There is a new contact point for many scale-ups that are struggling for financing – at least if they are in the areas of energy, food & agriculture, manufacturing, buildings or mobility and are working on removing gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere . Because the World Fund, which launched a 350 million euro fund in 2021, is coming around the corner with its next investment vehicle. This time 300 million euros were collected.
According to a release, the institutional investors European Investment Bank (EIF), KfW Capital, Bpifrance, PwC Deutschland, NRWbank and Ignitis Group, the pension fund of the British environmental authority EAPF, the Wiltshire Pension Fund and the Croatian Erste Plavi are investing in the new Climate-Tech fund -VC. The World Fund wants to use the capital to invest in 25 to 30 European startups that have the potential to decarbonize entire industries, it is said.
World Fund: 350 million euros for European ClimateTech startups
Series B for hardware startups
The fund was formed several years ago around the German entrepreneur Tim Schumacher, who used to be a publisher opponent with AdBlock Plus and later founded the search engine Ecosia. The goal now is primarily to invest in “Series B financing rounds in the so-called “Valley of Death”, a critical growth phase for startups”. Then scale-ups would often need around 30 million euros.
“In Europe, climate and deeptech startups in the early growth phase often require funding of more than 30 million euros, as they are usually hardware startups that require large investments, for example to set up factories. In Europe in particular, there is often a lack of capital for such large financing rounds, which often leads to companies failing despite excellent technologies,” it said in a press release. The World Fund’s current portfolio includes Juicy Marbles, Ecoworks, Mission Zero Technology, Customcells, IQM, Treecard, Cylib and Sunroof.
We have already reported that ClimateTech works fundamentally differently than other startup investments. Because while most startups take place in the world of software, ClimateTech is ultimately about moving molecules – and therefore hardware.
ClimateTech works fundamentally differently than previous startup investments