Climate change is one of the biggest problems humanity is facing today. There is a scientific consensus that climate change is caused by humans. Changes are needed, and they’re needed fast if we want to leave a healthy planet for future generations.

Understanding the dangers of climate change and the need for solutions to this problem, Martin Schichtel and Susanne König founded Kraftblock in 2014, in Germany. Kraftblock is a storage system for renewable energy. It works on the principle of storing electricity and heat in a specifically designed storage unit, that can be later used again in the industry.

Martin and Susanne’s Kraftblock is not just a creative and unique product, but also a very useful tool in the fight of stopping climate change and preserving nature and the environment.

If you’re eager to know something more about the way two young people came up with an idea of creating a useful tool for storing energy, continue reading the story behind Kraftblock.

Big Ambitions in Small Cities

Martin Schichtel, the CEO of Kraftblock was born in 1969 in the small town of Saarbrücken, in Germany. Curiosity and intelligence made Martin a stand-out child. Always wanting to know more about everything around him and how things worked, Martin was never satisfied with a simple answer. Martin wasn’t just curious, he was also very active, doing his own research and experiments.

Being fascinated by processes that occur in the physical world, Martin developed a passion for natural sciences and a love for nature in general. Young Martin was doing very well at school, but he was always prone to doing his own things. Since the age of 12, he has had unique ideas and wanted to make changes in the world and make it a better place for everyone. The dreamer boy never gave up on the high ambitions he had and continued developing academically and intellectually by constantly learning.

Susanne König, the current CFO and co-founder of Kraftblock, was born in an ever smaller city, Sindelfingen, in 1970. Just as her co-founding partner, she differed from other kids thanks to her intelligence. Attending primary and high school wasn’t posing any problem for the young, bright girl since she was a perfectionist that always wanted to achieve the best results. But for Susanne, it wasn’t just about scoring high on the academic scale. Young Suanne also nurtured a massive amount of love for nature and a passion for solving problems. Susanne was hoping that one day she can contribute to the world in a manner of making significant changes for the better.

After graduating from high school, Susanne decided to move to Saarbrücken to study at the respected Saarland University.

Different Paths

At Saarland University, Susanne focused her attention on studying business administration. After successfully finishing her studies, Susanne decided that it wasn’t enough for her, and she decided to continue her education at the same university. She got a Ph.D. in economics and she was ready to start paving her own way toward a professional career.

Susanne decided not to go back to her home city and accepted a job offer in business administration at Stadtsparkasse in Völklingen, a small town in Saarland, the West German state with Saarbrücken as its capital. She stayed there for 5 five years, garnering all the knowledge and experience she wanted under her belt. While at the company, Susanne was appointed as the Head of Risk Control.

After leaving Stadtsparkasse, Susanne was offered employment by Best Change Invest in Saarbrücken as a Managing Director, with a responsibility of managing finances, mergers, and acquisitions, as well as risk management. Susanne stayed with the company for 7 years and was very successful at performing her work duties.

Martin was also studying at the Saarland University at the same time as Susanne but in a different department. He studied chemistry, specializing in nanotechnology.

After receiving his doctorate when he was 27, Martin landed his first job at Leibnitz INM as the Head of the ceramics department. 4 years passed by when Martin left to be the Head of smart coating at ITN Nanovation. Young Martin spent three years there, accepting the next professional challenge as a general manager in Viking Advanced Materials, appointed as the person in charge of strategy and sales.

The Innovator

Throughout all of his professional career, Martin never stopped wanting to be an inventor. Starting from 1998, Martin came up with many inventions in his professional field of expertise and had applied for more than 10 patents to protect his inventions. In 2008, Martin brainstormed yet another idea that excited and preoccupied him.

It was 2008 when Martin first came to the idea of building an energy storage unit. At first, he wasn’t thinking about starting a company or anything, it was just a scientific challenge for him. He was toying with the idea of building a material that will not cost much but will offer better performance.

Martin, the innovator, was doing a lot of research, dozens and dozens of experiments, went through numerous failed attempts, but nothing was discouraging him. As a scientist and an innovator, Martin knew that turning his idea into reality would be a long process, and it would require a lot of learning from mistakes.

Martin wasn’t afraid of failing, nor of making mistakes. Quite on the contrary, he believed mistakes were bound to happen and that they would eventually lead to success and improvement.

Martin envisioned a universal storage system for renewable energy that will help industries in the fight against climate change. Martin knew this would take a lot of effort, so he spent years working on finding the right combination of materials and temperature to make it work. It was a challenging and time-consuming task, but Martin’s brilliance, fueled with determination, flipped the switch and made his vision into reality.

Two Heads are Better than One

When he managed to develop his product, Martin started thinking about founding a company. He didn’t know much about the market and potential customers or business in general, so he decided to team up with Susanne König, whom he knew and had a high opinion about. Susanne, much like Martin, was also very passionate about the environment and was delighted to have the opportunity to work on tackling important issues. Together they founded Kraftblock in 2014, 6 years after Martin started working on his project.

Susanne and Martin complemented each other perfectly. Susanne’s knowledge and experience in finance, combined with Martin’s breakthrough innovation was a recipe for success.

But it wasn’t an easy climb up the stairs. Just as the product development was a challenge, the business development was not a piece of cake, either.

The heating market was pretty much undeveloped at the time. Chaos was reigning over the problem of wastefulness, and the two young people decided to calm the storm. The rookies in the world of entrepreneurs couldn’t find enough data from research and study in that field, to help them make the best decisions.

Finance and finding investors were yet another challenge to be faced. Susanne and Martin landed their first investment a year after the company started working. It was an investment of $1.08M, and it was followed by more investments in the years to come. Their main investors are Freigeist Capital and Koolen Industries. This helped the company stand on its two feet and make its way into the industry.

A Cleaner Future Is in Sight

The company’s CEO is Martin Schichtel, the co-founder and the mastermind behind the product. The other co-founder, Susanne König is the CFO of the company and handles business administration, finance, accounting, and HR for the company.

Kraftblock employs 15 people, all working toward catering to the needs of its respected clients. Today, Kraftblock is based in Saarbrücken, Germany.

Before making a name for itself, Kraftblock had yet another challenge to face- its competitors. Companies like Axiom Energy, Antora Energy, and 1414 Degrees among others didn’t make it easy for Kraftblock to succeed, but Susanne and Mertin managed to push through.

Kraftblock has a partnership with many companies in the energy sector and is supported by various research institutions, investors, and funding programs. Kraftblock relishes the support from the German Ministry of Economy and Energy, EIT Climate - KIC, a body of the European Union, the University of Saarland, and others. Some of the major companies that collaborate with Kraftblock are Siemens, Koolen Industries, Floating, and many more. Kraftblock was also named a Deep Tech Pioneer in the Paris Global Summit in 2020.

Having a brilliant mind and using it to create something is one thing, but using it to solve real major problems and help the world is a completely different level. Martin and Susanne, understanding the danger of global warming, are on that path.

Declaring and supporting a cause like this is not enough. Doing something and making a change is what matters. We can only hope that more will follow and the homo sapiens will stop irrationally destroying their own home, called planet Earth.