CLEMAP: The Venture Leader Cleantech supporting the improvement of electrical grid infrastructure

14.10.2022 09:00, Tracy Woodley

The Swiss National Startup Team welcomes new members: A jury selected 10 startups for the Venture Leaders program dedicated to the cleantech sector. During their roadshow, the Venture Leaders Cleantech will meet international investors and industry leaders and access industry-specific expertise and networks to grow their companies. Allow us to introduce you to each of the Venture Leaders Cleantech 2022 ahead of the October 2022 roadshow in Munich: Meet Pascal Kienast, the Managing Partner of CLEMAP.

Name: Pascal Kienast
Location: Switzerland
Nationality: Swiss
Graduated from: Electrical Engineering ETH, 2007, EMBA Uni St.Gallen & Business School Lausanne 2015 
Job title: Managing Partner
Number of employees: 11
Money raised: Undisclosed 
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Business Growth program in 2019

Explain in one or two short sentences what your startup does and why: The rapidly increasing electrification requires new collaboration platforms to connect the different areas and actors within the industry. CLEMAP aims to become the leading platform for system integrators and metering providers to manage and control energy flows, improving self-consumption and supporting the electrical grid infrastructure.
 
How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
The development of the idea has crossed a few stages, the initial idea came as we were personally interested in having a better insight into energy consumption, but the development to a platform solution only emerged as we interacted with paying customers and we pivoted the initial solution.
 
What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
Currently, we are working on our internationalization and we would like to understand the best-case scenarios and how to ideally partner with strategic customers in order to scale organically and without the need to build a large sales force and local organizations. The Venture Leaders roadshow should help us to gain clarity on this.
 
Who does your product or solution help, and how?
The product is helping system integrators and metering providers to rapidly access profitable digital solutions in the energy market. The energy IoT platform can be rapidly customized, and we are able to deploy thanks as well to standard protocols within months of new energy solutions.
 
What are you most excited about at work right now?
Currently, we feel the traction of the market in EV Charging Infrastructure, being able to roll out the product and receive very positive feedback from customers is highly rewarding and motivating.
 
How did you build your team?
The founder team come from the university time, as the company was growing in complexity and activity the team was recruited through friends and later on over open job postings. We had never had difficulty finding good resources, especially due to the central location and the important company values.  
 
Which market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup?
We are acting in three markets: smart grid, smart building, and smart factory. The potential is given by the fact that the market is growing as digitalization, decarbonization, and decentralization are progressing and there is a need for collaborative structures as our energy platform. 
 
What are your key achievements to date? 
CLEMAP has achieved multiple key achievements, within our market we have been able to position ourselves as an important player to access and manage energy resources. Over the years multiple customers and distributors have chosen the CLEMAP solution. We are running with CleverGuard, Social Power Plus, and LASAGNE national and international research projects with important exploitation potential. Finally, we have completed a financial round and onboarded numerous angel investors.
 
What is one thing not many people know about you?
I’m an Ethereum fan since the early days

What is your favorite podcast and why?
Probably Tim Ferris' podcast, because he covers a wide range of topics and goes into depth with very interesting personalities

What is your favorite book and why?
Siddhartha, because Hermann Hesse explains in a unique way how discoveries in life work and where we all end up in one form or another. 
 
How did you come up with the name of your startup? 
CLEMAP stands for “CLever Energy MAPping” and we came across this name as we have brainstormed around promising and impactful names. As we went more into controlling energy assets we kept the name but are not using anymore the slogan “Clever Energy Mapping”

Who inspires you and why?  
The controversial Elon Musk inspires me. It is unique how he is able to think outside of conventional schemes, breaking down a business to physical fundamentals and exploiting its entrepreneurial potential from a nerdy background

Which startup do you wish you had founded and why? 
Nothing comes to my mind, because I have no regret and there is always time for a new startup.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder? 
Handling the conflict between founder and manager, sometimes there is a highly personal and emotional attachment which you have to put aside.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder? 
After the lows, there are highs and when stakeholders provide you with positive feedback this is highly rewarding. Essential customers appreciate your dedication, innovation, and products.

What is something you wish you had known about being a founder? 
A shareholder agreement with a cofounder needs to work towards a common goal, if the team effort is not taken up by some of the cofounders then there should be the possibility for share transfer at a given and massively rebated price.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder? 
The DNA of a Startup can not be changed. If something is wrong in the DNA then better start from 0.

What is the best advice you have ever received and from whom?  
The best advice comes from my intuition and they are so many that I can’t figure out which one is the best.

What is your greatest professional failure, and what did you learn from it? 
I have stressed entrepreneurship after being employed and founded immediately a consultation company which I’m dragging behind. I should have had the trust that everything goes well.

How do you stay on top of industry trends? 
I’m not reading newspapers.

How do you foster creative thinking among your team members? 
We employ people fitting into the company culture and who have intrinsic motivation. Personal achievements are valued as high as professional achievements. Out of this innovation can grow and develop as long as communication is kept alive.

Who do you look to for guidance and mentorship? 
Business coaches, board exchanges, personal coaches.

Venture Leaders Cleantech is organized by Venturelab and supported by Alpian, AMAG, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, EY, Helbling Technik, Romande Energie, Canton Vaud, and VISCHER and Venture Leaders alum Patrick Maillard.