Europe's 21 hottest climate tech startups, according to investors

Norrsken’s Impact Week is in full swing in Barcelona. Meanwhile, 100 impact startups are grabbing attention on the other side of the Atlantic, as their logos light up the Nasdaq Tower in New York.

The companies were picked for Norrsken Foundation’s annual 100 list, which aims to spotlight the most promising impact startups right now.

The list was drawn from over 1,400 nominations from dozens of impact investors, including Norrsken VC, Pale Blue Dot, Planet A Ventures, and Ananda Impact Ventures.

The finalists were picked by a panel of five judges including Norrken's founder Niklas Adalberth, World Fund's Daria Saharova, and Giant Ventures' Cameron McLain.

The criteria

To make the Impact/100, startups need to tick some boxes: they must be for-profit, with impact baked into their business model, not bolted on. They should already have an MVP or early funding in place, and be high-risk, high-reward ventures using innovation or tech to scale measurable progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Climate tech dominates

Climate tech is the biggest category this year, with 34 startups making the cut. Of those startups, 21 are based in Europe. (Remember the folks who said "climate tech is dead"?).

Through supporting data and our own reporting, we've crunched the numbers to give you the lowdown on Europe's 21 hottest climate tech startups – what they do, their progress so far and who's backing them.

Arbonics

Arbonics helps landowners turn forests into measurable carbon assets. By combining satellite imagery, soil samples, and sensor data, it could enable verified carbon credits, potentially opening new revenue streams for sustainable forestry.

📅 Founded: 2022

📍 Headquarters: Tallinn, Estonia

💵 Total equity funding: €7.3m

🤝 Principal investors: Taavet Hinrikus (co-founder of Wise), Plural, NordicNinja VC

Visibuilt

Visibuilt is developing a fungal binder that could replace bitumen in asphalt, potentially reducing CO2 emissions in road construction.

📅 Founded: 2022

📍 Headquarters: Taastrup, Denmark

💵 Total equity funding: $3.1m

🤝 Principal investors: EMDFonden and angels Per Falholt, Steen Risgaard, David Kauffmann, and Thomas G Schmidt

Vaayu

Vaayu aims to embed climate insights into e-commerce, potentially helping shoppers make lower-carbon choices at checkout.

📅 Founded: 2022

📍 Headquarters: Berlin, Germany

💵 Total equity funding: $13.1m

🤝 Principal investors: Speedinvest, CapitalT, Atomico and others

Paebbl

Paebbl turns captured CO2 into permanent, carbon-storing materials through CO2 mineralisation, potentially reducing emissions in the construction industry.

📅 Founded: 2021

📍 Headquarters: Sweden, Netherlands, and Finland

💵 Total equity funding: $38.6m

🤝 Principal investors: Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Capnamic, Holcim, Goldbeck, 2050, Pale Blue Dot

Dioxycle

Dioxycle is developing an electrolyzer that converts CO2 emissions into green ethylene, a key chemical used in plastics and textiles.

📅 Founded: 2020

📍 Headquarters: France

💵 Total equity funding: $17m

🤝 Principal investors: Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Gigascale Capital

Alcemy

Alcemy uses AI to produce low-carbon cement that aims to match the performance of conventional cement.

📅 Founded: 2018

📍 Headquarters: Berlin, Germany

💵 Total equity funding: $21.2m

🤝 Principal investors: Norrsken VC, Galvanize Climate Solutions, AENU

Carbon Re

Carbon Re develops AI software to optimise cement production processes, potentially reducing fuel-derived CO2 emissions by up to 5% per plant annually.

📅 Founded: 2020

📍Headquarters: London, UK

💵 Total equity funding: $7.4m

🤝 Principal investors: Planet A Ventures, University of Cambridge, Clean Growth Fund

Brineworks

Brineworks is developing a Direct Air Capture (DAC) electrolyser that captures CO2 from air and produces hydrogen, aimed at enabling affordable e-fuel production.

📅 Founded: 2023

📍 Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands

💵 Total equity funding: $11.7m

🤝 Principal investors: SeaX Ventures, Pale Blue Dot, First Momentum, AiiM Partners, Energie360°, Katapult

AgriCarbon

AgriCarbon helps farmers turn soil into a measurable climate asset. By tracking carbon levels across fields, it can enable the creation of verified carbon credits, potentially allowing agriculture to profit from greener practices.

📅 Founded: 2018

📍 Headquarters: Dundee, Scotland, UK

💵 Total equity funding: $11.9m

🤝 Principal investors: Shell Ventures, Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital

Again Bio

Again Bio aims to turn industrial CO2 into useful chemicals. Its biomanufacturing process could allow captured carbon to be converted into products like acetic acid and acetone, potentially reducing industrial emissions.

📅 Founded: 2021

📍 Headquarters: Copenhagen, Denmark

💵 Total equity funding: $55m

🤝 Principal investors: GV, HV Capital, Kompas VC, EIFO, ACME Capital, Atlantic Labs

Aerones

Aerones builds robotic systems for wind turbine inspection, maintenance and repair, aiming to make turbine upkeep faster, safer and more efficient than current manual methods.

📅 Founded: 2015

📍 Headquarters: Riga, Latvia

💵 Total equity funding: $122m

🤝 Principal investors: Lightrock, Haniel, Blume Equity, Change Ventures, Metaplanet, Pace Ventures, Future Positive Capital

Rootglobal

Root Global helps food & beverage companies map and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through its RootOS platform. It works by gathering supplier and farm-level data, revealing carbon hotspots, and guiding practical steps toward net-zero.

