Marc-René Simon

A while back I wrote about #shifting our #demand patterns following the #renewableenergy. https://lnkd.in/gEw8acXV In July 2024, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), Germany came up with a #position #paper as regards to the upgrade of their #electricity #grid policy, which is very similar in spirit. https://lnkd.in/gtX2mczJ The key aspects of this position paper as per the President of the Federal Network Agency are as follows, + The old network fee discounts no longer meet the requirements of an electricity system that is characterized by high proportions of renewable electricity generation + In the future, we want to particularly encourage #consumption #behavior in industry that benefits the system. + Industry and commerce should pay #reduced network #fees if they use more electricity in situations with high electricity supply.  + Conversely, they will also receive a reduction in network fees if they use less electricity in times of a #shortage of electricity. This is basically on similar lines with the "Timeshifting" post is on influencing the key #consumption patterns and #incentivize the consumers who consume more during the times of excess (renewable) energy generation. This was a no-brainer always, and it is great to see this being considered at a policy well in a region with high #penetration of #renewableenergy. If we can #eliminate the problem to a large extent in the first place, we do not need #expensive solutioning in the form of technology / firm power / energy storage etc. The #forward thinking nature of this position paper puts the prerogative on those responsible for #climatechange in the first place - the market & the industry. Solving for this will avoid significant over-dimensioning, reduce continued reliance on firm power gas/coal generation plants, eliminate need for majority of short-duration #energy #storage (read #batteries), minimize the need for new firm #nuclear power, and facilitate faster transition towards a high-renewable grid, hopefully upwards of 90-95%. Long duration storage will be required nevertheless as the #demand cannot be switched off for weeks and months together at times of minimal renewable generation. We at Umagine & H2 Carbon Zero completely support this position paper, and hope for a swift conversion to regulations in the upcoming months.

19

1 Kommentar

🎙️Exciting News! I recently had the pleasure of joining the podcast "Bright Sights – Energiewende gemeinsam", where I discussed the dynamics in energy sales with the brilliant hosts Anna Gruner and Matthias Mett. Listen to this new episode now: https://lnkd.in/eunEgdQx We dove into some crucial topics that are shaping the industry: 🔍 What strategies can energy providers adopt to stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape? 🔍 Why are dynamic tariffs key to engaging consumers with next-generation energy products, and how does transparent pricing fit into the picture? 🔍 How is epilot empowering utilities to cultivate lasting relationships with their customers? It was an insightful conversation packed with actionable ideas for utility companies navigating the energy transition. Thank you very much for having me, Anna and Metti! So, tune in! #EnergyTransition #DynamischeTarife #Stadtwerke #utilities #epilot

33

2 Kommentare

#Germany's Fastest-Growing #Startups of 2024 Announced! Sifted has just released its list of the 50 fastest-growing startups in Germany for 2024! This year's ranking highlights both growth potential and market challenges in Germany's startup ecosystem. Here are some key insights: 🔹 B2B SaaS dominates with 23 companies on the list. Fintech follows closely with 8, then consumer tech (7), climatetech (6), deeptech (4), and healthtech (2). 🔹 #Berlin leads the charge with 22 companies, followed by #Munich (9), #Cologne, and #Hamburg (3 each). 🔹 The 50 companies raised an average of €139.6m and generated €35.8m in revenue last year, with an average launch year of 2018 and 114 employees. 🔹 #Fintech stars include Finanzguru, Circula, bezahl, Timeless Investments, and more, while unicorns like Enpal, Everphone, and Staffbase stand out. 🎯 Here's a sneak peek at the top 20 startups: 1. FINN 2. Orbem 3. charles 4. Tourlane 5. n8n 6. anybill 7. AILY LABS 8. LikeMinded 9. The Exploration Company 10. akirolabs 11. shipzero 12. Vytal 13. Yepoda 14. Enpal 15. Finanzguru 16. vivenu 17. mybacs 18. heyData 19. KRAFTBLOCK 20. Circula The full list and in-depth analysis are available in the below report. Exciting times ahead for Germany’s thriving startup ecosystem! #Startups #Germany #Fintech #SaaS #Innovation #TechLeadership #Entrepreneurship #Berlin

27

"The transformation of the electricity system requires a higher innovation dynamic and an expansion of the technology toolbox of grid operators." John Fitzgerald, CEO of SuperNode Ltd, discussed Germany’s energy future in Tagesspiegel Background Energie & Klima this week. Germany's energy transition demands not just infrastructure expansion but a rethink of our technologies. #Superconductors, with their high transmission capacity and lower raw material needs, offer a promising solution. To fully utilise these technologies, we need innovation-friendly regulation enabling pilot and demonstration projects. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eMf7cfEq

39

🔍 Herausforderung: Unübersichtliche digitale Assets? 🎥📸🩻📄🖼️   🔴     https://lnkd.in/eaqHXpmR       Verstreute Dateien und ineffiziente Zusammenarbeit führen zu Verzögerungen und Produktivitätsverlust. 💡 Lösung: Brandfolder💡 -Zentrale Verwaltung: Alle Assets an einem Ort. - Effiziente Zusammenarbeit:Teams arbeiten nahtlos zusammen. - Analysen: Nutzung Ihrer Assets im Blick. - Sicherheit: Schutz Ihrer Daten.

7

Mix, Mingle, and Make Magic: #Networking at the EU-Startups Summit! The top 5 reasons to join a speed networking session with Jessica Breitenfe🎤d and me (#ExpatWhisperer): 💙Serendipity Strikes: You never know who you'll meet at a networking event—your future investor, co-founder, or even your long-lost twin (okay, maybe not the last one, but you get the idea). 🤝 🦄Wow your new 🆕 friends: When you meet someone don’t just hand the your business card, learn to leave a powerful, memorable message . 🍸 🥊Exchange War Stories: Bond with fellow entrepreneurs over shared struggles and triumphs. Because nothing says camaraderie like commiserating over startup woes. 🤣 👌Practice Makes Perfect: Hone your elevator pitch by delivering it to a variety of people. Who knows? You might even turn your spiel into a stand-up routine. 🎤 👀🤬FOMO Prevention: Don't be that person who misses out on the networking event everyone's talking about. Attend, mingle, and make your mark on the startup scene. 💼 Barcelona Metropolitan is your ultimate guide to navigating the bustling startup ecosystem of Barcelona. From networking events and workshops to insider tips and success stories, we're here to help startups and entrepreneurs thrive in this vibrant city. Whether you're seeking funding, talent, or just some inspiration, Barcelona Metropolitan has got your back every step of the way. Let's turn your startup dreams into reality together! 🚀

16

Slightly reduced #overcapacity in the Chinese solar industry — will this calm tempers in the European solar sector? Probably not. However, the move is likely to raise interest. By imposing stricter capital requirements in the form of a minimum capital ratio of 30% instead of the previous 20%, Beijing aims to somewhat curb the production of solar systems. Efficiency standards will also be increased. At least, this should lead to the consolidation of manufacturers and the closure of outdated plants. According to estimates, China could meet global demand alone by 2032 with its existing and planned production facilities. This latest announcement is unlikely to shake its dominance. #solarindustry #China https://t.ly/8aWHf

1

🇩🇪 Are you prepared to launch your business in Germany and do you wish to do business, targeted networking or attract investors? No need to travel far when there are so many opportunities just across the border! Join Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO)'s start-up mission to the Start-up Baden-Württemberg Summit in Stuttgart! 💡 RVO is organising this mission in cooperation with the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, the Dutch embassy in Berlin and the NBSO Stuttgart. Invited are start-ups operating in the field of Artificial Intelligence (#AI)/Machine Learning, #Software and #IT-Security, Life Sciences & Health (#LSH), #GreenTech and #ImpactTech and Smart Mobility. You can participate if your start-ups meet the following requirements: 👉 Your product or service is high-tech, innovative and potentially disruptive. 👉 You have started, or are ready for, international scale-up. 👉 Your start-up is registered at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. More info > https://lnkd.in/eaSDiNZB

23

NRW 💚 Green Startups The GreenStartup Monitor for NRW was published last week https://lnkd.in/eiMNi-X2 and what we also feel for Cologne has now been quantified: ✅ The proportion of green startups is growing to 30% ✅ The support system for green startups in NRW is particularly well rated 86% (national average 56%) ✅ Green startups are key players for climate protection in NRW. The projections show that green startups have significant climate protection potential in the range of several million tons of CO2e. ✅ Every fifth green startup comes from NRW. This makes North Rhine-Westphalia the most populous federal state in Germany, ahead of Berlin (17%) and Bavaria (12%) as the largest location for green startups. ✅ Green startups in NRW are particularly technology-oriented. Technology development and production are the most important business model of our green startups. ✅ The universities in NRW are an important locational advantage and driver of green innovations. At 76%, green startups in North Rhine-Westphalia make particularly frequent use of support from universities. We are on the right track - but there is definitely still a lot to do. There are hurdles, particularly in the areas of financing, networking with the established economy and bureaucracy. Let's continue to work together to ensure that green startups emerge and grow in NRW! KUER.NRW | Grüne Gründungen Nordrhein-Westfalen Asare Yeboah KölnBusiness Wirtschaftsförderung #impact.cologne #startups

