Copenhagen-headquartered Climentum Capital will launch its second, EUR 100m fund in 3Q24, co-founder and general partner Stefan Maard said.

The VC firm, which invests in European climate tech companies, is already in contact with some investors and aims for a first close of Climentum Capital Fund II in 2Q25, the executive said.  The final close could be at the end of 2025, he added.

Climentum targets institutional and corporate investors as well as family offices and high-net-worth individuals, he said. The focus is on European investors, but investors from other geographies are also welcome, he added.

Climentum has contacts with advisors but at this point is not planning to appoint one for Fund II, Maard said.

There is capital in the market, but investors are picky, and it is important to have a track record; Climentum has proven that its strategy works via its EUR 60m debut fund, which held a final close in September 2023, co-founder and general partner Malin Carlstrom said in the same interview.

Investors are increasingly interested in clean technologies, but capital is expensive, she commented. Large investors like insurance companies have started creating investment budgets specifically for clean technology investments, she explained.

Investment strategy

Fund II will invest in hardware and deep-tech solutions augmented by software, Carlstrom said. Climentum invests in late seed-stage and Series A, and can make follow up investments in Series B and Series C in specific cases, she said. The average investment per company is between EUR 3m and EUR 5m and the objective is to acquire a stake of 5%-15%, she said.

With Fund II, Climentum plans to make 20 investments in three to four years following the closing, Carlstrom said. It looks at companies in northern Europe, especially the Nordics and Germany, Maard added.

Climentum Capital’s funds are Article 9 Funds aligned with EU taxonomy. The firm has a dual carry structure, with success measured on financial returns and CO2 emissions reduction goals, Maard explained.

The team

Climentum was founded in mid-2022 by Morten Halborg, Doerte Hirschberg, Maard and Carlstrom. Besides the headquarters in Copenhagen, it has offices in Stockholm and Berlin.

The firm has a team of seven and is planning to increase the headcount to support Fund II, Maard said. Setting up of additional offices in the Nordics is also an option, he added.

Carlstrom has previously worked as an investor at Industrifonden, Verdane, SEB and ABB. She has realized 5 exits. Hirschberg led the incubation programme at Rocket Internet, scaling more than 50 startups from the idea stage to Series A. She has also worked at McKinsey and built her own SaaS company (IdeaFox). Maard led the development of Novozymes’ climate impact innovation portfolio and the impact venture CleanStar Mozambique. Prior to Climentum Halborg spent 15 years at Skandia Asset Management as COO, CIO and CEO.

Debut fund deployment

To date, Climentum has made 11 investments via its debut fund, and two more will be announced in the coming weeks, he added. The objective is to make a total of 17 by the second half of 2025, he said. It deploys tickets of EUR 1m-EUR 5m, according to Mergermarket data.

The Danish Export and Investment Fund (EIFO) is the fund’s anchor investor. It also drew commitments from Arbejdernes Landsbank, 3F, BASF Ventures; and the Lanxess Pension Trust, according to Mergermarket data.

The Fund I portfolio includes: One.five, a German developer of a sustainable paper-based solution to replace plastic packaging; Continuum, a Danish developer of recycling plants to convert composite waste into low-carbon construction materials; and Qvantum, a Swedish heat pump systems company.