September continues with great news for our energy startups. Today we are happy to announce our co-investment in Klimate. The €730k pre-seed round was led by The Footprint Firm and &grow Ventures with Rockstart and Vækstfonden (The Danish Growth Fund) as co-investors. Klimate is part of the Rockstart Energy 2020 batch and has raised this funding during the Rockstart acceleration program. The startup plans to use the funding to launch in Scandinavia and Benelux, as well as facilitate the removal of tens of 1000s of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, using a combination of natural and technological solutions.
Klimate empowers companies to compensate for their unavoidable emissions through portfolios of carbon removal projects. The platform aggregates and brokers the best projects ranging from forestry and soil sequestration to biochar and direct air capture. Carbon Capture is the process of capturing CO2 from the air, and either putting it to use or putting it back in the ground. CO2 and other Greenhouse Gases are captured naturally by forests and oceans, but carbon capture refers to the human interventions leading to increased removal of carbon from atmospheric air. The concentration of CO2 in the air is currently just over 417 Parts Per Million and rising (NASA) and the goal is to get this back down to somewhere between 350 and 400 (EEA). The Carbon Capture and Storage ecosystem is fairly complex and consists of multiple ways to capture carbon. Klimate has decided to combine multiple of these areas: in order to make the high-tech innovations of tomorrow feasible for companies today.
Commenting on the round, Rune Thiel, CEO and Co-Founder, Rockstart states:
“The Klimate team has impressed us with their drive to serve companies that are seriously committed to reducing their carbon footprints. We are excited by the chance to co-invest and to contribute to a low-carbon future.”
Katja Grothe-Eberhardt, CEO, Klimate also comments:
“There is scientific and political consensus that we need to get to Net 0, and technological solutions like Direct Air Capture are part of the solution. However, responsible companies lack the access and tools to support this transition, and we are proud to gather a strong network of investors to help us on our journey to change that.”
Jakob Wichmann, Partner at The Footprint Firm states:
“The Footprint Firm is very excited to invest in Klimate. The highly experienced founder team and the clear impact purpose of sourcing and marketing the best solutions for removing CO2 from the atmosphere and thereby pushing a technological development that the Earth so desperately needs. We are also thrilled to invest alongside diligent investors such as VF Venture, Rockstart and &grow Ventures.”
Louise Rindom & Jeppe Rindom, &grow Ventures also comments:
“We are super excited to support Klimate.co on this important journey. To be able to support and help to steer towards reaching the overall climate targets, companies will need to work on both reducing and removing their carbon footprint. An effective marketplace for carbon removal projects is a significant driver of that.”
Jesper Hart-Hansen, Investment Manager, Vaekstfonden adds:
“At Vaekstfonden we want to support and drive the green transition of society through investments. Klimate has created a platform enabling companies all over the world to become more sustainable by participating in the green transition of society. By offering access to carbon removing projects, Klimate bridges the gap so that companies with unavoidable emissions are empowered to compensate. We look forward to following along Klimate’s journey.”
Rockstart empowers purpose-driven founders on their way to success across three domains: AgriFood, Energy, and Emerging Technologies. Rockstart empowers early-stage startups starting with its proven accelerator program and continuing to co-invest in their next funding rounds until series B. In the last quarter of 2020, Rockstart has launched its 22M+ Energy venture capital fund, backed by institutional investors, European family offices, informal investors and the government. Through its Energy fund, Rockstart invests in seed-stage startups contributing to the energy transition. Klimate is one of the first follow on investments from the fund together with Technology Catalogue. The fund also made initial investments in Advanced Infrastructure, Bia, eDRV, Helio, Okto, Soolutions, and Starke prior to them joining its acceleration program last spring.
Congratulations to the team! Keep up the good work. We look forward to sharing more of your news.
