Starting February 2023, Carbon13 Europe will support a cohort of scientists, entrepreneurs, developers, corporate innovators and sustainability leaders to build high potential decarbonisation or carbon removal ventures. Applications are open.
At Tech Space in Kreuzberg, about 80 techies, founders and investors came together to explore ways to get a foot in Europe’s climate tech scene. In a panel moderated by Elena Poughia, Founder at Data Natives & CEO at Dataconomy, Julien Fredonie from Honda Xcellerator, Michael Langguth Co-founder of Carbon 13 and Dadiyorto Wendi, Co-founder of Sunjul the audience have gained valuable insights on starting points and financial strategies for becoming ClimateTech startups.
The main focus was on the question of which personalities make up a successful, purpose driven founding team. Three early stage climate Tech startups used the opportunity to pitch in an open mic format. The event was combined with the official launch of the EU programme of Carbon13 in Berlin.
In the 8 month programme, around 70 talents from tech, science and business are supported with a broad network of experts to form teams, ideas and ultimately ventures. Alongside conventional financial indicators, Carbon13 only invests when ventures have the potential to mitigate a minimum of 10 million tonnes of CO2 and equivalents per year. The interaction between a unique carbon toolkit and leading carbon experts ensures that the impact story is at the heart of every new venture.
The EU, leading the world in climatetech
The first cohort for the EU will start in February 2023 and applications are open now to every talent with permission to work within the EU. This cohort of founders will be driven by the ingredients of public policy, ambitious founders, credible corporate net zero goals and motivated investor landscape. Effective solutions will emerge here, and at the speed and scale required by the climate crisis.
The climate tech sector is now the fastest growing in Europe, with $11B invested in 2021, double that of 2020, and 10x the $1B invested in 2017. The EU is therefore an attractive region right now for climatetech innovators – and for those founders intending to leverage this momentum, Carbon13 has become one of the strongest launchpads for a high-potential, investable, climate tech venture.
“We do this because – although the later stage investor landscape is strong – the barriers facing early stage founders remain considerable: the challenges of finding a committed cofounder, the complexities of understanding the carbon impact and avoiding greenwashing, the access to smart mission-aligned capital, the high bar to entry for deeptech or science-based ventures. The climate crisis simply leaves us no time for brilliant founders to be stymied and delayed by these barriers” reasons Michael Langguth, Cofounder of Carbon13 the expansion of the Venture Builder to the EU.
By expanding the ecosystem from Cambridge to Berlin, Carbon13 can support founders in Europe to find their purpose-driven and committed cofounder, build Carbon Intelligence, and create an investment-ready venture. You can find the complete start-up portfolio from the previous programmes in Cambridge here: https://carbonthirteen.com/our-portfolio/
Carbon13 in numbers:
- £3.5 million investment across 32 ventures since 2021
- 270 of domain experts, carbon experts & entrepreneurs in residence
- 10 million tonnes reduction potential of CO2 and equivalents every year, that’s what the ventures have to stand up to
- 8-month venture builder programme divided into the three phases Teaming, Validation and Traction, Evidence, Footprint.
- 1,000 € per month will be paid to each talent until the initial investment.
- 120,000 € invested by Carbon13 in 14+ of the most promising teams (after validation phase)
- A £10 million fund will support 77 climatetech companies in UK and EU at Pre-Seed within the next one and a half years
About Carbon13
Carbon13 is the Venture Builder for the climate emergency. Carbon13 brings diverse groups of the world’s brightest minds together to create scalable ventures. Each venture is developed with the potential to mitigate at least ten million tonnes of CO2e per annum when at scale. By the end of 2024, Carbon13 will select and support over 1,000 entrepreneurs through the Venture Builder and over 100 entrepreneurs through the Venture Launchpad.
