Planet A’s Lena Thiede on bringing rigorous science to climate investing: ‘It's still the Wild West’

When Lena Thiede co-founded Planet A Ventures in 2020, she saw a venture capital industry eager to pour money into climate tech – but with little understanding of which solutions would deliver the most impact.

“I was so surprised to understand that as investors, everybody was just throwing money at stuff and really not understanding what was relevant,” she recalls. “Everybody was flying blind.”

No science, no deal

Planet A is one of the only European VCs with an in-house science team.

Headed by Thiede, the team conduct full life-cycle assessments of every technology they invest in. They also hold veto power over investment decisions. If the scientists say no, the deal doesn’t go through.

For Thiede, rigorous science is key to making impact investing meaningful – and credible. She also stresses the importance of looking beyond carbon.

Planetary boundaries > carbon

“If we only look narrowly at CO2, we might come up with terrible solutions,” she says. Planet A’s team considers water use, biodiversity, materials, and waste alongside emissions, following the framework of planetary boundaries. It’s about looking at the full system, not just a single metric.

That approach has already reshaped the firm’s portfolio.

For example, Planet A passed on a lab-grown poultry startup after finding that it wouldn’t make a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. The growth medium is so energy-intensive – and conventional chicken farming already so efficient – that producing it in the lab offered little climate benefit.

Raising the bar for climate investing

Thiede hopes Planet A’s philosophy will challenge climate tech investors and founders to raise their standards.

“I feel very strongly around the need for a more science-based and robust kind of impact assessment,” argues Thiede. Without them, she warns, LPs risk losing trust in climate funds.

“It’s still the Wild West when it comes to impact assessments [in the VC space]," she says.

By integrating rigorous assessments from the outset, Planet A aims to avoid greenwashing and make sure its portfolio genuinely advances climate solutions.

The venture capital firm has made 38 investments since its launch, backing startups such as AUAR, which makes energy-efficient, modular homes, and PulseTrain, which is working on batteries that store renewable energy more efficiently.

Looking beyond traditional 'climate tech'

Theide says Planet A will back technologies across sectors – including AI, robotics, and novel materials– as long as the science shows they help keep humanity within planetary boundaries.

“We don’t limit ourselves to traditional climate tech,” she says. “If it has a measurable positive impact on the planet, it’s in scope.”

Thiede says she is optimistic about the future of European climate tech, even if hitting global climate targets remains a monumental challenge.

“Yes, we’ll likely overshoot 1.5°C, maybe even 2°C,” she admits. “But the question is how fast can we come back – and what tipping points do we avoid along the way?”

By embedding science into investment decisions, she argues, venture capital can play a decisive role in that recovery.