Raoul Scherwitzl

✨ VERY SMALL PARTICLES ✨ That's what the three co-founders of VSPARTICLE – Aaike van Vugt, Tobias Pfeiffer, and Tobias Coppejans – have dedicated their last 10 years to. VSP is a once-in-a-generation Dutch company which has developed a unique nanoparticle printing technology to bring us high-performance materials for clean energy transformation. That's why together with my colleague Taiga Ueta, we at NordicNinja VC and in partnership with Sten Tamkivi and Plural Platform, are thrilled to fund this world-class founding team. In particular, VSP’s technology is enabling the mass production of catalyst-coated Porous Transport Layers (PTLs), which are the key components in electrolyzers and are essential to the production of green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is essential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and power a more sustainable future for industries such as shipping, transport, heating, and aviation, yet the process currently relies on using scarce resources including platinum and iridium. Combined with AI-powered material discovery and computational chemistry, VSParticle and their network of partners are able to create the most complete database of materials in the world, which can serve as an input for building an economically scalable and a sustainable clean energy future. VSParticle's technology is material agnostic and comes with high precision nanoparticle control (at nm level), requires no wet chemistry, and allows for quick experiments & production. Looking forward to working with the whole team at VSP to bring this new technology to the world!

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Exciting to see the growing landscape of early-stage climate tech investors supporting Dutch and European startups! Connect with these any many more investors (700+) for free on the Startup Fountain website. (Feel free to tag any climate startup that is raising in the comments) This investor map from Startup Fountain highlights over 60 firms and angels investing €50K-€5M in climate solutions. Key players include: • 4impact VC • ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund  • ASIF Ventures • Cottonwood Technology Fund • Energy Transition Fund Rotterdam Many anonymous angels are also active in this space. The diversity of investors - from corporate VCs to university-linked funds - shows the momentum building in climate tech. Founders working on climate solutions in the Netherlands and across Europe, there's capital out there to support your vision! Let's connect if you're working in this space. #ClimateInvesting #StartupFunding #Sustainability #DutchStartups Jorn Eiting van Liempt Eline de Haan Sybo Zijlstra Elizabeth Kleinveld Dorus Olgers Victor Straatman Tommy Hurley Claire Tange Joyce Houterman Abdul Afridi Alex Menn Martin Schreurs Sem Foreman Stefan Bary Thorsten Wittmuetz Emily Kegels Therese Angel François-Xavier Fanard Bart van den Heuvel Filip Celen Rob Haenen Alain le Loux Andy Lurling Max Schalow 👨‍🚀 Chingiskhan Kazakhstan 🤠"

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Zeitgeist is changing and we need to adapt or to encounter. When we started Climate Founders 4.5 years ago, we had a perfect Product Zeitgeist Fit (explained by a16z: https://lnkd.in/ePtBRVD3) in 2018 and 2019 activist groups like Fridays for Future played an important role to make the societies aware that we are in a climate crisis and need to act, with the beginning of the new decade announcement after announcement was made: politics made important changes from regulation to investment programs, more people than usual voted for green politics, the climate crisis got relevant media coverage, thousands of companies world-wide set decarbonization goals, huge asset managers implemented ESG and decarbonization strategies, billionaires pledged for the climate, hundreds of climatetech fund were established, serial entrepreneurs went into climate topics, Covid made many poeple think about contributing to a better world … in general you could feel change to make this decade to what it is in fact, the decisive decade for humanity. Even with beginning of the Russian war, there was a positive thinking that renewables are the solution to solve energy, industry and dependence problems, even climate chrisis deniers called them „freedom energies“. In 2023 we saw some Zeitgeist changes, the climate crisis seemed not to be a main topic anymore, in the media, in the politics, in companies and the society in general. Ambitious politicians understand that the society is not ready to change, some media work heavily against climate politics, companies realize how hard it is to decarbonize and partly drop their goals, asset managers start to drop ESG and decarbonization goals, investors and entrepreneurs look more at AI, politics goes right and populistic. Regarding Climatetech im still very optimistic: The 2018-2022 Zeitgeist helped to build a massive ecosystem, which is still growing. The current Zeitgeist is not in favor for Climatetech, but it will come back for sure, as unfortunately the climate crisis will hit us harder every year and we always had this typical left-right cycles in politics and societies. Due to our expanded activies our dealflow is still growing, but in general we have the impression that less new founders entered the space in the last 12-18 months and also hear from some other VCs that they see less climatetech teams. We take it as a challenge and re-focus on co-founder matching to make it easier to enter the space for founders. Especially scientists and serial entrepreneurs are our target group for our co-founder matching. Take the world’s biggest challenge as your personal opportunity and apply here: https://lnkd.in/egvTQApi

