Munich Startup: What does Ecomates do? What problem do you solve?
Ecomates: At Ecomates, we develop decentralized, fully automated micro biogas plants. With this, we address the societal problem that in Germany the energy potential of organic waste is currently only being tapped to a small extent. With our Smart-Degrader, we create a new piece of the puzzle in decentralized energy supply and contribute to the climate transition.
Our entry market is businesses in the hospitality industry. These benefit not only from greater autonomy and annual CO2 savings of 14 tons CO2e, but also financially. On the one hand, energy costs can be reduced by replacing fossil fuels, and on the other hand, the disposal costs for food waste are eliminated entirely.
Munich Startup: Hasn’t this existed for a long time already?
Ecomates: There are large, commercial biogas plants as well as small, so-called low-tech biogas plants that require warm outside temperatures and considerable effort from their users. Our Smart-Degraders target a completely new segment somewhere in between. With a daily bio waste input of 40 kilograms, we are the smallest fully automated solution on the market.
Tinkering Sunday in grandma’s garage
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Ecomates: It all started with a late-night cooking session and a large pile of bio waste. Our co-founder and biochemistry student David was just about to dispose of said pile in his bio bin when the question occurred to him: why should such a valuable resource be wasted? Why aren’t there solutions to produce and use biogas yourself? He told his school friends Eric and Valentin about his idea. Soon the “Tinkering Sunday” became established, and development began in earnest in grandma’s garage.
By a stroke of luck and some help from the Instagram algorithm, the three came across two female students who were working on a similar idea in parallel. Since Cosima and Isa happened to also be from Munich, three quickly became five. During their studies, the team developed several prototypes and produced their first own biogas. With the start of the founding-supporting accelerator program of the Hochschule München in September 2022, the hobby finally became an enterprise.
A lot has changed since then. Ecomates secured two government funding programs (Exist and Flügge) and now works not from grandma’s workshop or garage, but from its own office in the Precelerator building of the Hochschule München. However, one thing has not changed: Cosima, David, Eric, and Valentin continue to form the core team of Ecomates and are supported in the design area by freelancer Isa.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Ecomates: There hasn’t been one biggest challenge so far. However, each day brings new challenges where we as a small team must prioritize and weigh which the next important steps are. This way we get one step closer to our vision each day: a world in which people live in harmony with themselves and the planet’s finite resources.
Ecomates is still looking for motivated team members
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, where in five years?
Ecomates: In one year, our pilot series should be ready for launch and installed at the first six pilot customers. We already have initial pilot projects in sight, but continue to look for motivated team members. Whether a larger hotel with restaurant operations, a restaurant, company cafeteria, or a community catering facility – we look forward to every new contact.
In five years, the Smart-Degrader should already have been in series production and marketed for three years. Initially our focus should be on German businesses, but now we want to begin supplying the entire DACH region and eventually all of Europe with Smart-Degraders from Ecomates.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced the Munich startup location so far?
Ecomates: Without the Hochschule München and the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship, we might still be tinkering in our garage today. The entire Munich ecosystem is a great source of motivation and inspiration for us.
Munich Startup: Public transport or bicycle?
Ecomates: There’s a clear tie here: two founder mates ride bicycles, two prefer public transport. When there’s something bulky to transport, sometimes the car has to help – but of course that runs on biogas.
