kopa ventures
Kopa Ventures, previously known as Wi Venture, is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in European climate tech startups. Founded by renewable energy pioneer Matthias Willenbacher, the firm targets companies in the Energy, Mobility, Nature, and Carbon Tech sectors. Kopa Ventures aims to empower early-stage startups to develop solutions for climate-positive change and tackle environmental problems. They assess the environmental impact of potential investments using a specific impact methodology that includes carbon metrics and biodiversity considerations. The firm emphasizes a commitment to a vision where the economy and nature can coexist in harmony, actively supporting innovations and entrepreneurs that combat climate change and redefine our relationship with nature. They invest in ventures shaping the future.
First Momentum Ventures
First Momentum Ventures is a pre-seed venture capital firm focused on investing in B2B startups in Europe that address hard problems with complex technology. They aim to be the companion for technology founders at hour zero, providing a strong foundation for sustainable growth. The firm's core belief is in backing highly ambitious teams with scientific or technological breakthroughs, helping them turn these innovations into impactful startups. They emphasize a hands-on, supportive approach, delivering "first momentum" to their portfolio companies. This includes providing resources, a relevant network, and the expertise needed to navigate the complexities of building a successful deep tech startup. Their Pre-Seed DNA means they have deep expertise in guiding companies from zero to one, leveraging their experience since 2015. Their team of engineers and scientists enables them to speak the language of technical founders and understand highly technical products, markets, and commercialization paths. They strive to offer tangible support through high-value connections to talent, customers, and future investors, emphasizing that IQ and EQ are equally important in their relationships with founders. Beyond capital, First Momentum builds ecosystems for technical founders by creating communities, knowledge resources and events tailored to this audience.
HTGF | High-Tech Gründerfonds
HTGF (High-Tech Gründerfonds) is a pre-seed and seed investor focused on tech startups. They aim to back tech founders who are building the future, particularly in Germany, from the very beginning. Their mission is to strengthen the technological backbone of the German economy and create international market leaders. They achieve this by providing capital, access to a strong network of industry and science experts, experience in scaling startups, and deep tech know-how. They invest in companies across a variety of high-tech sectors, including industrial, climate, deep tech, life sciences, chemistry, and digital tech. They focus on tech startups in Germany and seek to help them to become successful and leading international companies.
High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) invests in tech founders with the ambition to shape the future. They focus on early-stage investments (pre-seed and seed) and provide a strong network in business and science, along with experience in scaling startups and deep tech know-how. Their mission extends beyond track record, aiming to strengthen the technological backbone of Germany and create international market leaders. HTGF invests in all major tech sectors, from software to hardware, including AI, Deep Tech, and Biotech. They emphasize supporting companies developing innovative technologies across industrial, climate, deep tech, life sciences, chemistry, and digital tech sectors. HTGF aims to provide not only capital but also expertise and support to navigate the challenges of the early phases of startup development. HTGF focuses on backing tech founders and helping them build the future early on. They are deeply involved in helping companies scale, utilizing their extensive network and tech expertise. Their stated mission is to sustainably strengthen Germany's position as a leading tech hub and facilitate the creation of global market leaders. HTGF's team comprises founders, visionaries, and individuals with experience in business and science, boasting over 300 years of combined investment experience, understanding the dynamics and challenges of early-stage companies. HTGF participates actively in the German startup ecosystem through news, stories, and events. They offer online seminars (FoundersClasses) and podcasts such as 'ZukunftsReady' and 'Founders Faces' to share insights and knowledge with founders. HTGF supports startups not only financially, but also by providing support in communication through press releases and logo downloads. The firm emphasizes the importance of people, recognizing the value of diversity and passion in tech.
Hitachi Ventures
Hitachi Ventures is a corporate venture capital firm that partners with founders building world-changing innovation. They provide partnership and access for ambitious founders transforming the world. With over $1B AUM, Hitachi Ventures aims to set new standards for corporate venture, fostering collaboration and growth within its portfolio companies. They focus on supporting builders bold enough to explore uncharted territories and invest in individuals crazy enough to reimagine climate, energy, and industry. The firm appears to invest across Digital, Industrial, and Climate Tech. They offer support beyond just capital, aiming to be a strong ally for their portfolio companies. They look for founders combining relentless execution with clarity of thought on complex issues, valuing EQ over IQ in the long term and choosing teams based on these values. They focus on building lasting impact through their investments. Several members of the investment team bring unique experiences that are designed to foster strong connections with the founders they work with. Hitachi Ventures also leverages its expertise in deal structuring and strategic advisory work to offer advice on portfolio company matters and fund structuring and administration. Their collaborative approach involves productive partnerships with internal teams, external stakeholders, and portfolio companies, reflecting a philosophy that the most successful outcomes emerge from inclusive dialogue and shared strategic vision.
Matterwave Ventures
Matterwave Ventures is a European VC firm focused on backing hardware and software companies in the Industrial Technologies space. They aim to empower early-stage companies to reshape industrial value chains and become global leaders. The firm's core belief centers around funding companies that contribute to a sustainable, sovereign, and digitalized European industry. Their investment strategy revolves around three key areas: Industrial Tech, Deep Tech, and Climate Tech. In Industrial Tech, they support the digital transformation of industry to create upskilled local workforces, globally competitive, high-value exports, and superior industrial products. For Deep Tech, they back global champions in frontier technologies, building resilient supply chains and sovereign dual-use capabilities for long-term industrial autonomy. In Climate Tech, they invest in technologies driving smart industrial decarbonization, enabling global winners in novel climate solutions, and delivering proven climate impact at scale. They are particularly interested in companies that address the challenges and opportunities within the European industrial landscape. This includes fostering technological independence, promoting sustainable practices, and driving the adoption of digital solutions across various industrial sectors. They aim to create a future where European industries are competitive on a global scale, while also remaining environmentally conscious and socially responsible. Matterwave Ventures seeks companies demonstrating groundbreaking innovations that can have a significant impact on the European industrial ecosystem. They are dedicated to supporting the growth and development of these businesses, with a focus on enabling them to become market leaders and contribute to the overall advancement of European industry.
NRW.BANK
NRW.BANK is the promotional bank of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany. Its primary objective is to support the state of NRW in its structural and economic policy tasks. It achieves this by offering a wide range of funding instruments across three main areas: Economy, Housing, and Infrastructure/Municipalities. These instruments include low-interest promotional loans, equity financing, and promotional consulting services. NRW.BANK operates in a competition-neutral manner, collaborating with all banks and savings banks in NRW. The bank's support for the economy includes initiatives for startups, established companies, and those undergoing transformation. This support ranges from providing basic guidance for new businesses to offering venture capital for startups through programs like NRW.Venture. For established companies, NRW.BANK facilitates growth, investment, digitalization, innovation, and internationalization through structured financing and equity capital. In the housing sector, NRW.BANK supports private individuals in building or buying homes, modernizing existing properties, making them accessible, and preserving historical buildings. The bank also assists in creating rental housing and offers services for existing customers and financing for associations. For infrastructure and municipalities, NRW.BANK provides long-term investment financing, secures liquidity, manages funding, and offers consulting on economic efficiency in municipal construction, sustainable municipal development, and investments in areas like digitalization, infrastructure, climate protection, housing, and waste management.
Vireo Ventures
Vireo Ventures focuses on investing in the electrified future, believing that electrification and digitalization are the backbone of decarbonization and green transformation. As a seed and pre-seed stage VC, they invest in European technology startups that are driving the energy and mobility sectors with cutting-edge digital solutions. The firm targets innovations optimizing power grids and monitoring systems to climate-resilient agriculture and future-proof transportation. They focus on creating a seamless integration of sectors, ensuring efficient energy flow management across upstream (energy supply), midstream (distribution and storage), and downstream (energy usage) segments. This encompasses decentralized renewable energy systems, smart grids, batteries, green hydrogen, e-mobility, real estate, and industrial applications.
Rutuja Jagtap
Finance in Motion bridges the gap between capital and sustainable development by investing in emerging markets through local financial institutions. Their funds prioritize long-term resilience, climate action, and financial inclusion, leveraging public-private partnerships and first/second-loss protection to mitigate risk. They also provide advisory and capacity-building services to enhance impact and market development.
XPRESS Ventures
XPRESS Ventures invests in founders transforming the industrialized world, focusing on startups at the beginning of their journey. They believe that success in the industrial world depends on industry expertise, infrastructure access, and clients, and they aim to help startups bridge to these critical assets. They empower founders with capital and expertise early, providing advice rather than control, and leverage their network to supercharge startup growth. This includes helping startups navigate corporate collaboration challenges, connecting them with key industry players, and engaging their network of investors to foster advancements that build on industrial knowledge.
Pace Ventures
Pace Ventures focuses on investing in early-stage health-tech and industrial-tech companies primarily in Europe and the US, with a focus on companies addressing the interconnected challenges of illness and climate change. They commit to providing strong support to their founders, particularly in making commercial and financial introductions. They view investments as long-term partnerships, emphasizing time and effort to ensure success. The firm prioritizes category-defining businesses with a strong technological or life science edge. Pace Ventures believes that the private sector is best positioned to drive innovation in green chemistry and material science to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. They observe a growing number of startups in the green chemistry space and anticipate rapid adoption of these new green materials by the chemical industry. They also invest in microbiome-based therapies and personalized medicine. The fund aims to back companies that are reshaping industries with their innovative approaches, contributing to a healthier and more sustainable future. Their investment strategy reflects a belief in proactive support and a commitment to creating lasting value alongside their portfolio companies.
Climate Founders
Climate Founders is an accelerator focused on empowering entrepreneurs to build successful climate-focused ventures. They believe that technology and entrepreneurial culture are the best ways to address climate change and aim to support bright minds and ambitious individuals in becoming successful climate founders. The firm offers a co-founder matching program for individuals without ideas and a remote accelerator program for complete teams, providing a structured approach to achieve product-market fit and secure initial funding. Their strategy involves working closely with startups across various climate-related sectors, including hardware, biotech, nature-based solutions, marketplaces, and software, to help them raise funding and successfully enter the market. They provide mentorship, strategic guidance, and access to a network of supporters to accelerate the growth of their portfolio companies.
