World Foundation closes first €300m climate technology fund, seeks follow-up and support for hardware

After three years of fundraising, the World Fund has finally completed its first tranche of €300 million, €50 million short of its 2021 target, but still considerable considering the backdrop of war and economic uncertainty. The venture was initially generated by the founders of Ecosia, an independent search engine whose search queries funded tree planting.

If you want to compare, Norrsken VC is a $130 million impact VC covering climate, while Demeter Partners recently raised a €250 million fund focused on climate.

The World Fund will be supported by the European Investment Fund (investing €50 million), KfW Capital, Wachstumsfonds, Bpifrance (the fund’s first investment outside France), PwC Germany, NRW.BANK and Ignitis Group. The World Fund is also supported by pension funds, including the UK Environment Agency Pension Fund, Wiltshire Pension Fund and Erste Plavi in ​​Croatia.

The World Fund has already put some of its cash into a number of climate tech companies, but it said the funding would allow it to make 25-30 investments in European decarbonization startups.

Its most notable investments include IQM Quantum Computers, Space Forge, Planet A Foods, Juicy Marbles, ENOUGH, CustomCells, recycling company Cylib, and real estate technology startups aedifion and Ecoworks.

World Fund closed the financing amid war in Europe, rising interest rates and jittery limited partners. “This is a super tough fundraising environment, especially in 2023,” said fund managing partner Danijel Višević.

“We only invest in decarbonization technologies and reserve more than two-thirds of the funds for follow-on investments because it is difficult to close the late-stage gap in Europe,” he added.

He said hardware must be an important part of its strategy: “That’s one thing we did wrong in Europe, not focusing on climate hardware.” He added that the fund had invested in biotech and biochemists Wait for technical talent to evaluate the investment.

The World Fund’s fundraising comes at a good time.

According to Dealroom, European climate tech startups raised more than $20 billion in 2023, almost the same as the previous year and reversing the downward trend in other industries.

The UK, Sweden and Germany led the way in total climate technology venture capital investment in 2023, but Iceland, Lithuania and Bulgaria showed significant growth.

Climate technology is progressing well in Europe.

The valuation remains unchanged, and European energy-related patents increased by 15% compared with the same period last year.

Berlin-based World Fund was founded in 2021 by Daria Saharova, Višević, Tim Schumacher and Craig Douglas. It has offices in Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Amsterdam.