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After a three-year fund-raise, World Fund has finally closed a \u20ac300 million first fund, \u20ac50 million short of it\u2019s target<\/a> in 2021, but still a considerable number given a background of war and economic uncertainty. The VC originally emerged from the founders of the Ecosia independent search engine, where search enquiries funded the planting of trees.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for comparisons, Norrsken VC is a $130 million impact VC that covers climate, while Demeter Partners last raised<\/a> a \u20ac250 million fund focused on climate.<\/p>\n World Fund will be backed<\/a> by the European Investment Fund (which put in \u20ac50 million), KfW Capital, Wachstumsfonds, Bpifrance (the fund\u2019s first investment outside of France), PwC Germany, NRW.BANK and Ignitis Group. World Fund is also backed by pension funds including the U.K. Environment Agency Pension Fund, Wiltshire Pension Fund and Croatia\u2019s Erste Plavi.<\/p>\n World Fund has already deployed some of its cash into a number of climate tech companies, but it says this capital will enable it to make 25-30 investments into European startups around decarbonization.<\/p>\n Its most notable investments include IQM Quantum Computers, Space Forge, Planet A Foods, Juicy Marbles, ENOUGH, CustomCells, recycling company Cylib, and proptech startups aedifion and Ecoworks.<\/p>\n World Fund has completed its raise during a war in Europe, interest rate rises and jittery LPs. Fund managing partner Danijel Vi\u0161evi\u0107 said: \u201cIt was a super hard fundraising environment, especially in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe only invest in decarbonization technologies, and we reserve more than two-thirds of our capital for follow-on investments because in Europe it\u2019s hard to bridge the later-stage gap,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n He said hardware had to be an important component of its strategy: \u201cThis is one thing we are doing wrong in Europe, not concentrating on hardware for climate.\u201d He added that the fund has invested in technical talent like biotech and biochemists to assess investments.<\/p>\n World Fund\u2019s raise comes at an opportune moment.<\/p>\n In 2023 there was over $20 billion raised by European climate tech startups, almost matching the previous year, and bucking declining trends in other sectors, according<\/a> to Dealroom.<\/p>\n The U.K., Sweden and Germany led for total climate tech VC in 2023, but Iceland, Lithuania and Bulgaria showed notable growth.<\/p>\n And climate tech is faring well<\/a> in Europe.<\/p>\n