Investment News: hubraum bets on a greener, more secure future 

We couldn’t be more excited to share our latest news with you — two investments that we hope will lead to a greener, more secure future.  

Munich-based startup phelas has one key mission: “Making 100% renewable energy globally a no-brainer”. They have developed a liquid air energy storage unit — a way of storing excess electricity — the Aurora long duration energy storage, which is modular and scalable. When combined with phelas’ Catalyst Service, a consulting tool which helps utility companies make informed decisions about technology deployment, this positions phelas as a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to transitioning to a fully renewable energy grid.  

Our investment Team, the hubraum Fund, was impressed by phelas’ technology as a promising first step in exploring network reliability and resilience in the telecommunications sector. This aligns with our vision of a 100% renewable and secure communication network. For this reason, we were delighted to form part of a seed financing round of €4.1 million, led by E44 Ventures, a leading Israeli climate tech fund. Deutsche Telekom hubraum Fund was joined in the round by fellow investors: Axon Partners, BNV Partners and angel investors.  This round will allow the startup to scale up the phelas Liquid Air Energy Storage to Megawatt Scale to deploy the system in the EU and expand on its industry-leading technology.  

Our second investment was made in Salvador Technologies, who is redefining cyber resilience when it comes to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT). Cyber attacks are extremely costly: with the average company requiring 20 days to recover from an attack, the average incident costs a company $3.9 million to recover from. Salvador Technologies has created a cyber-attack recovery platform that bypasses standard recovery protocols and enables critical infrastructures, manufacturers and industrial companies to recover within just 30 seconds. 

"Deutsche Telekoms is committed to ensuring business continuity, especially in light of the spike in cyberattacks against critical infrastructure and operational technology systems over the past few years, and we recognize the significant potential of Salvador Technology's recovery solution for critical systems” said Tamar Shlimak, Investor at Deutsche Telekom’s hubraum Fund. “OT/ICS security has become increasingly important to industrial enterprises, so we are excited to have the opportunity to work with Salvador Technologies’ team and contribute to the company’s positive impact."

We participated in Salvador Technologies’ recent $6m funding round together with the leading Israeli venture capital firms PICO Venture Partners, Pitango VC and Sarona Partners. As part of this investment, Deutsche Telekom will support Salvador Technologies in helping them engage with new sales channels and technology ecosystem partners. We will initially focus on expanding Salvador Technologies’ distribution network and customer base in Germany, then Poland and then the United States.  

Are you at a startup developing a unique, innovative idea? Get in touch! If you’re part of a startup working in AI, IoT, 5G, Metaverse, deep-tech, quantum computing, cyber security or sustainable tech, and are seeking seed funding or Series A funding, please fill the form: