Investing in our Future: €80m to Support European Climate Tech Startups

Speedinvest is excited to announce our new €80m Climate & Industry Opportunity fund to primarily provide long-term support for our existing sustainability-oriented startups, while also targeting selected non-portfolio startups that are accelerating European industry’s efforts to digitize and decarbonize.

Oliver Holle, Managing Partner at Speedinvest, said: “Investing in Climate Tech is a must for us as a fund and the industry as a whole. Apart from the moral obligation we all share, there is obvious growth potential in the sector. The talent and entrepreneurial energy of an entire generation is now focused on building the technologies that will ensure our planet’s survival. Supporting these innovators is where we want and need to be.”

Doubling-down on our climate portfolio

The bulk of the Climate & Industry Opportunity fund will be used to conduct follow-on funding for our existing and growing portfolio of climate-oriented startups through co-investments in new rounds via existing pro-rata rights, allowing the companies to scale further and help Europe achieve its target of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Speedinvest has already invested in follow-on rounds for two existing portfolio companies, including a €40m Series B round in mid-November in Packhelp, a Warsaw-based bespoke packaging platform that produces two-thirds of its products from recycled materials and supports customers in minimizing the amount of packaging used for shipments. The second being a Series D round in TIER Mobility, furthering their efforts to reduce pollution in cities by providing clean alternatives to traditional transportation.

Cleaning up the industrial sector 

In addition to joining growth rounds of Speedinvest’s existing portfolio the Climate & Industry Opportunity fund will selectively co-invest with top tier funds in later stage rounds of new startups that are creating the technologies to help the industrial sector digitize, decarbonize and improve its sustainability performance. With a third of all carbon dioxide emissions coming from the industrial and logistics sectors, Europe’s industrial tech startups will be essential for helping the continent to achieve its climate goals. 

Marie-Helene Ametsreiter, General Partner at Speedinvest, said: “According to our data, Europe’s industrial tech ecosystem has experienced 81% annualized growth since 2014, more than doubling over the past year to a value of €74bn overall. It’s unsurprisingly one of the fastest-growing categories in European venture capital and we’re proud to back a number of outstanding businesses in the sector. Industrial and climate tech will provide key growth opportunities in the coming years, while also generating huge benefits for the planet.”

Globally recognized partners

With a final close scheduled in Q2 2022, cornerstone investors in the fund include US-based New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the world’s largest venture capital funds. Alongside NEA, the fund has notable non-institutional investments from the industrial sector, including the technology company KNAPP, plastics and foam supplier Greiner AG and HEINZEL GROUP, Central Europe’s leading producer of pulp and paper. 

Scott Sandell, Managing General Partner at NEA, said: “Speedinvest is partnering with some of the continent’s most innovative companies working to solve the global climate crisis, and the NEA team is pleased to deepen our commitment to this crucial effort with our participation in Speedinvest’s new fund. We are very excited about the growing entrepreneurial opportunity in Europe, particularly for startups focused on reducing emissions and revolutionizing industrial processes, which is a significant focus for NEA’s global investing activities.”

All of the fund’s cornerstone strategic limited partners (LPs) will get exclusive access to Speedinvest’s corporate investor program. This grants access to the deal flow of relevant startups, introductions to Speedinvest’s startups and to their technologies and insights into developing technology trends. In addition, cornerstone investors will have access to a comprehensive events program that includes exclusive networking opportunities and startup demo days.

Speedinvest is a leading pan-European, early-stage venture capital firm. Our portfolio includes Wefox, Bitpanda, TIER Mobility, GoStudent, Curve, CoachHub, Schüttflix, TourRadar, Adverity, and Twaice.

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