Founding story October 2023: Marcley
How can the surfaces of apartment buildings be used to produce green electricity? The idea came to energy experts Florian Schnipkoweit, Florian Schulte and Friedrich Grimm during a visit to the Berlin TV tower with a view of empty roofs: today, the three of them and their company MARCLEY enable apartment owners of apartment buildings to have a solar solution on their own roof - without any investment or effort on the part of the owners. The residents benefit from green electricity that is even cheaper than that from the regional basic supplier. The up-and-coming greentech start-up has been on the market since December 2022 and recently secured a six-figure pre-seed financing round.
Kevin Münkel
The three of you, what is special about your idea?
Until now, anyone who wanted to have a solar installation on the roof of an apartment building had to take care of all sorts of things, submit applications, look for tradesmen, compare prices and even set up their own company in order to be allowed to feed electricity into the grid. Not everyone is enthusiastic about this effort, especially not if you have to invest heavily first. Some may no longer be able or even want to do this due to their age. This is where we come in and relieve the owners of the effort and the necessary investment. They simply provide us with the roof space and benefit from green electricity in their own home. The electricity price is even cheaper than the regional basic supplier. And they don't even have to pay anything for it.
Why are you doing this? And how does it pay off for you?
We want to accelerate the energy transition. Currently, only 0.2 percent of multi-family homes in Germany benefit from solar energy, compared to 15.4 percent of single-family homes. However, we want to make green energy available to everyone. This primarily includes condominiums, property management companies and cooperatives with their tenants. We offer solutions for apartment buildings with 15 or more parties and really take care of everything. The solar system is fully financed by us. In return, we offer the electricity produced to the residents at a lower price and any surplus energy is fed into the grid. We are now on the road with a total of eight colleagues to convince people of our idea and to plan and implement the first systems.
Kevin MünkelMARCLEY GmbH
Walderseestraße 7, 30163 Hanover
Tel: 0176 - 176 63668683
E-Mail:info@marcley.de
www.marc ley.de
How did hannoverimpuls support you in setting up the company?
With hannoverimpuls, we had a strong supporter of our idea right from the start. We won the Plug & Work funding, were nominated for the Startup Impulse competition this year with our idea and received the pre-seed financing round through these contacts. These are all partners who believe in us and our idea.
What tips do you have for other founders?
We have worked as start-up consultants for years and have gained a lot of experience. Now we can implement what we have recommended to others ourselves: The most important thing is to talk to as many people as possible about the idea. Don't be afraid of the idea being stolen. It's unlikely that no one else has come up with your idea before you anyway. Ask your target group as many questions as possible. Especially if you want to sell a product. Find out where your potential customers have problems and keep working on your solution. There is also a bit of magic behind not having anything concrete and asking lots of questions. This way, you build your idea around your target group and not past them. And one more tip: network as much as you can, because that's worth a lot.
Marcus Rohde, Head of Start-up and Entrepreneurship
hannoverimpuls GmbH, on the MARCLEY team and its business concept:
We were convinced of the idea right from the start. As simple as it sounds, it is all the more complex to implement. But with the know-how of the founders, we are sure that we will soon see the first MARCLEY solar systems on Hanover's apartment buildings.