55

4 Kommentare

#DMEXCO is next on the agenda. Three sessions are planed for me on stage: "Vergleichbarkeit und Standardisierung im digitalen Zeitalter – Die Reichweitenforschung der AGF" - on 18th from 10:10 to 10:50 on Future TV Stage. Discussing with Kerstin Niederauer-Kopf about the joint POC on combining AGF Panel Data with Utiq ID infrastructure to deliver a new level of audience verification. "Das hinausgezögerte Ende der Third Party Cookies: Zeitgewinn und Chance für die Werbebranche" - on 19th from 11:00 to 11:20 at Media Stage. Speaking with Rasmus Giese and Uli Hegge about the Post Cookie World and how Utiq and European netID Foundation can solve the issue. "Des Kaisers Digitale Kleider" - on 19th from 14:50 to 15:10 at Experience Stage. Speaking about a world where perception often beats reality, we rarely question the obvious. How do vanity, groupthink and the fear of social rejection influence our actions? And what this has to do with cookies and ID solutions.

145

1 Kommentar

We are fundraising twenty million euros for the next phase of growth and development – referred to as "responsibility capital." We are currently applying for financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB) – for this, we need a short film. Here is the pitch in text form, as I cannot upload the full-length film here (YouTube link to follow): "We create the digital ecosystem for SMEs.    Together with the SMEs - our members - we shape the economy of the future, in 3 dimensions: ecological, regional and social.     Currently, SMEs are facing major challenges in a wide variety of areas    Such as: Regulatory requirements  Macroeconomic challenges   Skilled labor shortage  Dependence on international platforms  Technological change  New work – and-  Ecological transformation.    All these challenges lead to increasing difficulties in managing companies, their succession in planning and many more. The current range of solutions is very expensive and complex. The companies are left to their own devices and have to manage the management independently.     We change this with Sym.     With our platform, Symsuite, we combine the market offering for SMEs and enable companies to focus on their own business and transformation.    We connect the participating SMEs into an ecosystem through membership.  The ecosystem has access to the collected range of services via a central marketplace such as:    Products and ressources  Digital services  B2B Services    Our digital platform analyzes the needs of participating SMEs, develops a solution and delivers demand oriented and optimized offers through AI on our marketplace.    To structure the platform in a digital, manageable and scalable way we use our tool Symsuite, combined with our AI.     With our unique data sources, consisting of our own company data, and data from the member companies as well as data from the internet, we use our own AI Co-Manager “Lenny” and the Symsuite, for the internal data processing.    This allows the member companies to manage their company at a fingertip.    With our current Seed investment of 10 million EUR we achieved to build the MVPs for our platform Symsuite and our AI Lenny. And, so far, we have already gained over 300 members for our ecosystem.    Over the next four years we want to  grow our ecosystem   further develop the platform and the AI We have already convinced over 300 members of our vision, and more are joining us every day. As founders, we combine years of experience in, among other things, the areas of  founding and corporate management, digitalization and AI, as well as law and tax - our more than 25 employees expand this.    Let us work together to support and strengthen the backbone of the European economy, the SMEs.    Let’s create a new economy for the SMEs together. Lets create the beyond economy." oder Let´s create beyond economy ? Many heartfelt thanks Women. Fast forward und EY #ecosystem #eib #investment #symworking

47

4 Kommentare

Rolf Fliß, Kai Gehring, Matthias Ecke, Franziska Giffey, Roderich Kiesewetter, Hans-Jürgen Zickler, Heinrich Koch, Steffen Much. These names of politicians of the German parties Bündnis 90 Die Grünen, SPD, CDU, AfD and Die Linke stand as examples for the most recent hike in violent attacks on politicians. In addition there have been attacks on campaign teams when mounting campaign posters and on election workers. Internationally, we have witnessed the head of the Slovak government Robert Fico being gunned down brutally and a few days ago Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen was attacked in the Copenhagen city center. When I grew up the phrase "violence will never be the solution" was something your parents told you and that you carried with you every day. Now the question is: Is that not a modern virtue anymore or do some just generally think they can be their very own police? We as a society have to do better in communicating, debating politics and setting aside differences so that violence once again becomes the absurdity it was when I was young. Europe is coined by DEMOCRACY. Meaning people have a vote if they want things to change, in elections like yesterday for instance. Being unhappy or frustrated is no justification to attack politicians or quite frankly anyone, who do not/does not represent one's own views. And to the point I am trying to make: The more attacks there are on politicians, the less attractive that job becomes, the lower the chances bright ambitious young people want to do it, the higher the chance people are disappointed by global and local politics. So be active in talking to people, even if it's exhausting. And also actively speak against any form of violence. #politicallymotivatedattacks

