Fuse Energy backer Rosberg Ventures, headed by former F1 champ, closes $100m fund

Rosberg Ventures, the VC firm of former F1 world champ Nico Rosberg, has closed its third fund at $100m.

The firm was one of the early backers of Fuse Energy, the UK-based clean energy startup which became a unicorn last year. Rosberg Ventures also invested in Lilium, the now bankrupt electric flying taxi startup.

Rosberg, who retired in 2016, quickly began redirecting his own capital into green startups. He holds shares in startups including Formula E, Tier Mobility, and EV charging company Chargepoint. He was also the founding member of the now defunct Greentech Festival, and won the European Culture Award for the Environment back in 2021.

The new fund brings the firm’s total assets under management to $200m, as it looks to back more startups – now with a focus on AI and software.

“Venture is a long journey,” Rosberg wrote on LinkedIn. “It will never feel as clear as crossing a finish line in racing. But moments like this, getting well past $200M in AUM, are great milestones giving us the firepower now to keep racing forward.”

Rosberg, who was born in Germany but spent most of his life in Monaco, is not the first sports star to enter venture post-retirement.

Tennis world champion Serena Williams has invested in dozens of startups through her investment vehicle, Serena Ventures, including plant-based food company Impossible Foods. As has Rosberg’s former rival Lewis Hamilton.

In France, a cohort of dozens of current and former professional athletes recently formed Teampact Ventures, a VC firm which recently closed a $20m fund to back early-stage startups in climate and health.

The partners at Teampact aim to leverage the lessons from elite sports – discipline, teamwork, and psychological resilience – to create stronger founders and more durable startups.

That’s an approach where Rosberg sees value as well.

“In sport, you must often go on the attack and take these risks wholeheartedly,” he wrote. “Intuitively deciding on which chances to take, and then sometimes succeeding, will compound very powerfully.”