10 Things You Didn’t Know about Mario Kohle
Mario Kohle is best known as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Enpal, which is a photovoltaics leasing firm that provides solar power systems for homeowners with no required investment upfront. Recently, Mario Kohle and Enpal have been making big news for closing out Series C with $174 million from SoftBank for technology making it easier for homeowners to switch to solar energy.
1. German Roots
Both Mario Kohle and Enpal hail out of Berlin, Germany. Co-founding the company as Enpal GmbH in 2017 with him are Viktor Wingert and Jochen Ziervogel. The focus of the trio is to reduce electricity expenditure through a solar system and a green all-inclusive solution. Because of this focus, Kohle has made a point to become just as fluent in the languages of English and French as his native German.
2. BEKO Kauferportal GmbH
Mario Kohle is the co-founder of BEKO Kauferportal GmbH, along with Robin Behlau. Also known as Around Home, the concept is to bring online customers together with offline specialist companies. This took place just before the European Union financial crash in 2008. As of 2018, the 500-strong German company became the nation’s largest broker for products and services around the house. From July 2008 until October 2015, Kohle was also the chief executive officer. From November 2015 until January 2019, he left the CEO position to become Chairman.
3. WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management
Mario Kohle is a 2008 graduate of the prestigious German business school after attending for three years. Consistently ranked as the best of the best where students striving to receive the best business management training possible, Kohle takes the knowledge he obtains to start up BEKO (Around Home) in 2008, which would later see him founding and running Enpal as of 2017.
4. Vicki Zlobinski
The love interest of Mario Kohle is Vicki Zlobinski. The couple has been together since March 2009. The two have a young daughter whose name is not disclosed. A woman of many talents, she was promotion coordination manager and assistant radio manager for the Universal Music Group from 2014 until 2016. As of October 2018, she has since moved on to become Sprecherin/Synchronsprecherin at Selbständigkeit, which is German for independent freelancer. Recently, she has co-published the first of a children’s book series. This series of books also feature songs, which brings forth Zlobinski’s love of music as a former student of Universal Music Deutschland, which she attended in 2014.
5. Volksbank Raiffeisenbanken
Recently, Enpal won Volksbank as a partner, which now has co-founder Mario Kohle and his associates dreaming about cars. This is huge for Kohle and his team as their partnership with the “people’s bank,” which is a consortium of approximately 1100 independent credit unions that happen to represent Germany’s largest banking group. It is Kohle’s dream to provide consumers with high-quality solar-powered vehicles. Now with the partnership of Volksbank, this dream is well on its way to become reality.
6. Enpal Going Public
Mario Kohle’s dream of making the privately-owned Enpal become a publicly traded commodity is being realized. The company’s growth is quickly placing themselves in a position where their names will be seen on the global stock exchange. They already have their own crowdfunding landing page.
7. Electric Cars (IPO)
The vision of Mario Kohle looking into electric cars isn’t simply limited to the buyers, but also to renters. As Enpal has earned its fortune by product and service rental. The long-term goal for Kohle and Enpal is not to simply be a landlord of solar panels, but a platform of renewable energy.
8. Unconventional Executive
Instead of working behind the desk, Mario Kohle prefers to be in the field. While he and Enpal have net worth values most people can only dream about, Kohle admits he’s more interested in providing for the people sustainable energy solutions that aren’t so reliant on fossil fuels. Realizing the cost of fossil fuels has spiked with no sign of slowing down, which is making it harder for families to afford, Kohle has poured his passion into making it a better and more affordable world for everyone. According to some of his interviews, he admits he often found himself angry at the price of his own electricity bills, which served as a trigger to capitalize on a steadily growing and more reliable source of solar energy.
9. Worldwide Expectations
For now, Enpal has mostly operated within the European Union. Now by becoming a publicly-traded commodity, the opportunity to go global is there for the taking. Although there are worldwide connections in place already, the desire to extend the more affordable alternative to renewable energy in the form of solar panels to cater to the growth of public demand is soon to become a reality. His pitch has remained the same today as it has since 2017 when he first helped form Enpal as a company, which is to put an end to big energy companies soaking the everyday person to keep pouring money into what he deems as dirty energy.
10. Solar Hero
With the growing concern of the world’s environment, plus the current gas crisis existing within the European Union, it appears the timing of Mario Kohle and Enpal couldn’t have been better. With already over a million homes already making good use of Enpal’s solar energy panel through an affordable leasing program they can afford, Kohle realizes he and his company are in more demand than ever before. The world is watching as they wait for Enpal to officially become global. Much of Kohle’s motivation to embark on this venture is to help consumers pay less out of their pockets when it comes to paying towards energy bills. Whether it be for heat, electricity and now vehicles, Kohle (and many others) want to put an end to the use of dirty energy, plus the high prices they charge for something that is not only nonrenewable but outdated.
