Ecosia launches fund for climate technology

The fight against climate change requires innovation. But Europe, as always, lacks the venture capital to do so. A new fund wants to change that.

Green investments are in vogue right now, but at the same time greenwashing doesn't stop at the financial market. The Climate-Tech-Fonds World Fund, newly established by the search engine Ecosia, now wants to rely on its own principles and bases its investments on the Climate Performance Potential (CPP). In the future, 350 million euros will be invested in early and growth-stage start-ups in the energy, transport, construction, food and agriculture sectors. Half of the sum has already been collected, and the first closing is planned for spring 2022.

Among the initiators are well-known names, such as Daria Saharova, who led the venture capitalist Vito One, and Tim Schumacher, investor and founder of, for example, Eyeo and the platform Sedo. Also Danijel Višević, who worked at Ecosia and has a career as an advisor to the federal government and helped build European venture capitalist Project A. Another investor in the round is Craig Douglas from the UK, who previously worked at climate fund Set Ventures from the Netherlands. Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll is one of the fund's venture partners. The advisory board is made up of academics.

World Fund has developed its own methodology for reviewing the CPP. The fund's initiators say that the focus should be primarily on companies with the potential to become market leaders. By 2040, two gigatons of emissions are to be saved through investments in technological innovations. Each company supported by the World Fund must prove that it will save at least 100 megatons of CO2 per year.

The initiators complain that there is a lack of venture capital for climate technology in Europe. According to their own statements, they have now founded the largest European fund for climate technology with the World Fund: "Startups that deal with climate change need equity-strong funds and commitment that supports dynamic companies to exploit their potential," says Saharova.