What we do
Institutional investors
Equity products
AI Co-Investment Facility
Cleantech Co-Investment Facility
Impact investing at the EIF
Climate & Infrastructure Funds
Technology Transfer
European Angels Fund (EAF) - Co-investments with Business Angels
Venture capital
The Social Impact Accelerator (SIA)
Lower mid-market
Mezzanine Facility for Growth
VentureEU
EFSI Equity instrument
Single EU Equity Financial Instrument
COSME - Equity Facility for Growth
InnovFin Equity
Private equity secondary market transactions
EIF-NPI Equity Platform
ESCALAR Programme
Debt products
New ESIF ERDF Guarantee Fund initiative in Greece
EFSI Private Credit Programme
AGRI Guarantee Facility
AGRI Italy Platform Uncapped Guarantee Instrument
Credit enhancement
Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility (CCS GF)
ENSI - Securitisation Initiative
Erasmus+ Master Loan Guarantee Facility
Skills & Education Guarantee Pilot
EREM debt products
Single EU Debt Financial Instrument
Documentary Finance Facility – Bulgaria
The SME Initiative
The SME Initiative Bulgaria
The SME Initiative Finland
The SME Initiative Italy
The SME Initiative Malta
The SME Initiative Romania
The SME Initiative Spain
Inclusive finance
EaSI Financial Instruments
EaSI Capacity Building Investments Window
EaSI Guarantee Instrument
EaSI Funded Instrument
European Progress Microfinance Facility
Entrepreneurs supported through Progress Microfinance
European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI)
How does EIF contribute to EFSI
How to apply for EFSI financing
Regional Development - Country and sector-specific initiatives
Normandie Garantie Agri
FAIRE - La Réunion
Auvergne Rhône-Alpes FEADER
Recovery Equity Fund of Funds of Bulgaria
Fons d’Inversió en Tecnologia Avançada (FITA) Catalonia
Dutch Future Fund (DFF)
Dutch Alternative Credit Instrument (DACI)
PORTUGAL BLUE: a new initiative for blue economy investments
JEREMIE Greece Reflows – Business Angels’ Co-Investment Equity Instrument
German Corona Matching Facility (CMF)
Portugal Growth programme
Central and Eastern European Technology Transfer (CEETT)
Croatian Growth Investment Programme (CROGIP) II
Croatian Growth Investment Programme (CROGIP)
Croatian Venture Capital Initiative 2 (CVCi 2)
AGRI Italy Platform Uncapped Guarantee Instrument
DISPOSITIF INSTRUMENTS FINANCIERS BOURGOGNE FRANCHE-COMTÉ
ALTER’NA – ESIF EARFD Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Baltic Innovation Fund 1 (BIF 1)
Baltic Innovation Fund 2 (BIF 2)
Central Europe Fund of Funds (CEFoF)
Croatian Venture Capital Initiative (CVCi FoF)
Competitiveness Fund-of-Funds for SMEs in Romania
The Cyprus Entrepreneurship Fund (CYPEF)
Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Initiative East Guarantee Facility (DCFTA)
EU4Business Capped Guarantee
Dutch Growth Co-Investment Programme
Dutch Venture Initiative (DVI-II)
ESIF Fund-of-Funds Greece
EAFRD FoF Portugal
EAFRD FoF Romania
The ERP-EIF Facility
ERP-EIF Co-Investment Growth Facility
The LfA-EIF Facilities
The German Future Fund (GFF) - EIF Growth Facility
INAF – French National Agricultural Initiative
ESIF Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Malta
Regional Fund-of-Funds Romania
ESIF Fund-of-Funds Czech Republic
The Silesia EIF Fund of Funds
La Financière Région Réunion
The EIB Group Risk Enhancement Mandate (EREM)
EstFund
Call for Expression of Interest for FOSTER II
Greater Anatolia Guarantee Facility (GAGF)
G43 - Anatolian Venture Capital Fund Project
InvestBG Equity Instrument
JEREMIE
Romania Recovery Equity Fund of Funds
JEREMIE Romania Reflows – Equity Instrument
Luxembourg Future Fund 1 (LFF)
Luxembourg Future Fund 2
Mezzanine 'Fund of Fund' for Germany (MDD)
NEOTEC resources
Polish Growth Fund of Funds (PGFF)
Portugal Venture Capital Initiative (PVCi)
Scottish-European Growth Co-Investment Programme
Slovene Equity Growth Investment Programme (SEGIP)
Swedish Venture Initiative (SVI)
Turkish Growth and Innovation Fund (TGIF)
Western Balkans Enterprise Development & Innovation Facility (WB EDIF)
EAFRD FoF Greece
Irish Innovation Seed Fund (IISF)
RRF Czech Republic Fund of Funds

InvestEU: EIF invests €50 million into climate tech VC World Fund

  •  
    Date: 07 December 2022
  • World Fund invests in European climate tech start-ups
  • The start-ups have the potential to save at least 100 million tons of CO2-equivalents per year
  • The funds will be deployed across Europe - with a partial remit to invest in Germany and the Netherlands.  

