New money: The first-time European impact VCs to watch in 2026

Raising a first fund has never been easy. But the past year or so has been particularly brutal, with European VC fundraising sinking to a decade-low in 2025.

Amid a tough macroeconomic climate, LP capital has retreated to familiar funds and toward perceived safer bets such as software and AI. Several impact fund managers have told Impact Loop in recent months that they face a unique set of hurdles, including LPs wary of asset-heavy hardware bets, and the added headwinds of investing in climate at a moment when the politics have turned hostile.

Despite the challenges, a crop of new European impact funds have launched anyway, all the with the conviction that investing in solving the world's greatest challenges can also bank big returns.

This new cohort of funds are typically headed by experienced operators and investors who've built companies or backed them through full cycles. All of these founding partners have experienced the burst of the climate tech bubble first-hand. And now they're building their new funds around cost competitiveness and business fundamentals – not just impact.

The language has changed too. You'll hear less about "climate" and more about energy security, resilience, resource independence – framings that land better with cautious LPs in a world of supply chain shocks and energy politics.

Given that, are nine new European impact VCs we think are the ones to watch for 2026.

Maia Ventures

Maia Ventures emegre from stealth in October with a €55m debut fund to back 20–25 early-stage agrifood tech startups across Italy, Europe, and potentially the US. The EIF and CDP Venture Capital are among the LPs, alongside Italian food corporates and family offices.

Behind it are Andrea Galassi – co-founder of green-tech startup Wash Out, sold to Telepass – and David Bassani, formerly investment partner at AB InBev's $500m+ corporate VC arm ZX Ventures. Tickets run from €0.5m to €1.5m, with half the fund reserved for follow-ons.

The thesis is explicit about what it won't back: startups whose model depends on green premiums or regulatory tailwinds. "There needs to be another value-add – cost savings, efficiency, scalability," Galassi previously told Impact Loop.

Maia has made two new investments since it closed its first fund: alt-chocolate startup Foreverland and GenoGra, which has developed a genomic-analysis platform for DNA data.

Vitamin°C

Vitamin°C recently announced €18m in its first close, targeting pre-seed climate tech startups on both sides of the Atlantic. The fund is anchored by the Meili family office – run by brothers whose father invented the ionisation chamber that became the modern smoke detector.

Co-founders Nathalie Moral, based in Zurich, and Sophie Lamparter, based in San Francisco, are betting the trans-Atlantic structure gives them an edge. European IP and university spinouts on one side, US speed and scale on the other.

The fund's first investment is Satellites on Fire, an Argentina- and US-based startup using satellite data and AI for early wildfire detection.

"In every crisis, there's opportunity," says Moral, who was an early investor in Swiss carbon capture unicorn Climeworks.

VitaminºC will write €0.5m–€1.5m cheques into pre-seed startups and the partners expect to make several more investments in 2026.

The Footprint Firm

The Footprint Firm closed its debut fund at €76m in January, backed by Danish institutions including EIFO, Novo Holdings, Realdania and Velliv Foreningen, alongside family offices such as Lauritzen Fonden and Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker.

The firm started life in 2019 as a sustainability consultancy before gradually moving into venture. "We started making smaller investments from our advisory business quite early on, and then decided to start a venture arm," Sofie Käll previously told Impact Loop.

The fund has already backed 20 startups across Northern Europe, including Reel Energy, Kvasir Technologies and Rock Flour Company – one of the only climate tech companies operating in Greenland. It's targeting around 10 more investments at pre-seed and seed, with tickets of €0.5–2m.

Next up, Käll says the firm is in deep discussions with a biotech company and a green battery components startup.

Margin Ventures

Margin Ventures emerged in February with plans to raise a €50m fund to back founders typically shut out of European VC – those from underrepresented social, geographic or academic backgrounds working on climate, healthcare, education and AI.

Paris-based co-founders Mehdi Belkahla, formerly of Rothschild and Citizen Capital, and Anas Jaballah, ex-EDP and BCG, are targeting a first close of €30m this year.

