After last week’s episode we return to the ground but stay with eMobility. Last mile deliveries have never been more needed, as we’re currently so reliant on home deliveries. It’s also fair to say cities, mayors and citizens are quite liking the clean air and lack of both air and noise pollution, I can only expect the successes of Voltia and others in this space will continue. That said, when I first spoke to Juraj some time ago, it was his entrepreneurial story that stood, out. We discuss both in this episode.
About Juraj Ulehla:
Juraj Ulehla, a former investment banker who specialized in risk management when working for international banks, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Voltia. He holds a PhD from the University of Economics Bratislava. Prior to leading Voltia, Juraj focused on solar power plant development and was instrumental in building up Voltia’s predecessor Greenway Operator (GWO), together with his co-founder and co-investor Peter Badik, who heads Voltia’s sister company Greenway Infrastructure (GWI).
About Voltia
Voltia is a European e-mobility specialist based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Launched in 2015, with the mission to help make commercial e-mobility effective and affordable, it supports OEMs by broadening the usability of their mass-market electric LCV models. Voltia’s approach is to add value in terms of application-specific re-design for different purposes. It provides development know-how, vehicle structure engineering, prototyping, production set-up, and sales & marketing support. It has clients in 11 European countries. More than 500 Voltia e-vans already operate successfully in large urban environments, such as London, Paris, Nice, Dortmund, Tallinn or Bratislava.
Social links:
- Juraj Ulehla on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jurajulehla/
- Voltia Website: https://www.voltia.com/
- Voltia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/voltia/
- Voltia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Voltia_com
EPISODE LINKS HERE
- Emissions free deliveries in London using the Voltia electric van https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGrQjyZ_1sM
- Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography Paperback https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005J3IEZQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
- Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0124PP3AA/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
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As you will have gathered from this podcast, I live in and love the intersection of clean technology and entrepreneurship. This passion, and my role as CEO at Hyperion Executive Search brings me into contact with so many fascinating people, and I love to hear and share their stories.
On recent podcasts I’ve spoken to leads at cleantech VCs, Publicly Listed tech funds and soon Corporate Venturing entities, but today a very import part of the funding ecosystem are Angels and Angel syndicates, and my guest Simon Acland has great insights into this part of the funding community.
About our guest
Simon Acland is a Founder and Director of Green Angel Syndicate, the only UK Business Angel group focussed on investing in companies that develop products and solutions that help tackle the climate emergency and environmental crisis and aim for a more efficient and sustainable use of global resources. He sits on the Board of Triple Point Income VCT plc, which has invested extensively in renewable energy and vertical farming, and is on the investment panel of the Triple Point Impact EIS Fund which makes green investments. He is a member of the investment committee of the Angel CoFund. He acts as chair or non-exec director of two companies he has backed in the green technology sector – Powervault, a developer and manufacturer of home electricity storage devices, including products which reuse batteries from electric vehicles, and NatureMetrics, a pioneer of environmental DNA sequencing techniques for monitoring biodiversity. Simon is a Non-Executive Director of the Satellite Applications Catapult, and Vice-Chair of Plantlife, the UK’s main wild plant conservation charity.
Simon has a successful track record from over thirty years of investing in young technology businesses. For 19 years he was part of the team that built Quester into one of the UK’s most active early stage venture capital investors, and was Managing Director when it was sold in 2007. Since then he has personally been an active Business Angel investor. Many of the businesses that he backed have floated on various Stock Exchanges, and/or been successfully sold. He has lost count of the number of company boards of which he has been a member.
Simon spent eight years as a Lambeth Borough Councillor and stood for parliament in 1987 as a candidate for the SDP/Liberal Alliance.
Simon’s 2011 book “Angels, Dragons and Vultures – how to tame your investors and not lose your company”, is widely regarded as one of the most useful guides for entrepreneurs to the world of venture capital. His First Crusade historical novels, the Waste Land and the Flowers of Evil, may be of less practical use to the budding entrepreneur.
GUEST LINKS HERE
Simon Acland on Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/simonacland/
Green Angel Syndicate on Linked In: www.linkedin.com/company/green-angel-syndicate/
Green Angel Syndicate on Twitter: twitter.com/GAS_Investments
EPISODE LINKS HERE
Angels, Dragons & Vultures – www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/18578…rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
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I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.
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I first became aware of the work of Kimmo Rauma, and Visedo from my good friends at Life Size. I’ve long believed in the electrification of everything, though I’m always open to be persuaded otherwise! There are of course some areas where that is far more challenging. Heat is one, and long haul and heavy transport are two such areas. Kimmo has been addressing long-haul and heavy transport for many years, and it’s great to share his thoughts and how this problem is being solved.
About our guest
Dr. Kimmo Rauma is Vice-President of Danfoss Editron. He co-founded and was CEO of Visedo before the company became Danfoss Editron following its acquisition by the Danfoss Group in December 2017.
