Estonian alternative investment manager 2C Ventures has announced the launch of its first €50 million fund to support early-stage cleantech companies in Estonia and the New Nordics. The anchor investor of the fund is SmartCap.
About the fund
- The new fund will invest in cleantech startups in the Baltic and Nordic countries, but at first, it will focus on helping out Estonian companies. 2C Ventures will focus on startups developing new technologies in renewable energy, waste reduction, water management, circular economy, and other clean technologies.
- Initially, investment per company will range from €250,000 to €1 million, depending on the development stage of the company. According 2C Ventures, it aims to help the world tackle climate change, improve capital availability for cleantech companies, and establish climate-neutral economy as a competitive advantage for Estonia.
2C Ventures will be managed by four partners:
- Herty Tammo, the founder of Startup Wise Guys;
- Hendrik Reimand, the former investment specialist at Livonia Partners and head of finance of the Estonian Katana Technologies;
- Taavi Veskimägi, the former Minister of Finance and CEO of Estonian electricity and gas TSO Elering;
- Martin Koppel, the co-founder and CEO of Fortumo.
Research intensive companies, especially those with a hardware component, are key to developing new technologies to address climate change. However, such companies have a longer development cycle and are more capital intensive than software start-ups, which is why they have had a much harder time raising external capital. We see many strong teams with ambitious ideas in Estonia and the nearby countries and we want to help them reach the global market,
said Hendrik Reimand, a partner of 2C Ventures.
- SmartCap, the Estonian state investment branch, invested €20 million in 2C Ventures fund as an anchor investor. Other investors are mainly Estonian entrepreneurs from the technology, energy, construction, and forestry sectors.