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is investing – with support of the InvestEU programme - €50 million into the climate tech venture capital (VC) fund World Fund, joining more than 200 investors including PwC Germany, Ecosia, and the UK Environment Agency’s pension fund in supporting the next generation of climate tech companies.

This is one of the largest investments EIF has made into a first-time VC fund.

The investment is part of the EIF’s mission to support high-growth and innovative Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) across Europe, as well as to ensure at least 16% of its activity is in climate and environment-related projects in 2022 with the goal to increase to 25% by 2024.

Founded in 2021, World Fund is Europe’s leading climate tech VC fund. It invests in start-ups that have the potential to save at least 100 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year and tackle the most pressing issue of our time. Climate tech is one of the fastest-growing areas of European tech.

World Fund’s strict criteria for investment aims to back companies using technology to directly reduce emissions not only to help achieve the world’s climate goals faster. In order to find these start-ups, World Fund’s team of experts has devised with the climate performance potential (CPP) assessment to gauge a start-up’s ability to assist in the fund’s goal of reducing emissions.

This assessment has led World Fund to invest amongst others in quantum computing leader IQM, Europe’s fastest-growing space tech start-up Space Forge and the precision fermentation platform Planet A Foods.

The EIF`s financing into World Fund comes from EIF, the new InvestEU programme and regional mandates from across Europe, including The Netherlands (DFF), Germany (ERP Special Fund), and Bavaria (LfA). As part of this, World Fund will invest in start-ups in each of these regions, alongside Europe.  

Founded by Tim Schumacher, Daria Saharova, Craig Douglas, and Danijel Višević, the high calibre of World Fund’s investment strategy, best practices and ESG frameworks saw the fund ranked first in Europe for Environmental, Social and Governance by alternative assets data and insights provider Preqin earlier this year. 

EIF-CEO Alain Godard said: “The climate tech VC market in Europe is in its infancy, and World Fund stands out as a fund with a strong track record, network, investment hypothesis and experience, as well as scientific and commercial expertise within its founding team. These factors, alongside World Fund’s climate performance potential measurement criteria, have convinced us to back their first fund, with the support of the European Commission and we look forward to supporting the next generation of high-growth climate start-ups across the continent.”

Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, said: “The new InvestEU programme will help businesses across Europe gain access to the funds they need to innovate, grow and create jobs. This agreement is an excellent example of how the programme will help us achieve our green objectives through supporting innovative technology start-ups. I am pleased to see InvestEU helping entrepreneurs across Europe unlock funds that will enable them to achieve their full potential.”

Danijel Višević, co-founder of World Fund, said: “We’re thrilled to have EIF on board as an anchor LP in fund I, alongside the likes of the UK’s Environment Agency pension fund, PwC Germany and Ecosia. We see this landmark investment - one of the largest EIF has made in a first-time VC fund - as a strong signal that the European Union is serious about tackling the climate crisis. It will help us continue our mission to back the founders that will deliver decarbonisation at scale.”

Background information:

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. The EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments that specifically target this market segment. In this role, the EIF contributes to the pursuit of key EU policy objectives such as competitiveness and growth, innovation and digitalisation, social impact, skills and human capital, climate action and environmental sustainability and more.

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with crucial long-term financing by mobilising significant public and private funds to support a sustainable recovery. It helps generate additional investments in line with key European priorities, such as the European Green Deal, the digital transition and support for SMEs. The InvestEU programme brings together all EU financial tools to support investment by making project financing simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme has three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is implemented through financial partners who will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budgetary guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.

World Fund is the leading European-focused climate venture capital fund established by Daria Saharova, Danijel Višević, Craig Douglas, and Tim Schumacher. From energy, food, agriculture, and land use, to building materials, manufacturing and transport, World Fund is investing in European climate tech with a climate performance potential (CPP) of at least 100Mt CO2e emission savings per year.

Press Contacts:

EIF: Donata Riedel, d.riedel@eib.org, Tel.: +49 30 590047 912, Mobile: +49 151 1465 9021
Website: www.eif.org – Press Office: www.eib.org/press +352 4379 21000, press@eib.org
Follow us on Twitter @eif_eu

European Commission: Flora Matthaes, Flora.MATTHAES@ec.europa.eu, Tel.: +32 229 83951
Website: https://investeu.europa.eu, #InvestEU

World Fund: Elsa Sahiti, elsa@worldfund.vc, Mobile: +49 152 0499 8701
Website: www.worldfund.vc – Press Office: www.worldfund.vc/press

Note: Following the recent withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, we are updating the relevant EIF.org pages.

 
 

Copyright ©

 European Investment Fund   – The European Investment Fund is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.