Climentum Capital, a new climate tech fund announced on Tuesday that it has raised €150M to invest in early-stage startups helping Europe become carbon neutral by 2050. The company plans to secure the final closing by this year’s end.
The fund is backed by renowned corporate investors, banks, industrial conglomerates such as BASF Venture Capital, Arbejdernes Landsbank, Vaekstfonden prominent family offices, and successful tech entrepreneurs.
“Now is the time to invest in Climate Tech. We need to see results within the next decades and see momentum from all sides: governments and corporations are pushing for real change, the best talent is moving into space and technology has developed massively,” says Dörte Hirschberg.
Founding team
The founding team of Climentum Capital includes
- Dörte Hirschberg (formerly Junior Partner at McKinsey and member of the Rocket Internet leadership team)
- Yoann Berno ( ex-silicon valley software engineer turned serial entrepreneur turned investor)
- Stefan Maard (ex-Novozymes sustainability & venturing leader)
- Morten Halborg (ex-Executive at Skandia )
- Stockholm GP (who is still to be announced but expected to be a deep-tech woman VC investor).
The founding team has a combined working experience in the venture capital and startup arena of over 70 years, conducting over 50 investments.
Accelerate Europe’s green transition
According to the report, there are already 46 Climate Tech Unicorns around the world who have collectively raised over $46B+ of total funding in the last decade and are now collectively valued at $130B+
Climentum Capital is a pan-European venture with bases in Copenhagen (Denmark), Berlin (Germany), and Stockholm (Sweden).
The VC plans to back ambitious founders to scale climate technology. In the long run, it looks to invest in 25 startups across Europe at late-Seed to Series A with tickets ranging from €1M to €5M.
The six core focus verticals that Climentum will target for reducing CO2 will be:
- NextGen Renewables
- Food & Agriculture
- Industry & Manufacturing
- Buildings & Architecture
- Transportation & Mobility
- Waste & Materials
Climentum is close to finalising three investments already which are at the due-diligence stage, focused on material recycling, alternative protein production, and insect farming, reports TechCrunch.
“We are absolute technophiles”, says Yoann Berno. “We will be looking for needle-moving technologies and solutions that often stretch a bit from your ordinary ‘safe-zone’ investment opportunities we might see the generalist funds go for. Deep tech is not something we shy away from – quite the contrary.”
“There is a concrete value-add to both founders and investors”, says Impact Partner, Stefan Maard. “Investors gain access to a cutting-edge Article 9 fund that delivers climate impacts and the associated data to help them achieve and report on their own climate and ESG targets. This is something that has resonated well with especially institutional and more forward-looking investors. Looking toward the founders, they are keen to work with truly mission-aligned investors that are also willing and able to help them mature on their own sustainability journeys – including documenting climate change impacts and leveraging that to access non-dilutive capital such as carbon credits, grants, and ESG related project financing.”
