Merry Christmas! Here are the Impact Loop articles you read the most in 2025

From Trump 2.0 to Northvolt's bankruptcy, this year has been one marred by upheaval – with many tough lessons learnt for impact investors and founders. But it's also been one marked by maturation, or as one investor we spoke with recently quipped: 'Impact is growing up.'

With 2025 almost over, we've looked at our analytics and picked the 12 articles that our readers engaged with the most this year, in no particular order.

'We should have stopped earlier': Northvolt co-founder Peter Carlsson on his three big lessons from the collapse

In his first public appearance since Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in March, co-founder and former CEO Peter Carlsson broke his silence at Norrsken Impact Week in Barcelona in October. He took aim at the decisions that led to the Swedish battery maker’s collapse, sharing his biggest lessons on what went wrong. "It was a timing mistake and it cost us dearly," he said.

Read the full interview.

Impact VCs to startups: Don’t bet your business on green premiums

The mood in impact investing shifted in 2025. As capital got cautious and politics turned unpredictable, Europe’s VCs said founders need to prove their startups can build around cost, resilience, and real market demand – free from green premiums.

Read the analysis here.

Heidi Lindvall on Pale Blue Dot's Gaza post, the backlash, and when investors should speak up: 'Many feel it’s safer to stay quiet'

Israel’s war in Gaza – a taboo subject in the startup world – was the centre of a lively discussion at The Drop, a climate tech gathering in Malmö, Sweden, in September. We spoke with Heidi Lindvall, general partner at Pale Blue Dot, one of Europe's most well-known climate VCs and the event's organiser, about why the firm chose to speak out on Gaza in a public post on LinkedIn, and whether she thinks more investors should follow its lead. "I don’t think it was a mistake," Lindvall told Impact Loop.

Read the exclusive interview.

Brussels wants to ban 'vegan bacon' – and 28 other words: 'Nonsense'

Europe went to war with 'meaty labels' in 2025.

In July, the European Commission proposed barring plant-based food companies from using terms like ‘beef’, ‘chicken’ and ‘bacon’ in their branding – something our readers clearly had a lot of feelings about.

We covered the news at the time, and subsequently when the ban was partially approved in October.

Inside the 40 family offices quietly funding Europe’s green transition

More of Europe’s wealthiest families channelled their generational wealth into impact companies this year.

In October, we dug into Europe's most active impact family offices – many of which are on track to deploy even more capital in 2026.

Here's the full deep dive.

Daya Ventures launches ‘community funding round’ to give women a larger stake in tech startups

Venture studio Daya Ventures, which builds and backs startups in women’s health, launched a community funding round earlier this year.

Malin Frithiofsson, founder and CEO of Daya Ventures, said the primary objective wasn't to raise capital for the studio, but to redistribute ownership and boost female representation in tech.

Here's the full story, and a follow-up article about how the round went.

1Komma5° founder Phillip Schröder: 'Only 10-15% of investors are great investors'

Phillip Schröder, founder and CEO of unicorn 1Komma5°, is arguably one of the most influential, and outspoken, voices in European climate tech. In this exclusive interview, he opened up about a possible European IPO, his row with the German government, and what he thinks makes a really great investor.

Give it a read here.

Not radical enough? Why some investors and founders are walking away from the impact scene

A niche but growing number of investors have turned their backs on the impact scene – not because they’ve lost faith in saving the planet, but because they believe the sector has become too broad, too profit-driven, and too far removed from real systemic change. Impact Loop contributor Maddy Savage explored the sector’s deepening divisions and met some of the critics calling for more radical reform.

Read the analysis here.

Exclusive: Climentum Capital nears first close of €100m fund amid 'tight' LP market

Climentum Capital is nearing the first close of its €100m climate 'hard tech' fund, Impact Loop learned this year.

Read the exclusive news piece.

Looking for biodiversity funding? These five VCs are leading the way

The EU's recent proposal for its next budget leaves a massive gap in funding for biodiversity projects around the world. Impact Loop contributor Frey Lindsay took a look at five leading VCs looking to fill that gap.

Get the deep dive.

EXCLUSIVE DATA: How much (or little) impact founders earn across Europe

Using fresh insights from a report in January, Impact Loop crunched the numbers to reveal how much impact founders are earning at different growth stages and different parts of the continent.

Those numbers are still largely relevant for 2026 as well. Read more about it.

Karma Capital – founded by multi-millionaire who gave away 90% of his money – wants to upend 'toxic' VC model

Karma Capital is a new VC with a very unusual investment thesis – it only backs steward-owned companies in an effort to generate more impact.

"The classic VC structure encourages companies to grow quickly and beyond planetary boundaries, it can be very toxic and extractive," co-founder Theresa Böttger tells Impact Loop.

Read the full story.