On April 16th, the Baltic M&A and Private Equity Awards 2024 were announced in Vilnius. Skeleton Technologies was awarded the Baltic Private Equity and Venture Capital Deal of the Year for raising €108 million in the E1 funding round from top investors including industrial giants Siemens and Marubeni.
"The completion of the E1 funding round was a significant milestone for Skeleton Technologies, bringing our total raised funds to €330 million. This capital supports expanding manufacturing operations, including constructing a new factory in Leipzig, Germany, and furthering research and development for next-generation products. Additionally, this investment enabled us to strengthen industrial and strategic partnerships with global heavyweights through investor ties. We are proud to showcase how cleantech scale-ups in Europe can grow further and faster by leveraging their established partners' resources and expertise to navigate markets, scale their businesses, and accelerate innovation and product development," said Arnaud Castaignet, Vice President of Skeleton Technologies, at the award ceremony.
Skeleton has been awarded the Baltic Private Equity and Venture Capital Deal of the Year for the second time. In 2021, the company received recognition for its previous funding round (Series D), where we successfully raised €41.3 million in equity. This achievement was regarded by Sorainen as “possibly the most important investment round in the clean technology market in Europe last year.”
Accepting the 2024 award, Arnaud Castaignet pointed out that in 2023, €11.1 billion was invested in EU cleantech, demonstrating the sector's resilience and its strategic priority. Notably, all major deals in the EU were in cleantech, including investments in Northvolt, Verkor, and H2 Green Steel. Despite the EU's increased share of global cleantech investment reaching 21% in 2023 (up 5% compared to 2022), it still trails North America and the Asia Pacific, highlighting the need for intensified efforts in technology development, scaling, and attracting investments.
"Shifting our spotlight to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, we are pleased to see the Baltic cleantech sector flourishing and we anticipate larger deals in the near future, particularly in renewable energy and circular economy solutions. The Baltics offer fertile ground for cleantech innovation due to our agility as well as the current energy and security context, necessitating accelerated deployment of key clean technologies," concluded Castaignet.
Porta Finance Managing Partner Julijus Grigaliūnas, Maag Grupp CFO Erik Haavamäe, Skeleton's VP Aranud Castaignet and Sorainen partner Mantas Petkevičius.
At the 2024 awards ceremony, three categories were recognized. Skeleton Technologies claimed the Baltic Private Equity and Venture Capital Deal of the Year, while Maag Grupp’s acquisition of HKScan's Baltic businesses was acknowledged as the Baltic M&A Deal of the Year. Lithuanian PVcase’s acquisition of Anderson Optimization, the world’s most popular solar siting software platform, was awarded the Baltic Outbound Deal of the Year.
The Baltic M&A and Private Equity Awards were established in 2014 to acknowledge outstanding achievements in the region. Winners are chosen by a committee comprising market professionals and experts, who evaluate transactions based on criteria including their strategic importance to the Baltic market, value, complexity or innovation, ESG impact, and involvement of Baltic stakeholders. The 2024 awards consider deals closed between February 18th and December 31st, 2023.
The awards are part of the annual Baltic M&A and Private Equity Forum, organized by international law firm Sorainen in cooperation with leading business publications in Estonia (Äripäev), Latvia (Dienas Bizness), and Lithuania (Verslo žinios) as well as national venture capital associations.
Recipients of the 2024 Awards were selected by an independent pan-Baltic committee composed of Edgars Pīgoznis (LVCA Board member and Glücksburg Investment Partner, Latvia), Greta Mieliauskaitė (Managing Director at LTVCA, Lithuania), Julijus Grigaliunas (Managing Partner at Porta Finance, Lithuania), Kadri Lindpere (Managing Director at EstVCA, Estonia), Meelis Kitsing (Rector and Professor of Political Economy at the Estonian Business School, Estonia), and Olga Fedjakina (Partner and Board Member at ZGI Capital, Latvia).
