DEEP DIVE: The 10 VCs betting big on energy tech in Europe

European VC had a difficult year in 2025. Fundraising hit a 10-year low. LPs were cautious. And things were particularly tough for climate tech investors. Yet, energy tech kept growing.

The reasons aren’t hard to find. A recent report by private equity firm EQT highlights that energy independence has shifted from economic nice-to-have to “strategic imperative” for the continent – and that a “rare window of opportunity” has opened for Europe’s tech leaders to compete with US titans.

The funds on this list are part of how Europe can look to compete in energy tech. They span a striking range: a New York giant mobilising 75 utilities as LPs. A scrappy Lithuanian seed fund that built its own industry conference from scratch, and a Dutch pioneer that has been writing energy tech cheques since 2007 when almost nobody else was.

This list is based on the latest data from Dealroom, in addition to our own reporting and VC database.

InnoEnergy

HQ: Eindhoven, Netherlands

Key people: Diego Pavía (CEO), Elena Bou, Jacob Ruiter, Bart de Beer & Christian Muller

Activity: Over 500 investments (largest portfolio on this list); 79 European rounds last 12 months; 95% European portfolio

InnoEnergy is not quite a conventional VC – it was launched in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology and has grown into a €140m-backed ecosystem with 1,400+ partners spanning industry, finance, academia and government across 21 EU countries and the US. Its 110-plus portfolio startups span the entire energy value chain and are projected to generate €110bn in revenue and save 2.1Gt of CO2 by 2030. InnoEnergy also leads three pan-European industrial initiatives: the European Battery Alliance, the European Green Hydrogen Acceleration Center and the European Solar PV Industry Alliance.

⚡ Three to watch:

• Blykalla – Swedish startup building lead-cooled small nuclear modular reactors, and backed by US nuclear firm Oklo.
• CorPower Ocean – Pioneering wave energy converter technology that raised €32m Series B in 2024 to move towards commercial deployment.
• ElevenEs – Advanced LFP battery cell manufacturer currently considering building a €600m gigafactory in Poland.

Vireo Ventures

HQ: Berlin, Germany

Key people: Mischa Wetzel, Niels Ellwanger, Felix Krause & Julian Mallmann

Activity: 47 investments; 9 European rounds in last 12 months; 100% European portfolio

The five founding partners of Vireo ran Innogy Ventures – one of Europe's largest corporate energy CVCs before going independent in 2020.

Vireo's Electrification Fund I closed at €50m with backing from six European utilities including Encevo, Verbund X and EnBW New Ventures, plus the EIF.

Their philosophy is focused on software-enabled electrification across the entire value chain, from renewable generation and smart grids to EV charging and industrial decarbonisation.

Importantly, their 90-plus LPs aren't passive: they pilot technologies alongside portfolio companies. About a third of Vireo's portfolio companies have at least one female founder.

⚡ Three to watch:

• Green Fusion – Energy software startup that landed a €12m Series A from HV Capital and Xange — a sign generalists are starting to notice energy software.
• HeyCharge – EV charging software removing the need for internet connectivity, making charging accessible in car parks and apartment buildings.
• Granular Energy – Clean energy sourcing software helping corporates match their consumption to renewable generation hour by hour.

Extantia Capital

HQ: Berlin, Germany (teams also in UK and Israel)

Key people: Oliver Schwarzer & Joern-Carlos Kuntze

Activity: 20+ investments; 10 European rounds last 12 months; 86% European portfolio

Extantia only backs companies it believes can abate at least 100 million tonnes of CO2 annually at full scale. That "Carbon Math" exclusion principle, as it calls it, aims to keeps the fund honest and differentiated.

Extantia has two funds: Extantia Flagship (direct investments of €1–5m, seed to Series A) and Extantia Allstars (a fund-of-funds backing other climate VCs). The flagship fund is Article 9 classified.

LPs include Anglo American, Toyota Ventures and the Piëch and Oldendorff family offices.

⚡ Three to watch:

• INERATEC – Modular chemical plants that turn renewable electricity into e-fuels, giving hard-to-abate sectors a drop-in fossil replacement. Raised over €120m in Series B.
• Reverion – Builds reversible carbon-negative power plants from renewable feedstocks. Secured $62m Series A in 2024 with Honda and Energy Impact Partners on the cap table.
• H2Pro – Israeli developer of efficient electrochemical hydrogen production, targeting green hydrogen at a cost competitive with fossil sources.

