About Us
We are a team of passionate engineers and entrepreneurs, backed by a network of development partners, investors, and institutions. Find out what drives us.
Leadership
The four of us came together in 2018 and founded Kitekraft in 2019. The urge to help fight climate change brought us together, our passion about Airborne Wind keeps us at speed.
We came together at the Technical University of Munich, at a time when Christoph and André were writing their master theses at a project Florian had initiated for his PhD: Kitekraft. Max had just moved to Munich and brought his experience about the startup world and business development with him.
Designing Airborne Wind Energy systems and bringing them to market was the perfect match to content our drive about fighting climate change. And the timing was right: Technology components have advanced to be powerful and lightweight enough to meet the requirements of Airborne Wind. The market demands new solutions to generate energy more efficiently and at lower cost. People and governments around the world realize that the already started climate crisis cannot be ignored any longer.
Florian Bauer
Florian Bauer
Electrical and control engineer. Electrical Engineering PhD on "Multidisciplinary Optimization of Drag Power Kites" from Technical University of Munich. Published more than a dozen of research papers about flying wind turbine technology. Inventor of 4 patents pending and one granted. Passionate about renewable energies and anything that flies.
Maximilian Isensee
Maximilian Isensee
Renewable energy engineer. Co-founder of climate NGO "Protect Our Winters Germany" which aims to shed light on the climate impact of winter sport activities and how to minimize them. Former start-up consultant at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
André Frirdich
André Frirdich
Aerodynamics engineer, graduated in M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering from Technical University of Munich. Focused on aircraft, helicopter, and wind turbine technology. Wrote master thesis about flying wind turbine aerodynamics optimization. Personal motivation powered by the vision of changing the world's energy generation.
Christoph Drexler
Christoph Drexler
Graduated in M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering at Technical University of Munich. Delved into aerodynamics in master thesis optimizing Kitekraft's airfoils. Heavy interest in sustainability, social, and technological advances tackling climate change to which the solutions lie in the "We", not in the "I".
The Team
Filippo Campagnolo
General Research Associate
Celia Nicolás Hernández
Aerodynamics
Elias Dejene
Control
Jinkai Liu
Mechanics
Max Backström
Rotor Aerodynamics
Sebastiano Brandizzi
Aerodynamics
Sebastian Obermeier
Aerodynamics
Tushar Kapur
Aerodynamics
Irene Morlando
Life Cycle Assessment
Dr. Filippo Campagnolo
General Research Associate
Chair of Wind Energy,
Technical University of Munich
Advisors
During our journey we've connected with experienced experts from the industry and academia. We're excited to get the chance to work with them and are looking forward on our future endeavors!
Bernhard Raberger
Prof. Carlo Bottasso
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h. c. Ralph Kennel
Prof. Dr.sc. ETH Zürich
Marcelo Lobo Heldwein
Bernhard Raberger
Ex-CFO Enerjisa, E.ON
(prev. VERBUND)
Prof. Carlo Bottasso
Professor for Wind Energy,
Technical University of Munich
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. H. C. Ralph Kennel
Professor at the Institute for Electrical Drive Systems and Power Electronics,
Technical University of Munich
Prof. Dr.sc. ETH Zürich Marcelo Lobo Heldwein
Professor at the Chair of High-Power Converter Systems,
Technical University of Munich
Publications
Kitekraft's technology is based on scientific research done during Florian's time as a PhD research student at the Technical University of Munich. Here you can find a list of the publications.
Florian Bauer. “Multidisciplinary Optimization of Drag Power Kites”. Dissertation. Technical University of Munich. 2021. Download: PDF.
André Frirdich. “Rotor Design Procedure for a Drag Power Kite”. Master thesis. Technical University of Munich. 2019. Download: PDF.
Christoph Drexler. “Design by Optimization of a Multi-Element Airfoil for
Drag Power Kite”. Master thesis. Technical University of Munich. 2019. Download: PDF.
show all publications
Code of Conduct
We strongly believe that equality, inclusion, and respect towards all genders and all backgrounds no matter the sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity is non-debatable. We welcome everyone who shares our vision and mutual respect to join our endeavor.
We have set the following codes of conduct for ourselves and our company to be a constant reminder that all of the above—equality, inclusion, respect—are not a given and that they have to be actively defended. Take a look at what that means to us in detail.
Partners & Awards
During summer 2019 we were accepted into Silicon Valley's Y Combinator.
Since then we've received multiple awards, public, and private funding for our work on a technology relevant to climate change and other topics, such as digitization.
Most recently we got accepted into the RESPOND accelerator.
Other Partners
To make the future of wind energy not only more efficient, but also safer and more accepted, we are cooperating with or are members of the following institutions and associations.
Building flying wind turbines.
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Please contact info@kitekraft.de
