EIC ePitching on Energy: seven EIC-backed startups meet investors as Reverion takes top prize

Brussels, December 13th 2023

Summary

›On 5 December the European Innovation Council ran an online ePitching on Energy where seven EIC-backed startups presented to more than 30 investors.
›Reverion, a 2022 Technical University of Munich spin-off, won best pitch with a reversible, carbon-negative biogas power plant design that claims to double electricity output and produce pure CO2 ready for storage.
›Ocean Oasis was runner up with an offshore wave-powered desalination buoy tested in Gran Canaria and supported by an EIC Accelerator grant.
›PYDRO presented a self-powered flow meter for real-time water network monitoring aimed at reducing non-revenue water losses.
›Investors on the jury broadly praised the maturity of the selected companies but the article highlights open questions on scaling, regulatory needs, and claimed environmental performance.
›The event was organised under the EIC Ecosystem Partnerships and Co-Investment Support Programme which aims to prepare EIC beneficiaries for investor interaction and co-investment.

EIC ePitching on Energy: investors, startups and early signals about what VCs want

On 5 December the European Innovation Council (EIC) Business Acceleration Services hosted an online ePitching session on energy. Seven EIC-supported companies pitched technologies across batteries, water, forecasting and power generation to an audience that included more than 30 investors from venture capital firms across Europe, Turkey and Japan. The session combined short pitches with bilateral meetings scheduled during and after the event and a selection process overseen by a large jury of investor representatives.

Format, participation and selection

The ePitching format is built around curated matchmaking. Companies that are EIC beneficiaries apply and a jury of investors chooses the final pitching list. Participants then deliver condensed pitches followed by dedicated investor meetings. This edition attracted a mix of corporate and specialised climate tech investors. The jury and attending investor firms included well known European and international names such as ArcTern Ventures, BayWa Ventures, Demeter, EQT Ventures, ETF Partners, Eurazeo, Industrifonden, Kopa Ventures, Munich Venture Partners, NordicNinja VC, Statkraft Ventures, World Fund and many others.

EIC ePitching purpose:The session is part of the EIC Ecosystem Partnerships and Co-Investment Support Programme. The stated goal is to prepare EIC beneficiaries to interact with investors, accelerate matchmaking and promote co-investment alongside the EIC Fund.

Who pitched and how to read their claims

Seven companies presented technologies intended to address different parts of the energy and water transition. Organisers named Reverion as the best pitch and Ocean Oasis as the runner up. Other participating companies included PYDRO, Enerpoly AB, Skyfora, VANEVO and WATTALPS. Below is a compact reference of the pitching companies, the technology they presented and available status notes from the event.

Company	Technology summary	Stage and notes
Reverion	Reversible power plants designed to increase electricity yield from biogas, separate pure CO2 ready for storage and operate on green gases for long term storage.	TUM spin-off (founded early 2022), ~75 staff, selected for EIC funding 2022, named best pitch
Ocean Oasis	Offshore floating desalination buoy that uses wave energy to mechanically pressurise seawater and run reverse osmosis on board.	Pilot buoy 'Gaia' tested at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, EIC Accelerator grant recipient, seeking Series A
PYDRO	Self-powered smart flow meters and network analytics to detect leaks and optimise pressure in water distribution networks.	EIC-funded, commercial deployments and field experience cited
Enerpoly AB	Zinc-ion battery technology using abundant metals with a focus on affordability and safety for energy storage.	Founded 2018, previously raised approximately EUR 5m in grants and equity, preparing Series A
Skyfora	AI-driven weather and production forecasting for wind and solar farm optimisation.	Positioned to improve market bidding and operations through better short and medium term forecasts
VANEVO	Component and manufacturing innovations for redox flow batteries including a simplified one-shot-sealing process.	Claims a 37 percent cost reduction in a core component
WATTALPS	High performance battery packs for heavy duty industrial equipment using patented immersion cooling and modular design.	Promises improvements in safety performance and lifecycle metrics

Reverion: the day’s winner and the claims to interrogate

Reverion, a young German company spun out of the Technical University of Munich, won the event’s best pitch. The company says it has developed a system design that substantially improves electricity production from biogas compared with existing solutions. According to CEO and co-founder Stephan Herrmann, the system can double electricity output from biogas, separate a stream of nearly pure CO2 for storage and switch to generating from green hydrogen or methane for long term energy storage.

What Reverion’s claims mean in practice:Doubling electricity from biogas would imply improvements at system level beyond a single component. The separation of a pure CO2 stream is effectively a form of carbon capture which only results in negative emissions if the biogas feedstock and full life cycle are net removing carbon and the CO2 is reliably stored. Switching to green H2 or CH4 indicates hybrid operation but requires integration with hydrogen production and gas infrastructure.

The company’s origin in high temperature fuel cell research hints at an advanced fuel cell or hybrid system architecture. The announcement is noteworthy but several technical and market risks remain. Key questions for investors include the reliability of real world performance at scale, the cost and availability of biogenic feedstock, the maturity and economics of the CO2 storage pathway and permitting for carbon storage or onsite capture.