Future Energy Ventures

HQ: Berlin, Germany (also US and Israel)

Key people: Jan Lozek, Veronique Hördemann & Patrick Elftmann

Activity: ~50 investments; 5 European rounds last 12 months; 65% European portfolio

Originally set up in 2016 by energy giants RWE and E.ON, Future Energy Ventures (FEV) has since become an independent advisory and investment platform backed by a wide group of LPs including E.ON, EIF, KfW Capital, ABN AMRO and Polish development bank BGK.

The firm recently closed Fund II at €235m, making it Europe's largest dedicated energy tech VC.

FEV plays later than most on this list – Series A and B – targeting digital, asset-light companies with €1–2m in revenue already showing product-market fit. Software that optimises grids, trades batteries and decarbonises buildings is the sweet spot.

Read our interview with founding partner Veronique Hördemann.

⚡ Three to watch:

• Enspired: Vienna-based AI platform that trades battery assets on energy markets in real time, helping storage owners monetise flexibility.
• Jua: Weather AI startup using machine learning to produce hyper-accurate renewable energy forecasts critical for grid balancing.
• Feld Energy: Agricultural photovoltaics software enabling solar panels to co-exist with crops, unlocking vast new land areas for renewable generation.

Planet A Ventures

HQ: Berlin, Germany

Key people: Fridtjof Detzner, Nick de la Forge, Tobias Seikel, Lena Thiede & Jan Christoph Gras

Activity: 25+ investments; 10 European rounds last 12 months; 100% European portfolio

Planet A is the only fund on this list to explicitly embed a science team directly in its investment process. Every company is assessed with a lifecycle analysis before a cheque is written – and scientists hold veto power.

Co-founded by Fridtjof Detzner (also the founder of Jimdo), the fund targets four pillars: climate mitigation, waste reduction, resource savings and biodiversity protection. Are significant proportion of its cheques go to energy tech.

With €160m in its first fund and initial cheques of €500k–€3m, it plays at the early stages.

⚡ Three to watch:

• INERATEC: E-fuels pioneer co-backed with Extantia, proving crossover appeal for modular synthetic fuel technology.
• traceless: Hamburg startup replacing single-use plastics with fully compostable biomaterials made without competing with food production.
• GA Drilling: Geothermal energy company using plasma drilling to access deep supercritical reservoirs – potentially limitless clean baseload power.

Voyager VC

HQ: San Francisco, US

Key people: Sarah Sclarsic & Sierra Peterson

Activity: ~48 investments; 4 rounds in Europe last 12 months; 25% of portfolio European

Founded by two veterans with roots in energy policy, frontier research and climate finance, Voyager backs the "new base layer of the global economy" — a bold phrase for what is essentially early-stage deep tech spanning energy generation and storage, advanced industrial materials, Physical AI and carbon. The pair started deploying their own capital into energy startups in 2015, six years before formally launching the fund, and have now closed a $275m Fund II to bring total AUM to $475m. Unusually for a US-based fund it also has a London outpost, making it a genuine transatlantic player.

⚡ Three to watch:

• Tem – UK startup that enables businesses to buy renewable electricity straight from generators like wind and solar farms - saving costs.
• Anthro Energy – Ultra-dense, fire-resistant flexible batteries designed to fit anywhere, from wearables to industrial kit.
• Addis Energy – Harnesses subterranean geologic reactions to produce ammonia with lower emissions than conventional routes.

2150

HQ: London, UK (offices also in Copenhagen and Berlin)

Key people: Christian Hernandez Gallardo, Mikkel Bulow-Lehnsby, Christian Jølck, Jacob Bro, Alexander Kielland & Rahul Parekh

Activity: 27 investments; 2 European rounds last 12 months; 44% European portfolio

2150 is an "urban tech" fund built on the conviction that cities will be where the battle for sustainability will be won or lost.

Fund I raised €290m; Fund II just closed at €210m, bringing total AUM to €500m and portfolio revenues past $1bn.

New LPs include Viessmann Generations Group, Novo Holdings, the Danish sovereign fund EIFO and the US Church Pension Group.