5

You have missed our presentation of the #IREBS German Debt Project 2024 in Frankfurt or prefer an English presentation? The German Debt Project is an in-depth analysis of the commercial real estate lending market in Germany. The project has been running for more than 10 years. We have uploaded a short presentation on YouTube with the main messages. This year the report shows that both the real estate and the real estate lending market show signs of growing differences - between active and inactive lenders, between strong and less weak asset classes or between strategies (eg how to approach ESG or international markets). Enjoy listening. Thanks to all sponsors and the participating financial institutions for this fruitful and long-lasting relation. #real_estate, #GDP2024, #IREBS, CREFC Europe , INTREAL , bulwiengesa , ZIA Zentraler Immobilien Ausschuss e.V. , MSCI Real Assets

20

1 Kommentar

𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟱𝟬 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗲 – 𝗛𝟮 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 🚀 Cologne, a vibrant hub for startups in Germany, is home to a diverse range of young and highly innovative companies. With over 750 young enterprises contributing to a dynamic innovation ecosystem. Our partners at Dealroom have recently conducted an analysis of the fastest-growing early-stage startups in Cologne during H1 2024, utilizing data from the startup map and leveraging dealroom's Signal metric. This comprehensive analysis incorporates crucial metrics such as headcount growth and financing timelines 📊. 👀 It's important to clarify that this list is not a ranking but rather a data-driven exploration of companies within our ecosystem showing robust traction. Its purpose is to provide insights for investors, potential partners, and startup analysts into the evolving landscape of our ecosystem. For a detailed look at these promising startups, check out the list here 📈: https://lnkd.in/eeDcnAdg KölnBusiness – the Economic Development Agency of Cologne Dealroom.co #startups #innovation #cologne #nrw

76

3 Kommentare

To reach their legally binding climate targets in Germany, oil industry giants like Shell, OMV, Rosneft and others set up climate projects in China. We looked into these so-called Upstream Emission Reduction projects located mainly in the Xinjiang province and worth well over 1 billion euros. Turns out, some of them exist only on paper. Turns out, German verification institutes are faced with claims of fraudulent activities. A chinese oil and gas company suspects forged documents and calls for German authorities to investigate. Here's our first story with Hans Koberstein, Nathan Niedermeier, Felix Klauser, Christian Rohde ZDF frontal: https://lnkd.in/estY7JM5

89

6 Kommentare

Big changes in 🇩🇪 political landscape! Last night‘s collapse of the #AmpelKoalition has left many of us wondering what‘s next for Europe‘s largest economy. Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner, ending the three-way coalition and setting a new chapter for German politics. This shift highlights the challenges of coalition politics and underscores the importance of adaptibility in these unprecedented times of global pressures. Scholz now aims to lead a minority government with the Greens, hoping to secure support from the opposition CDU/CSU on crucial issues until potential new elections in 2025. With the budget for 2025 still up in the air, Trump‘s re-election in the US and Ukraine aid potentially being blocked for the time being, the calls for immediate elections are growing. Looking forward to work with my team Vera Bibas and Julia Brandkamp in these exciting and unpredictable times ahead! Dods Political Intelligence

50

NEEW Ventures has been around for three years now! 😮 We're really happy with our progress for now – and still can't help but question ourselves and reflect on what happened so far to improve! In 2021, EEW Energy from Waste GmbH, Philipp and I sat down and talked about what it would take to further develop the circular economy in Germany. We realized that we couldn't rely on the belief that ‘someone will develop something cool eventually’. With NEEW Ventures, we have created a vehicle that aims to facilitate progress by building innovative business models. After three years, we have: 🦸 developed NEEW Ventures into a well-oiled machine 💡 conceived and tested numerous business ideas from textile and agricultural to electronic waste, but above all digitalisation and AI solutions across various waste streams  🚮 founded WASTEER in 2023 and launched its services with many customers ♻️ founded Minimise in 2024 and gained first customers  ⭕ initiated the The Circularity Hub and built a network within the circular & startup industry Nevertheless, it was clear from the outset that just as we are constantly reinventing and developing our business ideas, we must also regularly evaluate NEEW Ventures. Over the past few weeks, we have asked ourselves important questions that all (especially young) companies should ask themselves: ❓ How do we add the most value to society and our shareholders in the mid term? What has not gone well, what do we do better than others and vice versa? How do we best leverage our strengths in order to close the circularity gap? The ‘new’ NEEW Ventures for 2025 and beyond is currently being created from the answers to these questions. In that sense we are celebrating our birthday and a kick-off all in one. 🚀 One thing is already certain: We will be working even more closely with other circularity players than before. Gonna be great!

124

17 Kommentare