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🌟 Capital for Cures: A New Platform for Healthcare Transformation 🌟 At the beginning of this year, Capital for Cures launched with a bold vision: to mobilize more capital for emerging healthcare companies and solutions. The mission is simple yet urgent—funding healthcare innovation shouldn’t rely solely on the pharmaceutical industry. By expanding our partner network, engaging with pension funds, insurance companies, and other investors, and securing foundational capital, we aim to cultivate the next wave of angel investors, foster collaboration, and provide innovators with the capital they need to thrive. How It Started The idea for Capital for Cures arose from a clear gap in the industry. Early-stage healthcare companies often struggle to secure critical funding, while traditional industry events fail to provide the intimate, action-driven forums needed for impactful collaboration. This inspired the creation of a platform dedicated to fostering meaningful connections among innovators, investors, and policymakers. Recent Milestones Earlier this month, our AI Roundtable in Basel brought together senior leaders from Swiss companies and big data providers involved in foundational AI models, highlighting the urgent need for companies to engage directly with regulators to shape practical AI policies. Additionally, the Capital for Cures event in Frankfurt reinforced the demand for forums like ours. Unlike large-scale conferences, these events showcased the power of action-oriented collaboration to unlock new opportunities. Our Vision for the Future We’re building a fully-fledged platform for transformation: Engaging New Investors: Attracting non-traditional investors, like pension funds and insurance companies, to unlock significant healthcare funding potential. Cultivating Angel Investors: Encouraging successful founders to reinvest in the ecosystem, fueling continuous innovation. Fostering Meaningful Connections: Bridging the gaps left by traditional conferences like Bio-Europe and JP Morgan. Next Steps We are raising $300k USD to scale our vision and mobilize more capital for healthcare innovation. Expanding our partner network is critical to supporting emerging companies and driving impactful change. Join Us Contribute to Our Advisory Board: Bring your expertise or recommend key leaders. Partner with Us: Offer financial or non-monetary support to help scale this transformative initiative. Participate in Upcoming Events: Join our next roundtable to shape the future of AI and healthcare. Together, we can build a brighter future for healthcare by empowering innovators, mobilizing investors, and influencing policies for meaningful change.

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🌍 At the Climate Tech Investors Summit NYC, we had the privilege of sitting down with Paul Burgon, Managing Partner @ Exit Ventures 🎯 Exit Ventures is a VC fund focused on investing in sustainability, cleantech, and impact-driven Series A and B startups that meet their stringent criteria and show strong potential for acquisition by strategic buyers. ✨ They leverage the experience of their partners, who have facilitated over $3 billion in strategic acquisitions, to identify highly promising startups. 🚀 After investing, their management teams reportedly implement the Strategic Exit System (SES), a customized and proactive plan designed to create synergies with potential acquirers. This system aims to increase both the value of exits and the likelihood of a startup being acquired. #ClimateWeekNYC #ClimateTech #VentureCapital -- 🌱 The Climate Tech Coalition has reached 1,200 members! 🎉 We host physical events, publish newsletters, conduct media interviews, and share deal flow among climate investors—all for free! ✅ Join us in the Climate Tech Coalition and connect with our members who are actively investing in the climate tech space. 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/gBHAAram

