- 21
- August
2021
Alantra’s new Klima fund invests in Mainspring
Smart green energy startups in Europe raising Series B or later rounds now have one more financial VC to go to in Madrid. The new late stage VC fund is called Klima (climate in German), focuses on hardware and software startups accelerating the energy transition and achieved its first closing at €80M on 7 June 2021. Klima’s capital is committed by powerful Spanish LPs including the listed investment bank and asset manager Alantra (€18M commitment), the gas corporate Enagás (€30M), the state-owned bank Instituto de Crédito Oficial (€15M), the renewable energy developer Capital Energy (€2M), the German family office Blueworld Group and other undisclosed institutional investors. On 12 July 2021, Klima announced its first investment in Sillicon Valley-based Mainspring, expanding their $95M Series D to $108M together with other investors entering the massive round at the last minute. GP Lucille Bonnet will pitch Klima at Ecosummit Berlin 8-9 September 2021.
Read more- 18
- March
2020
Coronavirus: Ecosummit Berlin 2020 postponed
The global coronavirus pandemic grows exponentially and has already completely changed our economy and way of life. Bill Gates saw it coming: “COVID-19 has started to behave a lot like the once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about. I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume that it will be until we know otherwise.” Governments all over the world have taken actions to flatten the epidemic curve of new infections and protect their citizens. Social distancing is key while vaccine development is being accelerated (CEPI, Moderna, BioNTech, CureVac). European and national borders have been closed, public events are forbidden, curfews are declared in Italy, Spain and France and other countries may follow suit. Nobody knows how long the lockdown will continue and what other restrictions and hardships we will experience. But it is now clear that Ecosummit Berlin 2020 is postponed to 2021. Setting the new date is an ongoing process and we’ll announce our rescheduled physical Ecosummit Berlin when the time is right.
Read more- 6
- September
2019
Smart green VCs you should know
There are many smart green VCs in Europe and the US that back startups in energy, mobility, buildings, cities, materials, food and circular economy to create impact as well as environmental, financial and strategic returns for their fund investors (LPs). In the VC food chain, early stage investors prefer to invest, at lower valuations and higher risk, in the Seed, Series A and Series B financing rounds of young startups working on product market fit and traction (users, customers, revenues). On the other hand, late stage VCs like shorter holding periods and time-to-exit and, consequently, advanced startups with more than €5M revenues, experienced management teams and fast growth. The existence of KPIs, ideally going up over time, makes the life of every investor easier. Facing climate change, technology revolution and global competition, the majority of corporates have adopted corporate venturing and open innovation strategies in order to invest in and do business with startups. The result are different investment strategies and sometimes competing portfolios that startups should know before pitching. Let’s co-invest and meet at Ecosummit Berlin.
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