Carbon13 reveals first close of €30m and historic Germany push
The first close will be deployed into a total 19 startups which, in another major milestone, includes Carbon13’s first six Germany-based climate tech startups – all built through the firm’s Venture Builder in Berlin. The six will each receive €120k investment.
The total Carbon13 portfolio has scaled to 64 startups and their collective potential impact on carbon would appear to be immense; together they are working towards an annual mitigation potential of over 500 million tonnes of CO2e.
Carbon13 co-founder and CEO Dr Nicky Dee is thrilled with the progress of the venture. Dr Dee said: “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.”
Fellow founder and Chief Strategy Officer Michael Langguth added: “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 one per cent 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!”
Carbon13 only invests in ventures formed or built on their two programmes, the Venture Builder Cambridge and Berlin and the Venture Launchpad. The Venture Builder sees a cohort of 80 high potential founders come together to form co-founding teams and develop a venture with the minimum potential for reducing CO2e emissions by 10 million tonnes per year when at scale.
The Venture Launchpad is an accelerator which takes early-stage teams, creates a powerful brains trust around them, and supports them to maximise their carbon impact to the same 10 million tonne target.
Carbon13 has invested over £7 million into startups in the UK since 2021. The LP Fund will enable the organisation to invest outside of the UK, back follow on rounds and expand its impact even further.
• PHOTOGRAPH: Jonathan Cumming ( Chief Financial Officer), Dr Nicky Dee (Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer) and Michael Langguth (Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer). Credit – Carbon13.