⚡ Three to watch:

• AtmosZero – US manufacturer of electrified industrial steam heat pumps that replace gas boilers across heavy industry – a Fund II investment.
• 1Komma5° – Pan-European home energy platform connecting solar, batteries and heat pumps into a single consumer offering – one of the fund's landmark early bets.
• Mission Zero Technologies – UK-based direct air capture company backed alongside Breakthrough Energy and Siemens Financial Services.

Energy Impact Partners

HQ: New York City, US

Key people: Hans Kobler (founder), plus Shayle Kann, Nazo Moosa, Andy Lubershane and 20+ others

Activity: 295 investments; 3 European rounds last 12 months; 14% European portfolio

EIP is the giant of this group: $4.5bn in AUM, 100-plus professionals, offices across New York, San Francisco, DC, London, Cologne, Oslo and Singapore, and a model built on mobilising a coalition of over 75 energy utility and industrial LPs to co-develop and rapidly deploy startups' technologies.

EIP's Flagship Fund III recently closed at $1.36bn – 40% larger than its predecessor – timed to capitalise on surging power demand from AI datacentres.

EIP plays across venture, growth and private equity, with its Frontier strategy for early-stage deep decarbonisation and Flagship strategy targeting inflection and growth-stage companies. A separate Elevate Future strategy directs capital exclusively to underrepresented founders.

⚡ Three to watch:

• Overstory – AI vegetation intelligence for grid resilience
• Reverion – high-temperature fuel cells for biogas utilisation
• Oxford Flow – piston valves cutting emissions across gas and water networks

Contrarian Ventures

HQ: Vilnius, Lithuania

Key people: Rokas Peciulaitis, Darius Zakaitis, Tomas Kemtys & Marc Wesselink

Activity: 51 investments; 6 European rounds last 12 months; 91% European portfolio

Founded in 2017 when climate tech was genuinely unfashionable, Contrarian Ventures is the scrappiest and most community-minded fund on this list. Founder Rokas Peciulaitis built Europe's annual energy tech gathering, the Energy Tech Summit in Bilbao, from scratch – and also co-created Climate50, a public ranking of the world's boldest climate investors, and the Climate Brick, a practical scaling guide for founders.

Fund I was fully returned to LPs; Fund II raised €100m. The team invests at seed stage across Europe and Israel, writing cheques of €500k, and is known for moving fast and backing founders others overlook. Portfolio total value has surpassed €1.5bn.

⚡ Three to watch:

• PVcase: Solar project development software that's become a global leader, raising €100m Series B from Highland Europe and Energize Capital.
• BeZero: Independent carbon ratings agency that hit a $1bn valuation – a landmark for market integrity in carbon offsetting.
• Zoomo: Electric cargo bike platform for urban delivery fleets, helping the last mile go zero emissions.

SET Ventures

HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Key people: Rene Savelsberg, Wouter Jonk, Leonie Mekel, Till Stenzel & Anton Arts

Activity: 74 investments; 5 European rounds in the last 12 months; 89% European portfolio

SET Ventures is the oldest specialist energy tech VC in Europe, investing since 2007 when few others were paying attention. Its fourth fund – SET Fund IV – closed at €200m in September 2024, doubling the size of Fund III and attracting the EIF, Triodos Energy Transition Europe Fund and Carbon Equity as key LPs.

The thesis is deliberately digital-first: the firm believes the hardware needed to fight climate change (solar, EVs, heat pumps) is largely already here – what's missing is the software to integrate and orchestrate it all.

Key exits include Sonnen (residential batteries, acquired by Shell) and Sensorfact (industrial energy monitoring, acquired by ABB).

⚡ Three startups to watch:

• Instagrid – Portable battery power station for professional use, raising $95m Series C and entering North America...one of Europe's clean energy breakouts.
• Frequenz – Berlin-based AI energy management platform helping commercial and industrial companies cut energy costs by up to 30% and become active grid participants.
• Optics11 – Fibre-optic sensing technology that monitors offshore energy infrastructure and undersea cables – raised €17m in 2025.

Pictured top: Elena Bou (InnoEnergy); Wouter Jonk (SET Ventures); Felix Krause (Vireo Ventures); Matthias Dill (Energy Impact Partners ); Tomas Kemtys (Contrarian Ventures); Sarah Sclarsic (Voyager VC)