enercast successfully concludes capital increase to finance company growth

• enercast, one of the leading providers of power forecasts for renewable energies, secures fresh equity from Innogy Venture Capital and the High-Tech Gruenderfonds
• Second financing round supports further company growth in Europe and entry to the US market

Kassel-based enercast GmbH provides their customers with power forecasts for wind farms and solar energy plants. The reliable and precise forecasts facilitate the feeding of intermittent electricity production from renewable energy systems into the electricity grids. The company has now secured the financing of its rapid expansion. Under the leadership of Innogy Venture Capital, the investors made additional capital commitments in the low single-digit million euro range.

Thomas Landgraf, CEO of enercast GmbH, commented: “We are delighted about the successful closing of the financing round and the trust of our investors. The sales team led by our CSO Philipp Rinder will continue to drive enercast’s growth on the basis of our excellent forecast quality and accelerate the entry into the US market”.

Crispin Leick, Managing Director of Innogy Venture Capital, said: “enercast has met all our expectations concerning technology leadership and growth since our initial investment. The enercast team, led by the founders Thomas Landgraf and Bernd Kratz, has succeeded in moving to the top league of power forecast providers for renewable energies. Accurate and reliable forecasts are indispensable for the integration of green power into the grids and markets. Our commitment as lead investor of enercast gives us a chance to contribute both our financial resources as well as our network and knowledge of the energy markets. We are very much looking forward to a continuing close collaboration and the future development of enercast”.

Speaking for High-Tech Gruenderfonds, Markus Kressmann, Investment Director, added: “enercast’s clear focus on power forecasts for renewable energies and the SaaS business model (Software as a Service) are success factors that convinced enercast customers as well as us”.

enercast is a Kassel-based forecasting specialist for renewable energies with 25 employees. Since 2011 the company has developed applications for the energy sector. Based on specific algorithms, enercast calculates precise feed-in forecasts that allows the integration of wind and solar energy into electricity grids and energy markets. The engineering process at enercast is given distinction by a close alliance with research and science and the linking-up with the energy sector. www.enercast.de

Innogy Venture Capital is a fund management company specialised on decentralised and renewable energy technologies. The company focuses on investments in European start-up companies that provide solutions for CO₂-neutral, renewable energy generation and storage for the energy market of the future. With a final closing size of EUR 115 million the currently managed “Innogy Renewables Technology Fund I” is a leading early stage investor in this segment in Europe. The fund’s sponsors are RWE Innogy and CEE. RWE Innogy pools within the German utility RWE the expertise for construction and operation of renewable energy generation assets. CEE, an investment company of Lampe Bank Group, is also focusing on renewable energy generation. www.innogy-ventures.com

High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II). www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Markus Kreßmann
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Tel: + 49 228 / 82 30 01-00
Fax: + 49 228 / 82 30 00-50
m.kressmann@htgf.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de