The climate tech VC World Fund announced the raise of €300 million fund from EIF, KfW Capital, BPI France, PwC Germany, Wiltshire Pension Fund, the UK Environment Agency Pension Fund, Croatia’s Erste Plavi, and World Fund’s first investor, Ecosia. The fund aims to invest in European startups working towards decarbonization.
- Founded in 2021 by Danijel Visevic, Daria Saharova, Mark Windeknecht and Tim Schumacher, World Fund invests in startups from early to growth stage that focuses on production, buildings, energy, food and agriculture, and mobility. It prefers to support entrepreneurs who are dealing with decarbonization, as well as companies with technologies and significant emissions savings potential.
- The fund operates in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, and Amsterdam and has already made 15 investments in companies including Planet A Foods, ENOUGH Food, ecoworks, aedifion, IQM Quantum Computers, Space Forge, CustomCells and Cylib.
- The leading investors of the fund include BPI France with its first investment outside of France, UK Environment Agency Pension Fund, Wiltshire Pension Fund, and Erste Plavi. €50 million was provided by The European Investment Fund. KfW Capital, Wachstumsfonds, PwC Germany, NRWbank and Ignitis Group World Fund’s first investor Ecosia, Europe’s independent search engine, are also among the LPs.
- With the €300 million fund, the World Fund team will make around 25-30 investments into European startups, that develop technology that might decarbonize entire industries and help promising businesses surpass Europe’s devastating climate tech "Series B Valley of Death."
“We only invest in decarbonization technologies, and we reserve more than two-thirds of our capital for follow-on investments because in Europe it’s hard to bridge the later-stage gap,” Danijel Višević said.
