50 million euros for the energy turnaround

The Vireo Electrification Fund team launches a new fund.

The former Innogy Venture team receives a total of 50 million euros from various investors to set up a new energy transition fund. The new name is Vireo Electrification Fund and shows the focus of the investors. In the future, they want to invest in "highly scalable early-stage European startups focused on electrification," according to a press release.

Back in December 2020, the Vireo Ventures team invested in 19 early-stage startups, such as Delivery Green, Heycharge and Green Fusion. Four of the five Vireo founders previously worked at Innogy Venture, the venture capital arm of RWE. From this experience, Matthias Engel, Thomas Labryga, Felix Krause and Mischa Wetzel teamed up with Sven Heiligtag, who was previously head of the "Energy & Materials Practice" at McKinsey, as businessinsider writes.

The new fund is intended to expand Vireo Ventures' portfolio, Krause tells energate-messenger. The founders are following the classic strategy of venture capital funds: "We invest relatively cheaply in early development phases and then accompany the companies as they grow," says Krause. After five or six years, the exit should follow. In order to spread the risk here, the portfolio is to grow to more than 30 start-ups.