Mundi Ventures secures €750M for Kembara fund as climate tech enters scale-up mode

Mundi Ventures’ Kembara Fund has marked its first close of €750m towards a target of over €1bn, anchored by a €350m commitment from the European Investment Fund.

The focus:

Kembara will write €15M-€40m initial cheques across 20 companies, with follow-on capacity up to €100m per company.

It’s targeting companies across the deep tech spectrum, including in AI, quantum computing, robotics, clean energy, space, advanced materials, and defence.

The people:

The fund is managed by a specialist team within Mundi Ventures led by Javier Santiso (ex-Khazanah CEO Europe), Yann de Vries (ex-Atomico partner and Lilium COO), plus climate and deep tech veterans Robert Trezona, Pierre Festal, and advisor Siraj Khaliq.

What’s next:

Kembara is actively fundraising, with regulatory filings showing the fund could stretch to €1.25bn at final close, as first reported by TechCrunch.

The fund is also actively deploying capital into European deep tech and climate companies at Series B and C stages.

The big picture

Climate and deep tech startups are capital-intensive and historically struggled to survive the Series B "valley of death."

Now, as early-stage bets from 2021-2022 mature, investors are positioning at the growth stage.

Eurazeo recently launched a €500m late venture/early growth fund for climate tech scale-ups, World Fund is raising a second, €500m fund aimed at Series B, and SlateVC recently closed a €250M vehicle targeting scaleups that have already established revenues.