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Octavia Carbon, a 🇰🇪 Kenyan-based #cleantech startup, has raised a $5 million seed round. The company will use the funds to build its Direct Air Capture (DAC) storage plant. 💨 Direct air capture technology removes #carbon dioxide directly from the #atmosphere by drawing #air into a machine, filtering out the carbon dioxide, and storing it safely underground. Excess #CO2 in the atmosphere depletes the earth’s ozone layer, increasing ultraviolet (UV) radiation that can cause skin cancer, cataracts, and plant damage. 🌱 Launched in 2022 by Martin Freimüller and Duncan Kariuki, Octovia Carbon designs, builds, and uses machines to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. Those machines take carbon dioxide and store it underground, keeping it out of the atmosphere. ➡️ More here: https://lnkd.in/ernSDynp

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Bridging the gap from lab to real-world market for transformative impact since 2015. Thrilled to announce that Breega led the €8.5M seed round of #deeptech Entalpic to power their mission of building an AI powerhouse for materials discovery. Why we invested 👇 ‣ Large scale problem with massive impact potential 85% of the world’s manufactured products rely on catalysts, essential for speeding up chemical reactions in industries like ammonia and cement production. Yet, decades-old catalysts are largely used because new ones are expensive, rare, and time-consuming to develop and test. ‣ DeepTech for Sustainability  Entalpic leverages the latest in AI technology, including LLMs, Active Learning and Graph Neural Networks for new material discovery focusing on critical processes such as electrochemistry and catalysis, Entalpic is developing solutions for energy storage, fertilizer production, and pollution control. Could be a game changer for decarbonization. ‣ They’re the A-team Bringing a powerhouse of expertise at the intersection of #AI, #machinelearning, and material science. Co-founded by Mathieu Galtier, Victor Schmidt, and Alexandre Duval, each founder brings exceptional academic and industry experience, from PhDs in machine learning to leadership roles at companies like Owkin and Amazon with endorsement from industry leaders: Yoshua Bengio, scientific director at Mila, world’s leading institute of ML for Climate change, Thomas Wolfe, CSO at Hugging Face…. to name only a few - Thrilled to welcome you in our trailblazing deeptech portfolio ! Kudos guys. 🙌 👉 https://entalpic.ai/

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A SAFE and convertible note had a baby and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was the midwife- out popped the D-SAFE! 👶🏽🎉 A new #climatetech funding instrument was announced by Elemental Excelerator last week. One of the company’s main goals is to support smaller, up and coming companies during the awkward “Scale Gap” phase between #VC funding and natural growth. It’s called the #DSAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and it aims to aid the process by giving companies a small amount of cash to overcome initial risks and expenses during the developmental stages of a product launch or company. How does it work? D-SAFE has a redemption clause meaning companies can choose to have their payments offered as a loan or convert to equity at the investor’s discretion. Funders and companies will have clear communication and expectations about where the money is going and how it will be applied to either the company or the projects at hand. Financiers and companies will work together with more #transparency, and that’s a great boon for #startups and VC alike. As of this month, Elemental has already invested using D-SAFE in eight different companies, including Dimensional Energy and Origen — both companies investing in innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to environmental issues! Seems like a win-win on the surface. What do you all think about the D-SAFE? Alfredo Coppola Momoka Ueda Tim Wagner Stephen D. Torres Olya Irzak Natsuho Toyama Noriya Tarutani Shin Ogawa

