‘Staying true to our values’: Ananda raises €73m for system-level impact fund

Munich-based Ananda Impact Ventures has secured €73m in the first close of its fifth fund, taregtting €108m.

The fund, Ananda V, has attracted backing from a mix of returning and new limited partners, including the European Investment Fund, NRW.BANK, Investcorp-Tages, Mercator Foundation, and more than 40 family offices across Europe.

The raise comes at a tough time for impact-focused venture capital investments, which reached a five-low in 2025, according to Dealroom data.

Ananda, however, says it is doubling down, targeting early-stage European founders building technologies it views as essential for long-term social and environmental sustainability.

Co-founder Johannes Weber frames the new fund as a deliberate counter-positioning to broader shifts in venture capital.

"We went out with the thesis that we should reflect the values of our founders, anti-consensus, anti-groupthink," he says. "By staying true to our core values, we have become differentiated in the market."

Systems-level impact

Ananda argues that its approach is less about individual sectors and more about systems. Rather than focusing narrowly on climate, health, or education in isolation, the firm aims to invest in companies operating across disciplinary boundaries, where biological, digital, and social systems intersect.

The firm has previously backed companies such as OroraTech, which develops satellite-based wildfire intelligence, AI-driven mental health platform IESO, and biodiversity data specialist NatureMetrics.

"To change systems, you need a team that thinks in systems," says founding partner Florian Erber, pointing to Ananda’s technical team, which includes biologists, engineers, chemists, and former founders. That depth, the firm claims, allows it to work closely with highly technical startups from their earliest stages.

LPs say the fund’s combination of impact ambition and financial discipline was a key draw.

Christian Mueller, a board member at Mercator Foundation Switzerland, says Ananda stood out for its ability to spot emerging trends while maintaining "rigorous analysis with a deep investment in the people behind the companies."

Where will they invest next?

In a previous interview, partner Zoe Peden said the firm would remain committed to its original thesis with the new fund, but that it did have certain verticals in focus.

"Biodiversity is one of the areas that we’d like to do more investments in," she says, noting that falling costs and advancing scientific maturity are opening up “a whole world of lots of applications that can be built in nature tech.”

Biosecurity is another emerging focus, she added, with antimicrobial resistance and pathogen detection becoming increasingly critical in a warming world.

Ananda also plans to expand in ocean tech, space tech, biomolecular design, critical minerals, and extreme-weather prediction.