Climentum Closes €60m First Round of Fund II for Climate Hard Tech

Climentum Capital has held a €60 million first close of its second fund, matching the full size of its debut fund, to continue backing early-stage European climate hard tech companies. The Nordic and German venture firm invests in businesses it argues strengthen Europe's industrial resilience, competitiveness and sustainability, targeting energy security, supply chain stability and industrial efficiency. Fund II is targeting up to €100 million in total, and enters the market with the firm's investment thesis already validated by an early exit.

 

An Exit That Tests the Thesis

 

The firm points to a realised return as evidence its approach works. Studsvik acquired portfolio company KNXT less than three years after Climentum's initial investment, a case in which a strategic industrial player bought the capabilities it needed to stay competitive. For an early-stage climate fund, a completed exit on that timescale is a meaningful proof point, since the sector is often criticised for long, uncertain paths to returns.

That result carries weight in the current climate for the asset class. The firm notes that fundraising for early-stage climate hard tech has been difficult in recent years, with investors more selective, timelines longer and the bar for proof higher. General Partner Morten Halborg framed the composition of the Fund II close as reflecting informed conviction rather than momentum investing, positioning the syndicate as validation from investors who scrutinised the strategy closely before committing.

 

Read more: EPA Registers Valent's Rapidicil Herbicide for Regenerative Farming

 

A Structure That Ties Returns to Carbon

 

What distinguishes the fund's design is how it links its economics to environmental outcomes. Climentum is structured as an Article 9 fund under the EU's sustainable finance rules, the category reserved for products with sustainable investment as their objective, and it operates a dual carry model that ties the managers' financial rewards to both investment returns and verifiable CO₂ savings.

That structure matters because it puts the fund's own incentives on the line. Carried interest is the primary way venture managers profit from success, and by making part of it contingent on measurable emissions reductions rather than financial performance alone, the firm binds its payout to delivering the climate impact it promises. It is a mechanism designed to address scepticism about whether climate funds genuinely prioritise impact or simply attach a green label to conventional returns.

 

Explore OneStop ESG Marketplace: Corporate ESG consulting

 

Geopolitics Reframes the Investment Case

 

The firm argues that events have moved toward its thesis faster than expected. The continuing war in Ukraine, instability across the Middle East pressuring energy markets, supply chains that no longer feel secure and an unpredictable US policy environment have, in its view, turned the priorities it built the fund around into strategic and financial necessities rather than optional sustainability goals. That reframing positions industrial resilience and energy security as hard commercial imperatives that happen to align with decarbonisation.

The fund's backers and team are structured for that long-horizon bet. Denmark's state investment fund EIFO, which anchored the first fund, continues into the second, joined by the European Investment Fund in the firm's largest commitment to date and the Danish Society of Engineers, alongside a syndicate of northern European corporates, pension trusts and family offices active in the sectors it invests in. The team was strengthened by the arrival of General Partner Jennifer Dungs in late 2025, bringing a chemistry PhD and more than 25 years across Porsche, BMW and InnoEnergy. The firm will lead Seed and Series A rounds against a pipeline shaped by its track record, and whether it can deploy that capital into companies delivering both returns and verified carbon savings, while raising the remainder toward its €100 million target, will be the measure of whether its second fund builds on the proof its first has begun to show.

 

Source: Climentum Capital