Before pioneering heavy-duty electrification with Visedo, Dr. Rauma founded several technology start-ups in various fields, from dental technology to machine learning.
Dr. Rauma holds both Master’s and Doctorates degrees in Electrical Engineering from LUT University in Finland. He is also a member of the Electric Vehicle Systems Program steering group of the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, as well as a member of LUT University’s Board of Directors.
Danfoss Editron manufacture and deliver the world’s most sophisticated hybrid and fully-electric drivetrains for the marine, off-highway, renewables and transportation sectors. The company’s EDITRON system has been designed from the ground up to ensure maximum efficiency at real-world load speeds. The software-based approach allows for greater intelligent management of power distribution, delivering superior performance for heavy-duty applications in even the mos
GUEST LINKS HERE
Dr Kimmo Rauma on Linked In: www.linkedin.com/in/kimmorauma/
Danfoss Editron on Twitter: twitter.com/DanfossEditron
Danfoss Editron onLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/danfosseditron
Danfoss Editron onFacebook: www.facebook.com/DanfossEditron/?ref=br_rs
Danfoss Editron on Instagram: www.instagram.com/danfosseditron/?hl=en
EPISODE LINKS
Independent energy statistics – energywatchgroup.org/
Books of Yuval Noah Harari – www.amazon.co.uk/Yuval-Noah-Harar…line_cont_book_1
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I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.
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Synopsis
I was first introduced to the world of smart and future mobility some years ago by Author, Key Note speaker and Hyperion Executive Search advisor Lukas Neckermann. It was Lukas who also introduced me to Sampo Hietanen and his company MaaS Global. I’ve been a convert to the concept of Mobility as a Service for some time and have watched MaaS Global with interest, culminating with last week’s large investment from BP. It was great to catch up with Sampo to discuss this and more.
About our guest
Sampo Hietanen (Civ. Eng. ) is the CEO of MaaS Global Ltd. He is father to the concept “Mobility as a Service”, a paradigm change in transport offering. Hietanen’s background is in executive positions in civil engineering and ITS and he has been founding and heading several international businesses in the field.
MaaS Global is the world’s first true Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) operator with its award-winning Whim service. The company implements the Mobility as a Service concept by building the world’s first mobility ecosystem. MaaS Global aspires to improve the level of service in the transport sector by combining public and private transport services from brand new cars to taxis, rental cars, trains, buses and city bikes.
Whim is a mobility app that helps you to manage all your daily commuting needs in one app, right from your phone. The service covers everything from journey planning to tickets, ride orders, car rentals and payments – all included in a convenient monthly package similar to a mobile phone subscription. Whim is the first commercially available all-inclusive MaaS solution on the market. With Whim, payments are always handled within the same application to ensure the hassle-free user experience.
GUEST LINKS
MaaS Global Website – whimapp.com/
MaaS Global in Linked In – www.linkedin.com/company/maasglobal/
MaaS Global on Twitter – twitter.com/maas_global
Sampo Hietanen on LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/sampohietanen/
EPISODE LINKS
Sampo’s Blog: Why I Think BP Investment in MaaS Global Is a Good Thing whimapp.com/why-i-think-bp-inve…al-is-a-good-thing/
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I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.
If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.
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What’s it all about?
It’s taken a while to get this in our diaries, but I’ve been following and speaking to Simon for some time, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to record this exploration of the battery supply chain, ethics, issues and costs that are so instrumental to the evolution and massive ramp up of electric vehicles and stationary storage. Some great insights here.
About our guest
Simon Moores is the managing director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an independent price assessment company for that is most famous for setting the lithium industry reference price, together with graphite, cobalt, and nickel prices and analyses specifically focused on the lithium ion battery supply chain.
Simon is one of the world’s leading voices in this space and has specialised in the upstream portion of the supply chain, from mine to battery cell, since 2006. His key focal points include graphite, lithium, cobalt, cathodes, and battery cells.
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has advised some of the world’s biggest actors in the lithium ion battery industry from cell manufacturers, to electric vehicle producers to mining companies.
Through a series of subscription offerings and private consultation, Benchmark’s analysts and independent market data has enabled raw material and battery contract execution, multi-billion-dollars of supply chain investment, and the build out of the 21st Century lithium ion battery supply chain.
Simon has been invited as an expert witness to testify to the US Senate, regularly gives guest lectures at the University of Oxford, and will present at The Royal Institution in London together with the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor.
GUEST LINKS HERE
Benchmark twitter: https://twitter.com/benchmarkmin
Benchmark Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/benchmark-mineral-intelligence/
Simon’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sdmoores
Simon’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-moores-b0661418/
Lithium price holding page: https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/lithium-prices/
Benchmark home page: https://www.benchmarkminerals.com
EPISODE LINKS HERE
Belt and Road: A Chinese World Order https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belt-Road-Chinese-World-Order/dp/1787380025
The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World https://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Silk-Roads-Present-Future/dp/1526607425
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I’m very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter.
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