AM Ventures
AM Ventures invests in people developing next-level technologies in industrial 3D printing. They support founders aiming to create a better future through additive manufacturing technology. Their focus is on innovations that transform the world, encompassing materials production, software solutions, hardware and periphery for AM production, and applications designed for or produced by AM technologies. They look for core use cases that combat the climate crisis, support medical advancements, and manage globalization through advanced digital distributed manufacturing.
AENU
AENU is a venture capital firm focused on empowering climate tech founders. The firm emphasizes its background as "born entrepreneurs, experienced investors, and committed activists", suggesting a mission-driven approach. The firm seemingly aims to evolve the VC industry from within and invests in tech companies.
AENU Advisor GmbH
AENU Advisor GmbH is a venture capital firm focused on empowering climate tech founders. They are committed activists, experienced investors, and born entrepreneurs. The firm's core belief is that venture capital can and must be a force for good, and that mission alignment and financial performance go hand in hand. AENU's investment strategy focuses on companies that build systemic climate solutions with a focus on impact. They back early-stage founders who are building an enabling layer for a resilient, low-emissions future. They invest in startups that meet top social and environmental standards while delivering sustainable returns for investors. AENU believes that founder well-being is a structural lever for performance and treats mental health as startup infrastructure, providing support to founders and team members. The firm invests in digital modernization and is drawn to companies that offer transparency and enable maintenance through strong tech. AENU also emphasizes transparency and inclusion, for both their employees and their portfolio companies, as is clear from their B-corp certification. AENU aims to not only solve immediate problems but also build an enabling layer for a resilient, low-emissions future. The firm identifies the importance of digital modernization and transparency of European infrastructure and is looking for investments with strong tech and execution. The firm believes mental health of founders is key to success and offers multiple resources to help portfolio companies with it. AENU strives to not only make a change in the climate tech industry, but also to set an example for other VC firms.
Maxrich Ventures GmbH
Maxrich Ventures GmbH is an impact investor focused on technology-driven companies that save lives. They aim to be a 'booster' for their portfolio companies, providing not only financial support but also access to their extensive network, knowledge, and years of experience. The firm emphasizes an open and transparent communication forum through the MAXRICH INVESTORS CLUB, where investors receive weekly updates on the progress of their portfolio companies. This close relationship allows investors to actively contribute beyond capital, leveraging their expertise to guide and support the startups. Founded after Max and Rich met in 2005, the firm has helped over 150 companies get established. The founders have experience in building businesses and securing seven-figure financing rounds for tech startups. This experience translates into guidance for their portfolio companies, helping them navigate the challenges of scaling and growth. They invest in companies with innovative solutions to global challenges such as world hunger, climate change, and pandemics, aligning financial returns with positive societal impact. Maxrich Ventures operates an accelerator program to identify and nurture promising startups. They actively seek out companies with key technologies that can solve major problems facing humanity. The firm aims to support startups from early stages through their growth, providing the resources and connections needed to succeed. They focus on companies who are addressing global scale problems with technology, such as cell therapy, renewable energy, and reproductive health.
Possible Ventures
Possible Ventures invests in early-stage companies focused on solving the world's most pressing challenges. Their investment strategy centers around backing founders working on solutions across climate, energy, health, and society. They seek sustainable initiatives like carbon capture, energy transition, food & agriculture, and new materials, as well as circular economy and space exploration for alternative resources. In health, they target new tools and models for drug discovery and precision medicine, aiming to improve health and longevity. For society, they invest in AI-supported software tools, financial inclusion, and upskilling initiatives to boost productivity and create a more equitable future. The firm looks for frontier technologies in deep tech, life sciences, and software platforms that are unlocking unprecedented innovation. They emphasize the convergence of diverse disciplines, such as science, engineering, and entrepreneurship, believing that interdisciplinary teams drive breakthrough ideas and solutions. This can happen anywhere, and they are open to exploring new regions and building relationships with entrepreneurs and investors globally. Possible Ventures focuses on pre-seed and seed rounds, providing support to startups at the early stages of their development. They may also consider later-stage companies demonstrating strong growth potential and alignment with their investment strategy. They are relentlessly optimistic, choosing to focus on possibilities rather than risks, with a commitment to harnessing technology as a force for good to improve the lives of future generations.
Team Global Management GmbH
Team Global Management GmbH's mission is to create a better world via technology by creating organizations, products, and services that generate profound and lasting societal value. Their overarching goal is to participate in formulating and executing a vision for a better world by 2080, leveraging technology to address global challenges. They aim to unlock 100x energy through investments in climate technology, focusing on energy generation and decarbonization. The firm aims to foster world peace, global respect, and collaboration, emphasizing the responsible handling of technology. They envision significant increases in investment in education, advocating for a 10x to 100x increase in resources and attention. The firm's specific goals for the near future include fostering the development of air mobility to reduce reliance on traditional cars and investing in technology to combat climate change. They are building companies to solve the climate issues combining energy generation and decarbonization.