We (Target Partners) have invested in JouleX, Inc., an Atlanta-based developer of software for reducing the energy usage of IT networks. JouleX will use the funds to further expand development and sales of its products in the U.S. and EMEA. JouleX has its roots in Munich,  Germany.

Josef Brunner, a serial entrepreneur and founder of JouleX who lives in Munich presented the technology to me in summer 2009. Josef and I know each other since 2005. I was impressed about the clear benefit of JouleX, its technology and about Josef’s traction. Back in summer 2009 he was more or less a “one man show”.

Josef and I immediately started to work on that case. The first evaluation has shown that the company was facing two main challenges:

1. Josef was the only founder and executive. We decided to find and recruit a perfect team of co-founders and executives who will run the company together with Josef.
2. Due to the fact that Germany is not the center of gravity for enterprise software we decided to locate the company as an Inc. in the US.

Long story short:
We were able to recruit two additional co-founders through our industry network and together with the team we decided to locate the company in the Atlanta, USA.

Tom Noonan, president and CEO of JouleX, is also the former co-founder and CEO of Internet Security Systems, which was acquired by IBM for $1.5 billion. Tom and Chris Klaus launched ISS in 1994, taking it from a startup to nearly $400 million dollars by 2008. Prior to ISS, Tom held senior positions at Dun & Bradstreet Software, where he was vice president, Worldwide Marketing. Before joining D&B Software, he specialized in automated control systems for computer-integrated manufacturing. Tom also founded two successful technology companies: Actuation Electronics, a precision motion-control company and Leapfrog Technologies, a software development company. Tom holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech and a business degree from Harvard.

JouleX video:

Rene Seeber is a successful entrepreneur and the CTO and co-founder of JouleX, where he manages the engineering team and oversees design and architecture of the JouleX Energy Manager. Prior to JouleX, he founded and sold two other companies: ONLY Solutions and Cobion. ONLY Solutions was a leading Image Search Engine, which he sold in 2000. Cobion was an enterprise content security provider that crawled and indexed all available web content (images and text) with its own data center and infrastructure consisting of thousands of computers. When Internet Security Systems (ISS) purchased Cobion in 2004, René became ISS’ chief scientist for content security products. René holds a master’s in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Kassel in Kassel, Germany.

Finally we seed funded JouleX in December 2009 and closed an additional investment round in March 2010.

Who is JouleX?

JouleX is leading the way in sustainable energy management systems for the enterprise. Its solutions deliver significant cost savings in the form of energy usage reductions across all networked devices, while also providing robust reporting that enables companies to comply with new carbon emissions monitoring requirements. JouleX’s mission is to change the way companies manage their energy consumption, and to help them become more energy efficient.

What solutions does JouleX offer?

JouleX Energy Manager (JEM) reduces energy costs, potentially by as much as 40 to 60 percent. It does this by monitoring, analyzing and managing energy usage of all network connected devices and systems, without the use of agents.

JEM is geared toward Global 2000 companies that wish to manage and significantly reduce the energy usage associated with their network-connected devices and systems.

What advantages does JEM offer compared to its competitors?

Importantly, JEM works without the use of device agents, dramatically reducing installation time and costs while also removing the maintenance burden associated with similar technologies. Other unique benefits include:

• Installs in only a few hours
• Uses Multi-state Energy Monitoring that provides granular visibility into energy usage
• On-demand, third-party Energy Triggers reduce energy waste by precisely controlling energy usage, while exception lists ensure mission-critical device and system availability
• JEM Energy Profile combines user, system and device information from multiple sources to generate a true, easy-to-understand energy profile
• JEM Intelligent Asset Sync validates user, system and device inventory continuously
• JEM Condition Controller queries and controls end point system condition, eliminating data and productivity loss

What is the market potential for the JouleX Energy Manager?

JouleX estimates that the market for enterprise energy management systems for the Global 2000 will approach $1 billion by 2016.

Today (Sunday, 4 April 2010) I am going to fly to Mallorca to join the ChamCamp 2010. I’ll join this beachvolleyball training camp the third time after 2008 and 2009. This spring training camp is the start of the out-door season and the first tournaments will start in month.

Daily log

1. Day (Sunday, 4 Apr 2010):
Early wake-up in Munich.
Heading to the airport to catch the flight to Mallorca.
Sunny day at the beach with some easy matches.
The hotel is a -1 star hotel fully loaded with sport men (mainly bikers and beachvollyball players).

2. Day (Monday, 5 Apr 2010):
Just a perfect day at the beach.
We’ve played several matches and enjoyed the sun.
The first training session will start tomorrow.
We had a typical spanish dinner in a tapa bar at night with much garlic and wine .

3. Day (Tuesday, 6 Apr 2010):
70 players game together and participated in a casting to define the training groups (sorted by levels).
The afternoon training session had very bad conditions because of the strong wind.
Well, some work needed to be done too. Slow internet connection in the hotel lobby.

4. Day (Wednesday, 7 Apr 2010):
A cold but dry training day at the beach.
The training was well organized and the training showed us our weaknesses and how to improve our technique.
He gave feedback after every single ball – just perfect.

5. Day (Thursday, 8 Apr 2010):
Today is not training to recover from the first two days.
We are going to play some matched but the weather is just bad. It’s raining and it’s cold. The forecast shows an improvement for this afternoon.
We used the rainy first half of the day and drove to Palma de Mallorca. Window shopping!
Well, the weather forecast was right and we had a nice afternoon at the beach.

6. Day (Friday, 9 Apr 2010):
Another cold but dry day at the beach. The heavy wind was more than complicated to handle.

7. Day (Saturday, 10 Apr 2010):
Sunny and warm last day of training.

8. Day (Sunday, 11 Apr 2010):
Another sunny day.
No training – we’ve played a tournament today.
I left the beach at 5 pm. Transfer to the airport at 5:30 pm. Arrived in Munich at 10:30 pm.

Thanks to www.champcamp.de and the motivated and well experienced team and coaches.

This was fast! Sometimes it is scary how fast we are moving. The first 25% of 2010 are over.

I thought that the beginning of 2010 would be a bit more relaxed compared with the 4^th quarter of 2009. Well, I tried my best but if I look into the tail mirror I have to admit that I’ve failed.

We at Target Partners have seen many interesting deals in the last three months and I am pretty sure that this trend will continue.

What has happened during the last three months in the German startup and VC scene?

A highlight (whether positive and/or negative) was definitely the exaggerated buzz about various Groupon clones (and other copy-cats) in Germany. To be honest and very frank – for me it is remarkable that so much energy and money is been spent. Time will tell if this business model will work in Germany. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for all involved people.

Lets keep it this way: we all have 75% left in 2010