Fika with The Footprint Firm’s CIO Sofie Käll: ‘They call me the Swiss-army knife of investing’

Sophie, what’s your journey? What’s your background?

I come from finance. I’ve spent the past decade working across the whole investment spectrum – venture, growth and buyout, both on the LP and GP side. People sometimes say I’m a Swiss army knife because I’ve worked in so many parts of the investment chain.

I’ve always had a strong interest in sustainable and impact-driven investments, even when I didn’t have the proper mandate for it. I sat on ESG committees, helped set up an Article 9 fund and tried to push those topics wherever I could. But officially, I was still a more traditional investor until I joined The Footprint Firm in March.

Where are you from?

I’m Swedish. I live in Malmö and work in Copenhagen, so I cross the bridge every day. It’s incredibly convenient. You really get the best of both worlds – the lifestyle in Skåne and the buzz of Copenhagen right nearby.

Tell me more about The Footprint Firm. Is it a VC?

Yes and no. The company started around six years ago as a sustainability advisory business. Since day one, all cashflow from that advisory work has been reinvested directly into the ecosystem – into startups in the impact space. No money has been taken out of the business. Everything has been recycled into climate founders.

Only in the last year or two did we start making larger investments. We’re now about to announce the final close of our first fund in a few weeks.

Most of our 50-person team works 70% on advisory and 30% on the fund, helping with due diligence and hands-on value creation. That gives us an unusually large effective team for a fund this size.

With the first fund closing soon, what are your hopes for it?

We’re looking for entrepreneurs who are genuinely excited about what they’re building and who want to solve big, meaningful problems. Our criteria are ambitious – particularly on CO2 reduction potential.

We’re flexible on hardware versus software and open to deeptech and scaleups. We’re opportunistic in the sense that we want to back the most ambitious teams driving real change.

What I personally hope for is to continue our international journey. Historically, the portfolio has been very Danish. That’s started to shift this year and we want to keep expanding our footprint outside Denmark.

Would that be Europe or further afield?

For now, Northern Europe. With our hands-on model, we want to stay close to the companies we support so we can deploy our full playbook.

Is it difficult to raise a fund in this market?

Things are definitely still happening, even if the market is tough. Raising climate funds is challenging, and our portfolio companies feel that too when they’re out raising new rounds. But we’ve been fortunate to have strong relationships – especially through the advisory side – and our differentiated model helps.

Would you consider shifting away from impact?

We’ve focused on this space for six years. We’re not going anywhere. The problems aren’t disappearing just because the hype cycles shift. And there are still many ambitious entrepreneurs building in climate – you just need to be focused and selective.

And finally, what’s your fika order?

A cappuccino and a cardamom bun.