📅 Founded: 2022

📍 Headquarters: Berlin, Germany

💵 Total equity funding: $11.6m

🤝 Principal investors: Point Nine, Project A, HelloWorld, Arc Investors

Oriole Networks

Oriole Networks develops photonic networking technology that connects AI chips using light, potentially enabling faster and more energy-efficient training of large language models. Its approach aims to address the growing energy demands of AI data centres.

📅 Founded: 2023

📍 Headquarters: London, UK

💵 Total equity funding: $35m

🤝 Principal investors: Plural, UCL Technology Fund, XTX Ventures, Clean Growth Fund, Dorilton Ventures, Innovate UK Investor Partnership

Ocean Ledger

Ocean Ledger helps cities and insurers understand coastal risk by using satellite data, machine learning and sensor inputs to forecast erosion, flooding, and shoreline change.

📅 Founded: 2023

📍 Headquarters: London, UK

💵 Total equity funding: €900,000 (Pre-Seed)

🤝 Principal investors: Ananda Impact Ventures, Silverstrand Capital

Predium

Predium provides software tools that help real estate owners assess ESG risks, run renovation plans, and meet sustainability reporting requirements.

📅 Founded: 2022

📍 Headquarters: Munich, Germany

💵 Total equity funding: $21m

🤝 Principal investors: Norrsken VC, UVC Partners, b2venture, Mutschler Ventures

Overstory

Overstory uses AI and satellite imagery to help utilities monitor and manage vegetation, aiming to reduce wildfire risk and prevent power outages.

📅 Founded: 2018

📍 Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands

💵 Total equity funding: $25m

🤝 Principal investors: B Capital, The Nature Conservancy, Convective Capital, Semapa Next, Bentley iTwin Ventures, Pale Blue Dot, CapitalT, Moxxie Ventures, Overwater Ventures

Seabound

Seabound builds carbon-capture systems for ships, fitting compact units near exhaust funnels. Early trials show the technology can trap up to 80% of CO₂ and 90% of sulfur emissions produced by these veesels.

📅 Founded: 2021

📍 Headquarters: London, UK

💵 Total equity funding: $6m

🤝 Principal investors: Lowercarbon Capital, Y Combinator, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Elemental Impact, Collaborative Fund

Klim

Klim helps farmers transition to regenerative agriculture by providing tools to plan, execute, and finance greener farming practices.

📅 Founded: 2020

📍 Headquarters: Berlin, Germany

💵 Total equity funding: $29m

🤝 Principal investors: BNP Paribas, Earthshot Ventures, Rabobank, AgFunder, Norinchukin Bank, Achmea Innovation Fund, Ananda Impact Ventures, Elevator Ventures

Epyr

Epyr develops modular thermal energy storage systems that convert surplus renewable electricity into high-temperature heat, which can be stored in firebricks and used on demand.

📅 Founded: 2024

📍 Headquarters: Paris, France

💵 Total equity funding: €3m (Pre-Seed)

🤝 Principal investors: AENU, Daphni, OVNI Capital, WEPA Ventures, several European business angels

Material Evolution

Material Evolution makes low carbon cement from industrial waste using AI and a process called alkali fusion. Its MevoCem product reportedly cuts CO2 emissions by up to 85% compared to traditional Portland cement. The company opened a 120,000 tonne/year production facility in Wrexham in late 2024.

📅 Founded: 2017

📍 Headquarters: Middlesbrough, UK

💵 Total equity funding: $23m

🤝 Principal investors: Kompas VC, Norrsken VC, CircleRock Capital, Playfair Capital, At One Ventures, SkyRiver Ventures, HG Ventures

CuspAI

CuspAI builds an AI “search engine” for designing new materials, letting users request properties and generating candidates up to 10 times faster than traditional methods. It is applying this capability to climate tech, semiconductors, and other high-impact sectors.

📅 Founded: 2024

📍 Headquarters: Cambridge, UK (with operations in Amsterdam)

💵 Total equity funding: $130m

🤝 Principal investors: New Enterprise Associates, Temasek, NVentures, Samsung Ventures, Hyundai Motor Group, Basis Set Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, LocalGlobe, Northzone, Prosus Ventures, and others

Climate X

Climate X offers financial institutions and asset managers data-driven tools to estimate how climate hazards – like floods, heatwaves, or storms z – might impact the value of real estate, infrastructure and other physical assets.

📅 Founded: 2020 📍 Headquarters: London, UK 💵 Total equity funding: $25m 🤝 Principal investors: Google Ventures (GV), Pale Blue Dot, CommerzVentures, A/O, Blue Wire Capital, PT1, Unconventional Ventures, Western Technology Investment

Pictured: Top: Leopold Spenner, Alcemy; Lukky Ahmed, Climate X: Buffy Price, Carbon Re; Line Kloster Pedersen, Visibuilt; Max Kufner, Again Bio; Robert Gerlach, Klim; Annie Leeson, Agricarbon; Namrata Sandhu, Vayyu; Kristjan Lepik, Arbonics. Bottom: Gudfinnur Sveinsson, Brineworks; Yewande Adewusi, Alitheia Capital; Paige Roepers, Ocean Ledger; Dainis Kruze, Aerones; Sarah Lamaison, Dioxycle; Cameron McLain, Giant Ventures.