delivers a protocol-agnostic IoT middleware platform, device management and data analytics capabilities alongside agile professional services used by hundreds of companies worldwide. The company uses artificial intelligence to identify business-relevant processes and offers applications such as predictive maintenance and digital twins. Led by CEO Josef Brunner, relayr combines technology and services to support digital transformation initiatives. The company said it will focus on business topics including financing and insurance of digital transformation projects. In February 2018 relayr raised approximately US$30m to further expand its core tech activities and to grow in AI-driven Industry 4.0 connectivity. The capital is intended to support continued product and market expansion. relayr provides an end-to-end industrial IoT solution that includes a cloud platform (Any-to-Any), open-source software development kits, consulting services, and industrial-grade sensor kits for rapid prototyping. The company targets manufacturing, infrastructure management and retailing. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Boston, relayr has offices in Silicon Valley, Germany and the UK and is a roughly 100-person firm. relayr has moved beyond pure technology sales toward broader IoT-based business-model offerings and is partnering with HSB (part of Munich Re) to craft customized, IoT-enabled industrial insurance products. HSB became a customer prior to the partnership and will use relayr data to inform underwriting for the industry’s first industrial IoT-specific insurance offerings. The company recently secured a $23 million financing round tied to this strategic collaboration. relayr provides an end-to-end Internet-of-Things development solution that includes an IoT-Cloud platform, a software development kit and a sensor kit with freely programmable sensors, metering and transmission modules. The company was founded in 2013 by Harald Zapp (COO) and is based in Berlin. Customers include Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte, Cisco and the City of Paris. relayr raised $11M in a Series A financing round. It intends to use the capital to advance and expand its platform into the US market. Backers on the round included Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Munich Venture Partners, with participation from Tom Noonan and relayr’s CEO Josef Brunner. relayr’s core product is the WunderBar, a plug-and-play IoT hardware development kit sold with SDKs and an API to lower the barrier for software developers building connected-device apps. The company is also developing the OpenSensor Cloud (OSC), a hardware-agnostic cloud services platform for device and data management, visualization, and app integration; OSC is initially free for developers with plans to monetize by charging for data volumes. relayr plans a ‘smart apps’ marketplace to enable discovery and potential app-store style monetization in future. The startup has shipped WunderBar kits and reported selling around 600 kits to date, with roughly 282 crowdfunder backers (325 boards) plus about 300 pre-orders and distribution via Conrad. It operates a roughly 20-person tech and community team, has over 500 app-developer mailing-list signups and 120 developer-dashboard signups, and prices the WunderBar at $199/€145. relayr intends to expand its U.S. presence while keeping and relocating to a larger HQ in Berlin to support planned hires. relayr’s core product is the WunderBar, a modular, chocolate-bar‑style hardware starter kit that lets app developers snap off and wirelessly access sensor modules via Bluetooth Low Energy and upload data over Wi‑Fi to relayr’s cloud platform. The kit includes a main module with an ARM microprocessor and Wi‑Fi chip, six “smart modules” (temperature, proximity, light, colour, humidity, movement) plus an IR transmitter module; two module slots will be decided by a crowdfunding vote. relayr supplies SDKs, an API, libraries and tutorials to help developers integrate the hardware with Android, iOS and Node.js apps. The company plans to open source PCB layouts and firmware to encourage hardware developers to adopt and extend its designs. Pricing for the WunderBar started at $119 for early backers on Dragon Innovation (now $149+), with estimated shipping in May. relayr is based at the StartupBootcamp accelerator and was founded in January last year; it has raised €250,000 in a friend‑and‑family round and is closing an additional €500,000 from undisclosed tech investors while running the crowdfunding campaign.