Helsinki-based Helen Ventures launched its €50 million fund a few years ago to invest in startups with the most innovative and transformative solutions in the energy, e-mobility, circular economy, decarbonisation and digital solutions sectors. As a part of Helen Ltd, an energy company, the VC firm has joined the Series A round of node.energy, the energy transition startup. The startup has raised €7 million in total. node.energy builds SaaS solutions for the planning and the management of decentralized energy systems for commercial and industrial real estate. BitStone Capital, 10x Founders, BonVenture joined the round as new investors. Along with them, its existing investors including High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and renowned business angels also participated in the German startup’s round which enables them to invest in its software and the platform.
Helen Ventures invests in energy transition startup node.energy
Energy transition startup node.energy raises 7 million euros in Series A financing. A total of four new investors are joining the company, including Helen Ventures. Existing investors such as High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and renowned business angels are once again contributing fresh capital.
The four new Series A investors were selected consciously. The financing round is led by Co-logne-based VC BitStone Capital, the leading PropTech fund with strong expertise in the real estate industry. As co-investors, the 10x Founders contributes extensive experience in the software-as-a-service sector and the impact investor BonVenture the clear sustainability focus. As an international investor from the energy industry, Helen Ventures is also participating in the financing round.
“Recent events further increase the importance of distributed energy solutions. The software solution of node.energy provides tools for simplifying the necessary processes in sharing sustainable energy. The solution provides a critical building block in enabling smooth transition towards more climate-friendly energy world as well as building towards more independent energy infrastructure,” says Dr Terhi Vapola, Vice President, head and founder of Helen Ventures.
The software “opti.node” developed by node.energy simplifies the management of wind and solar plants. As the “digital lubricant of the energy transition”, opti.node takes over the fulfillment of numerous bureaucratic requirements in particular: Billing, tax forms and notifications to the authorities can be easily created automatically with opti.node. The software is already being used to manage around 10,000 wind and solar power plants, making node.energy the market leader in Germany.
However, for Matthias Karger, founder and CEO of node.energy, this is just the beginning: “The future energy supply will be based on millions of renewable energy plants and every larger building will also be a power plant. Many new providers such as real estate managers and citizens’ energy cooperatives are driving the change with new business models. In doing so, they are regularly confronted with the complicated rules and bureaucratic requirements of the energy market. This results in enormous market potential and further growth opportunities for us.”
“Rising energy and CO2 prices and the desire for security of supply make renewable energy plants for real estate more attractive than ever. node.energy makes it easy for professional owners to evaluate this potential and to operate the plants successfully and in a legally secure manner. I am pleased to support the team in this socially important task,” explains Marc Stilke, Venture Partner at BitStone Capital and future Chairman of the Advisory Board at node.energy.
node.energy will therefore invest the seven million euros received in the Series A in the further development of the software. The goal is to build a comprehensive software platform that enables professional plant operators in the commercial and real estate sectors to easily im-plement new business models such as direct solar power supply (e.g. tenant power or power purchase agreements/PPAs) and self-supply. For this purpose, the software will be supplemented with additional functions and expanded into an end-to-end solution platform.
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Originally published on ArcticStartup : Original article