Ocean Oasis: wave-powered desalination examined

Ocean Oasis pitched an offshore, floating desalination buoy that uses wave energy to mechanically pressurise seawater to drive reverse osmosis. The company has tested a full-scale pilot, Gaia, in Gran Canaria and has secured EIC Accelerator grant support. The team says the design avoids the need for large land-based infrastructure and runs with zero emissions.

Technical context for wave-driven desalination:Seawater reverse osmosis is energy intensive. Using wave motion directly to generate mechanical pressure instead of converting wave energy to electricity and then to pressure could reduce conversion losses. However offshore deployment raises questions about survivability in extreme weather, maintenance and access costs, the environmental management of brine discharges and the economics of subsea pipelines to shore.

Ocean Oasis claims competitive costs in markets with strong wave resources and has engaged a local consortium and the Gran Canaria water utility as a first customer. The next steps stated by the founders are Series A fundraising and further demonstrations with clients.

PYDRO and the challenge of non-revenue water

PYDRO presented self-powered smart flow meters that harvest energy from waterflow to operate continuously without external power. Founder and CEO Mulundu Sichone framed the problem by referencing common statistics about water losses. The company says its devices provide real-time, high-resolution data and are designed for easy integration with existing utility systems.

Non-revenue water and DMA monitoring:Non-revenue water, water lost before it reaches paying customers, is a persistent utility problem in many countries. District Metered Areas, combined with continuous sensors and analytics, are a standard modern approach to detect leaks and pressure issues early. Self-powered sensors reduce maintenance cost related to battery replacement but bring practical questions about installation environments, signal coverage in underground chambers and long term calibration drift.

Other technical pitches and what investors looked for

Other startups covered different parts of the energy stack. Enerpoly AB described zinc-ion batteries aimed at lower cost, using zinc and manganese rather than lithium. Skyfora focuses on AI-enhanced weather and production forecasting to improve asset dispatch and market decisions. VANEVO targets cost reduction in redox flow battery components by rethinking sealing processes. WATTALPS showed immersion cooled packs for heavy duty equipment to improve safety and power performance.

Zinc-ion and redox flow batteries in short:Zinc-ion batteries typically trade lower energy density for improved safety and material availability compared with lithium ion batteries. Redox flow batteries are attractive for long duration storage and decouple energy and power sizing, but they face component cost and manufacturing scale challenges. Claims of specific percent cost reductions merit independent verification through pilot-scale BOMs and LCOE style analyses.

Investor feedback and the signal of maturity

Investor jurors described the selection of startups as unusually mature and aligned with investor interests. Taiga Ueta from NordicNinja emphasised that many of the pitching teams fit the maturity and technological profiles their fund seeks. He also noted NordicNinja’s ability to link portfolio companies with Japanese industrial partners. Kajsa Hammar from ETF Partners said later-stage investors appreciated seeing more mature companies and a mix of technical and commercial questions from attendees.

Both investors underlined that energy sector funding activity in Europe has increased and that a dedicated energy pitching session matched current venture interest. Nonetheless, investors at this stage will be probing validation at scale, unit economics, supply chain readiness and regulatory pathways before committing to larger rounds.

What this event says about European energy innovation financing

The ePitching revealed several consistent themes. First, the EIC continues to be an important de-risking pathway for European deep tech projects through grants and blended finance. Second, investor interest is broadening across hardware and systems-focused energy technologies as capital searches for large decarbonisation opportunities. Third, investors value founders who can demonstrate field pilots, customer traction and a realistic path to follow-on capital.

At the same time, claims of carbon negativity, dramatic efficiency improvements and large cost reductions should be treated with healthy skepticism until validated by independent tests, lifecycle assessments and commercial reference projects. Common scaling hurdles include procurement timelines at utilities, heavy industrial customers, certification and permitting, manufacturing and raw material supply chains and availability of follow-on Series A/B capital in Europe.

Practical risks to watch

Investors and policymakers who track these companies should expect attention to the following issues: reproducible field data rather than lab scale metrics, transparent life-cycle and supply chain emissions accounting, capital intensity and projected payback periods, grid and policy integration for novel power systems and the existence of downstream CO2 transport and storage capacity where carbon capture claims are made.

About the EIC programme behind the event

The Ecosystem Partnerships and Co-Investment Support Programme expands the EIC’s Business Acceleration Services. The programme builds a network of sector-focused partners to help innovators access tailored services and promotes co-investment by preparing EIC beneficiaries to engage with investors through matchmaking and events like this ePitching. For questions organisers provided an events contact email.

Contact for investors or companies:events@eicfund.eu

What happens next

The EIC announced that the next ePitching under this programme will focus on innovators in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. That session is scheduled for 15 February 2024 and will follow the same application and jury model.

Takeaways for founders and investors

For founders: participation in EIC-backed matchmaking can open doors to high quality VCs and corporate partners but it is not a substitute for preparing rigorous validation data, unit economics and a clear deployment pathway. For investors: the pipeline is maturing and the EIC is an efficient way to surface technically credible teams. Nonetheless due diligence must go beyond pitch claims and include independent performance validation, supply chain scrutiny and regulatory analysis.

Final note on claims of environmental impact:When companies claim carbon neutrality or carbon negativity investors should require a full life-cycle analysis, transparent assumptions on feedstock and energy inputs and proof of credible CO2 storage or removal pathways. Grants and pilot demos are useful signals but not definitive proof of scalable impact.