New €76M Footprint Fund I targets climate and DeepTech in Northern Europe
A new €76 million venture vehicle, Footprint Fund I, has been launched to support around 30 early-stage climate and DeepTech companies across Northern Europe. The fund aims to accelerate technologies that can materially cut emissions, enable industrial decarbonisation and strengthen the region’s position as a global hub for climate innovation.
Designed as a sector-focused early-stage fund, Footprint Fund I will primarily back pre-seed and seed startups developing scalable solutions in areas such as clean energy, industrial efficiency, sustainable materials, and enabling digital infrastructure for the green transition.
Investment thesis: marrying impact with venture-scale returns
The strategy behind Footprint Fund I reflects a broader shift in European venture capital: climate-focused funds are no longer seen as niche impact vehicles, but as core drivers of long-term economic growth.
Focus on decarbonisation and hard-to-abate sectors
The fund’s mandate is expected to prioritise technologies that directly or indirectly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This includes solutions for:
- Decarbonising heavy industry such as steel, cement, and chemicals
- Scaling renewable energy generation, storage and grid integration
- Developing low-carbon and circular materials
- Improving energy efficiency in buildings and manufacturing
- Deploying AI algorithms and data platforms to optimise energy and resource use
By targeting these hard-to-abate segments, Footprint Fund I is positioning itself at the intersection of climate impact and deep industrial transformation, where regulatory pressure, corporate demand and technological readiness are converging.
Backing 30 early-stage startups across Northern Europe
The fund plans to support approximately 30 companies, suggesting initial ticket sizes in the low- to mid-seven-figure range, with follow-on capital reserved for the most promising portfolio companies. The geographic focus on Northern Europe allows the fund to tap into some of the world’s most advanced innovation ecosystems for climate and DeepTech, including the Nordics, the Baltics, and key hubs in Germany and the Netherlands.
These markets benefit from strong public support for the green transition, sophisticated industrial partners, and a dense network of research institutions working on next-generation climate technologies.
Why Northern Europe is a hotspot for climate and DeepTech
Northern Europe has emerged as one of the most active regions globally for early-stage climate innovation. A combination of ambitious climate policies, high energy prices, and advanced digital infrastructure has created powerful tailwinds for founders and investors.
Policy, regulation and corporate demand
Local and EU-wide regulations, including the European Green Deal and tightening emissions standards, are pushing corporates to seek new technologies that can reduce their climate footprint. This is particularly visible in sectors like logistics, manufacturing and energy-intensive industries, where incremental improvements are no longer sufficient.
For a fund like Footprint Fund I, this regulatory environment creates a clear pathway to commercialisation: startups that can demonstrate measurable climate benefits often find ready customers among large industrial players, utilities and infrastructure operators.
Research depth and technical talent
Northern Europe’s universities and technical institutes are strong in fields such as materials science, battery technology, power electronics, and climate modelling. Many of the most promising climate startups are spin-outs from these institutions, requiring specialised capital and hands-on support to translate lab results into market-ready products.
By concentrating on early-stage deals, Footprint Fund I is positioning itself at the point where this scientific excellence meets entrepreneurial ambition, helping founders navigate technology validation, regulatory approvals and first commercial pilots.
DeepTech as an enabler of the green transition
The explicit focus on DeepTech signals that the fund is not only looking at software platforms or marketplaces, but at complex, defensible technologies that can reshape entire value chains.
From hardware to software-defined infrastructure
Many of the most impactful climate solutions require a blend of advanced hardware and intelligent software:
- Power electronics and grid management systems to stabilise renewable-heavy energy networks
- Advanced sensors and IoT devices to monitor emissions and energy consumption in real time
- Process automation and robotics for low-waste manufacturing
- Simulation tools to design more efficient materials and industrial processes
Such solutions often demand longer development cycles and higher technical risk than typical software startups. The creation of dedicated funds like Footprint Fund I reflects a growing recognition that climate-relevant DeepTech requires patient, technically literate investors who understand industrial adoption cycles.
Bridging the gap between lab and market
Early-stage climate and DeepTech ventures face a well-known “valley of death” between proof-of-concept and commercial scale. They must raise capital for pilot plants, certification, and integration with existing infrastructure before they can generate significant revenue.
A specialised fund can provide more than capital: strategic advice on industrial partnerships, support in navigating public funding schemes, and introductions to corporates seeking innovation. By concentrating its portfolio in a single thematic area, Footprint Fund I can also create synergies between companies working on complementary parts of the climate-tech stack.
Significance for founders, investors and policymakers
The arrival of a dedicated €76 million fund focused on early-stage climate and DeepTech in Northern Europe is another signal that this segment is maturing rapidly.
For founders, it expands the pool of specialised capital available at the riskiest stages of company building. For institutional investors, it offers exposure to a portfolio of technologies aligned with long-term structural trends: decarbonisation, energy security and industrial modernisation. For policymakers, it supports the broader objective of turning Europe’s climate targets into tangible industrial and technological leadership.
As capital, talent and regulation continue to align around the green transition, vehicles like Footprint Fund I are likely to play a central role in determining which climate solutions reach scale first — and which regions become global leaders in the next wave of industrial innovation.