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 📣Join Our Mission: Women's Health! Despite recent growth in the women’s health space, there is still unmet demand for products and services. Menopause has been a particularly overlooked segment of the market: only 5 percent of FemTech start-ups address menopause needs globally (McKinsey & Company, 2024). Nevertheless, the acceleration of advances in women’s healthcare holds considerable implications for investors and stakeholders across the value chain and beyond. At KRING, we're pioneering innovative solutions in women's health, focusing on cognitive health, sleep management, menopause, fertility, and more - with Menopause, an active health challenge we are currently exploring. While diving into Validation, our concept has garnered significant interest across the health innovation ecosystem, corporate partners, and investors. ✅ Chief Commercial Officer (Co-founder) We're seeking dynamic Commercial Co-founders with robust entrepreneurial backgrounds with experience of scratch to commercialization, and exceptional leadership skills. Experience in negotiating complex agreements is advantageous, but a passion for women's health is essential. https://lnkd.in/dVRwJ6i8 ✅ Menopause Expert: Chief Product Officer (Co-founder) We're looking for a scientific expert with a deep understanding of medical science, clinical research, and regulatory requirements, to lead the development of innovative healthcare solutions for women's health. https://lnkd.in/dXX3RWQY 🧠 The Concept: Building a Digital Platform for Women's Health Our digital platform helps women tackle midlife challenges, including menopause, by enhancing sleep quality, addressing weight gain, and boosting self-confidence. Components include data gathering, tailored recommendations, personalized wellness programs, and a supportive community. 📍Join Us in Copenhagen Our team is headquartered in Copenhagen, offering an exciting opportunity for individuals based in these cities or open to relocation. If you're intrigued by this opportunity, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to Marina Miteva and Agnes Agada to learn more. Join Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Investors like Britt Meelby Jensen, Kristine Leerbeck, Christina Høgh Selmer Kirk, Anne Mette Bang, Benjamin Suhr, Anja Monrad, Sonal Pendharkar Kulkarni, Ella Smoraczewska Harris, Fanny Hauterat, Sumeya Hassan, Rosemarie Wedell-Wedellsborg, Jane Kudsk, Susanne Brønnum, Pernille Foss, Sara Maria Franch-Mærkedahl, Gitte Nipper, Jenny-Ann Axson Johnson, and more in revolutionizing healthcare and shaping the future of women's health. Apply now.

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🩺 The Super Innovator Search has entered its final phase.     📋 Over 3 days next week, the 10 shortlisted startups will pitch their innovations to our judging panel.     💉 From robotic surgical solutions to proprietary sensors and materials, these finalists have been selected based on their innovations’ potential to deliver real medical value.    📈 This is one of the core principles of VentureBlick, and also why we are offering practical support worth up to US$100,000 to the winning innovator – we want to help accelerate their development and, ultimately, help them Go Global to create a positive impact in the healthcare ecosystem.    🤜🤛 Once again, a big thanks to my fellow panellists for joining me to evaluate these finalists. Dr. Zhong Wei Khor. , Dr. Alexandra Liebmann, MBA, Yi Luo, Andreas Kuptz, and Robert Hite. I will see you online next week.    📢 Stay tuned for more updates and the announcement of the winner next week!    JLK Technology Kalms Consulting #VentureBlick #Startup #Innovation #Healthcare #SuperInnovatorSearch 

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Taking a regenerative approach to business/leadership is not a "checkbox" activity. How you "get there" and what it "looks like" is unique depending on the company. In fact, the exercise of enforcing a standard checklist of activities that must be completed to be regenerative is NOT regenerative in itself. The article Cordell Jacks refers to below is brilliant - it really describes the desired approach we are trying to model at Regenerative Capital Group.