It's first two investments are Masteur, an AI-powered gamified tutoring platform, and Fasten, which develops nutritional therapy to improve cancer treatment outcomes.

The fund is still raising, with early commitments from family offices and high net worth individuals.

The Fungi VC

The Fungi VC is recently launched early-stage investment firm dedicated to backing startups using mushrooms, mycelium and yeast across construction, packaging, food, agriculture, cosmetics and green chemistry.

It runs as a syndicate rather than a traditional fund – investors can back individual deals or commit across multiple companies, with The Fungi VC writing €100,000–€400,000 per investment.

Behind it are Norwegian Susanne Gløersen, who left Swedish bank SEB to build a global fungi ecosystem, and Sweden's Tarja Zudemberg, formerly of Almi Invest.

"I see this as the beginning of the next industrial revolution, where we use microbes, biology and nature's own systems instead of petrochemicals," Gløersen said in a recent interview with Impact Loop.

Six investments so far include Anthology, an MIT and Harvard spinout working on genome engineering for industrial fungi use; Funga, which inoculates tree seedlings with fungi to accelerate growth and store carbon; and Michroma, which makes fungi-based dyes to replace chemical colours in food.

The plan is to make three to five more investments this year.

ECIIF II

Switzerland's Chi Impact Capital and German impact investor FASE recently merged to launch the European Catalytic Impact Investing Fund II, targeting €80m with a hard cap of €120m.

The target is Europe's "missing middle": impact companies that are too slow-growing for traditional venture but too ambitious for grant funding. That includes steward-owned businesses, social enterprises and climate and circular economy startups that need patient capital rather than a unicorn trajectory.

"These are companies that are not geared towards fast, quick growth," co-founder Christine ter Braak-Forstinger said in an interview. "They need more patient capital."

The fund spans climate tech, circular economy, food systems, care and education – but draws a hard line on defence tech. A first close above €30m is targeted for Q2 2026.

Carbon Equity

Carbon Equity, the Amsterdam-based fund-of-funds, recently announced a shift to investing directly. Its new €50m co-investment vehicle will take concentrated bets – around 12 in total – on growth-stage climate tech companies alongside its existing fund partners.

Having tracked thousands of portfolio companies across its fund network, Carbon Equity says it has an unrivalled view into company performance.

"We know which companies are on track and which are not," founder and CEO Jacqueline van den Ende previously told Impact Loop.

The fund has already backed geothermal firm Fervo Energy and wind maintenance robotics company Aeronis, and has raised €20m in pre-commitments. A final close of €50m is targeted for Q4 2026.

Exceptional Ventures

Exceptional Ventures recently reached the first close of its £40m healthtech fund at £20m, backed by Italian foundation Compagnia di San Paolo, P101 and the British Business Bank.

Founded by Italian tech entrepreneur Paolo Pio and Matt Cooper, former chairman of Octopus Capital, the fund will back around 60 startups focused on disease prevention.

The firm has already made more than 30 investments, including Sava, which raised $19m last year for a wearable glucose monitor that also drew in Balderton and Norrsken VC.

Axel Carbon Capital

Axel Carbon Capital – formerly COREangels Climate – recently closed its first fund at €2m, backed by over 50 angel investors including executives and operators from across Europe and the US.

Founded by Federico Giannetti and Michele Morabito, the firm sits somewhere between a VC and an angel syndicate.

The rebrand was deliberate. Giannetti and Morabito have dropped "climate" and "green" entirely in favour of industrial decarbonisation – a framing they see as more durable and commercially honest.

"Decarbonisation is an unavoidable industrial path – it's about operational efficiency and cost efficiency," Giannetti says.

The fund has already backed 11 companies, including underwater monitoring startup Wsense, carbon removal startup Limenet, and Rarearth, which makes permanent magnets from recycled materials.

A larger fund is planned for around 2027, likely with institutional capital in the mix.