Carbon13, the venture builder for the climate emergency, is today announcing the first close of their €30 million fund – which enables a second major milestone: Carbon13’s first investments outside the UK.
This fund close will be deployed into 6 climate startups launched by Carbon13’s Venture Builder in Germany, with each receiving €120k.
These investments mark the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Carbon13 as it begins its international expansion in Europe. Including these German ventures, the Carbon13 Fund is set up to invest into a total 19 startups with this first fund close.
“We continue to see the results from combining world-leading talent and ingenuity with a burning passion to combat the climate, now in Berlin in addition to Cambridge. As the commercial drivers in this space become clearer, so does the magic of innovation in the art of what is possible and this is what is luring investors from all across the world.” – CEO & Co-founder of Carbon13, Dr Nicky Dee
Commenting on the investments and carbon abatement potential of the six ventures, Chief Strategy Officer & Co-founder of Carbon13, Michael Langguth, said, “Over the last two years, we have received thousands of applications to our programmes, selected over 500 founders to join and co-founded over 140 startups with them.
“This round of investments takes the total to 64 pre-seed investments in climate tech startups from the Carbon13 funds. This makes us one of the most active investors in the climate tech space. As a result, the collective abatement potential of our startups is now over half a gigaton of CO2e, more than 1% of global emissions. Our sights are set on making sure this potential is maximised and expanding it significantly through more programmes, startups and enhancing the acceleration process.
“Germany is now a rapidly developing hotspot for us; some of the most impactful and exciting ventures begin life thanks to our Berlin operation now. As a result, for the first time, we have now invested in ventures from our Germany-based Venture Builder. This current group is made up of incredibly strong personnel with a high level of diversity: all teams have at least one female co-founder and come from 10 different nationalities. A sign of things to come.
Our potential on carbon
The new Fund and German expansion is set to propel a total portfolio of 64 Carbon13 ventures towards their impressive carbon abatement targets. Carbon13 ventures are collectively working towards an annual mitigation potential of over 500 million tonnes of CO2e (0.5 gigatonnes). This number is now set to rise further with each additional investment made by Carbon13.
The six ventures receiving investment from the Carbon13 Fund in Germany:
- Fungtional.bio
- A digital nutrition coach for microbes that accelerates the transition to a circular bioeconomy
- VoltVogel
- Flexible and scalable EV charging service powered by sustainable batteries
- Climalyst
- Developing low-energy carbon dioxide capture and permanent storage solutions
- Point2Hectare
- Unlocking the full potential of biochar for soil and fertilizer improvement
- Hoop Solar
- Unlocking gigawatts of solar energy on plastic greenhouses
- Mardeca
- Reducing maritime carbon with de-risked vessel retrofits
What sets Carbon13 apart – entrepreneurship X carbon impact
Carbon13 was borne out of the belief that entrepreneurs will play a significant role in transforming our world for Net Zero. However, this will only happen if they are empowered to create truly impactful startups that can measurably and credibly reduce emissions by millions of tonnes.
We do this by supporting founders to use first principles thinking to maximise potential carbon reduction in their value propositions from the start. We empower our founders to make strategic decisions on carbon, so that they’ll continue to scale their impact long after they leave our programmes.
We’ve worked with over 500 founders, who chose to build their startups with us because we bring the scientific rigour of our Cambridge origins, the EU/UK investment networks, and the deep commitment to fighting the climate crisis.
This approach can be seen in notable Carbon13 alumni including Kita, Infyos, Nium, Biozeroc and Materials Nexus.