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#DeepTech: Europe’s next big leap? At the Falling Walls Science Summit last week, I joined Michael Brigl, Bernd Scheifele and Peter Soelkner for a CEO Table focusing on ‘From Science Breakthroughs to Market Success‘. The discussion was centered on bridging the gap between groundbreaking scientific discoveries and their translation into marketable applications—a key challenge for Germany as an innovation hub. Our conversation touched on many key insights from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Consulting Group’s report "From Lab to Leader: Unlocking Europe’s €8 trillion Deep Tech Opportunity," highlighting Europe’s potential to become a global leader in this space. For me, some key takeaways were: 1. A cultural shift is necessary (amongst others, we really need the next generations to see founding a business as a "normal" career option), 2. "Spin-offs" should be included as a true third pillar for universities and institutes next to Research and Teaching, and 3. We need far more ecosystem linkages and cooperation between all relevant stakeholders. Find out more about the future of Deep Tech in BCG’s latest report: https://lnkd.in/d3MvVpwD #FallingWalls #ScienceSummit24 #Innovation 

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Advice from today's esteemed panel on accessing #healthcare #investment. "It's never too early to build your network with investors. Socialize your ideas to help sharpen your thesis. You can never underestimate the value of early feedback." Rami Hannoush, Ph.D. "Surround yourself with an advisory board that actually helps. They should be working on your behalf to help you access THEIR networks." Jennifer Friel Goldstein "Build your network early and pressure test your story with advisors." Nate Chang "Get to Silicon Valley early and often, and leverage programs like #ValleyReady that CELS - Canadian Entrepreneurs in Life Science offers because it can be game changing for your business." Cedric Bisson

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Read more about our latest investment below 🙌!!

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Come and join us at Impact Days this week! The Relevant Ventures Team and I are contributing to two sessions: 1) On Thursday 6th (16h15-17h15) we facilitate a conversation on how to direct entrepreneurial energy and investment finance to the blind spots: the people, places and topics that markets neglect. Too often, the businesses that really matter - the ones solving the most pressing problems in the most challenging circumstances - are the ones that struggle most, especially with access to finance. What's more, there are many businesses that should exist, but don't. Let's discuss how to change that! We will share learnings from the first four years of piloting a refugee enterprise finance platform in Uganda, as well as our vision for a "humanitarian venture studio" to ideate, incubate, and scale businesses to address humanitarian and planetary crisis. 2) On Friday 7th (9h-12h) we will participate in the Deep Dive Session at Impact Hub Vienna on Entrepreneurial Approaches in Philanthropy and NGOs, where we will contribute learnings from our 10+ years of experience working with NGOs and philanthropists internationally on enterprise and investment solutions for impact. The Deep Dive format is a fantastic occasion to include many perspectives and delve into difficult and sometimes controversial issues that are rarely discussed. We'd like to bring up two in particular: (i) A tendency for donor prescriptiveness on methods / strategy, and (ii) an infatuation with "innovation as novelty" in our community as a whole. New is not always better, and especially in the enterprise field untested often means risky, which in the end means higher impact risk first-and-foremost. Come and join!! With Jana Krajcovicova and Gregor Riss.

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We updated our LinkedIn company page! You can read how Rapid Ventures partners with #startups, #marketadopters, #investors and other #stakeholders in the #climatetech #ecosystem to accelerate #decarbonization and catalyze economic and #workforcedevelopment.

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🚀 New Initiative born from Vectors Capital. Pavina Adunratanasee is leading the work from Vectors side. https://lnkd.in/gG2KSaXS We're honored to introduce #CatalyzeClimate, a first-of-a-kind Climate Finance Lab that aims to accelerate global #decarbonization and strengthen #climate resilience. 1️⃣ Our mission is to #mobilize innovative financing mechanisms, accelerate technology hashtag #deployment, and scale #climateinfrastructure via fostering cross-sector collaboration across hashtag #finance, #policy, and #industries. 2️⃣ We believe that #catalyticfinance can play a unique role through a combination of grants and blended capital in unlocking capital for bringing tech to market and scaling climate infrastructure.​ 3️⃣ Taking a differentiated approach, we are focused on: 1. Demonstrating Technological & Commercial Viability 2. Addressing Investment Gaps 3. Creating Market Platforms 4. Advocating for Supportive Policies 💸 Our goal is to mobilize funding commitment for $4 trillion a year that is required for the climate transition from the global financial system. ⚡To kick off the initiative, we’re happy to announce the Catalyze Climate Launch event in the #AsiaPacific region taking place in #Singapore in September followed by launch events in hashtag #SF and #LA. #SG roundtable will be “Bridging the Sustainable Financing Gap: Fostering US - APAC Partnerships for Emerging Climate Infrastructure Advancement.” ✌🏼If you’re a climate investor, lender, or asset allocator and would like to get involved please DM me. 💡 Backed by a team of financing, scientific, and technical experts; and most importantly taking an industrial lens to solving climate challenges: Naman Lahoti Wanwipa Siriwatwechakul Kreshna Y. Rahmat Sasilada Sirirungruang Meghan Oesterle, M.S. Daniel Paley Keyi (Nancy) Kang

