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Kyotherm, a start-up off to a flying start

Kyotherm, which was founded at the beginning of the year and specializes in the financing of renewable heat production sites, successfully raised its first round of financing in June: 950,000 euros! Venture capital firm Starquest Capital, through its Greenquest 2 fund, became Kyotherm’s main shareholder, taking a 30% stake with an investment of 300,000 euros. This already values the Paris-based company at around one million euros.

Arnaud Susplugas, founder and chairman of Kyotherm, was joined by forty other private investors in this round of financing. A new round of financing is already planned for 2012, with the aim of raising a further million euros.

A potentially huge market

Kyotherm has an original business model: Arnaud Susplugas, an X-Mines graduate and former investment officer at Dalkia, offers project developers (installers, builders, manufacturers, etc.) to take charge of the entire industrial and financial set-up of the project. He can negotiate bank loans, contracts with suppliers, insurers and local authorities, including the contract for the sale of heat production. In short, he can manage the entire project to deliver a “finished product”.

The start-up is targeting the biomass and geothermal markets for heat production, both of which are set for strong growth between now and 2020. They will take advantage of the strict regulations imposed by the public authorities (RT 2012, in particular) to reduce CO2 emissions from the building sector, France’s biggest energy consumer along with transport.

Kyotherm is aiming for 5 MW of installed capacity next year. A number of as yet undisclosed projects are currently underway, including two to develop geothermal and biomass power plants.