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I am super excited to announce our investment in Again the leading producer of carbon-negative base chemicals. We are co-investing alongside HV Capital and GV (Google Ventures), who co-led the $43m funding round, Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, and existing investors Atlantic Labs and ACME Capital. Heartfelt congratulations to co-founders Dr Torbjørn Ølshøj Jensen and Maximilian Kufner and their terrific team, as well as Professor Alex Toftgaard Nielsen. This transaction also holds special significance for us as it is our fist deal in Denmark, where KOMPAS is domiciled. 🇩🇰 The funding marks another major milestone for the company following their $10m Seed round last year and securing major offtake agreements with leading chemical producers and distributors. Again combines CO2 captured from flue gases, hydrogen and a biological feedstock to produce green base chemicals like acetate through a patented fermentation process. By capturing CO2 and using minimal energy, the company produces carbon-negative base chemicals at a highly competitive cost. Again’s technology builds on groundbreaking research led by Professor Alex Toftgaard Nielsen at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at DTU - Technical University of Denmark, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Our investment in Again is perfectly aligned with our focus on decarbonising hard-to-abate industries. The chemical industry is a $6 trillion industry and the third-largest industrial subsector in terms of its CO2 emissions due to its significant energy consumption. It touches every aspect of our lives from the food we eat to the clothes we wear and the electronics we use. Currently, 90% of the chemical industry relies on oil or natural gas as a feedstock, making this sector notoriously hard to decarbonize. Identifying alternative, non-oil-based sources to feed the chemical sector is therefore critical. This latest funding round will support the company’s expansion in Europe and the US, for which it partners with leading global industry players. Again ’s first carbon utilization plant in Denmark, already operational, converts up to one ton of CO2 per day into essential chemicals like acetate, vital for industries such as adhesives, plastics, and cosmetics. I look forward to working with the stellar Again team and our co-investors Jan Miczaika, Christian Tang-Jespersen, Daniel Niemi, Andrew Wheeler and Maxi Pethö-Schramm to build the world’s leading green chemical producer. To find out more, read this exclusive feature in Fortune: https://lnkd.in/gRh65HFh Talia Rafaeli Andreas Winter-Extra Nick Gosen Summit Rosenberg Ilena Mece Simay Arikan Victoria Burrows Pauline Jimenez #kompasvc #backingthebuildersoftomorrow #greenchemicals

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Question. Who should we meet about climate hardware exits or more specifically M&A . We have IPOs and private secondaries pretty well covered, but happy to learn more. We’re now approaching 10x in climate investments since 2021 compared to cleantech 1.0. We’ve unfortunately repeated some of the mistakes and there are some signs that large bets will fail. But there are also some fast growing, even profitable climatetech startups. The problem is we don’t have many exits to confirm that this time is different. The last required step is to turn paper gains into cash. Unfortunately, as we learned about fundraising, the software playbook isn’t reusable because so many of the companies include hardware. So who has figured this out? Could be founders, investment bankers or folks who’ve led corp dev. Main specific qualification is they’ve worked on deals involving hardware or climate, or both. Please add to the comment s (if you prefer email or DM, that works too).

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