World Fund: new Climate Tech fund raises Euro 350 million

Berlin — The new WORLD FUND VC aims to invest €350 million to support foun­ders who are using tech solu­ti­ons to fight the climate crisis and help decar­bo­nize the planet. — A team led by YPOG part­ners Fabian Euhus and Helder Schnitt­ker provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the World Fund (WF World Fund Manage­ment GmbH).

With more than 60 inves­tors, inclu­ding current and former Euro­pean tech foun­ders, the World Fund was initia­ted by global search engine Ecosia and focu­ses on tech­no­lo­gies that can reduce carbon emis­si­ons in areas such as energy, trans­por­ta­tion, food and agri­cul­ture, manu­fac­tu­ring and buil­dings. The World Fund invests in early- and growth-stage compa­nies with the highest climate perfor­mance poten­tial (CPP), focu­sing on emis­si­ons reduc­tion poten­tial of at least 100 mega­tons of CO2 emis­si­ons per year in indus­tries such as energy, trans­por­ta­tion, cons­truc­tion, food and agri­cul­ture. To assess and measure CPP, the World Fund has deve­lo­ped its own metho­do­logy in exch­ange with Project Draw­down, with Crane and with TU Berlin.

The manage­ment team consists of part­ners Tim Schu­ma­cher, inves­tor and entre­pre­neur, VC inves­tor Daria Saha­rova, sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor Craig Douglas, and climate tech thought leader Dani­jel Visevic . The World Fund has set a goal of cutting two giga­tons of emis­si­ons by 2040 — equi­va­lent to four percent of all global emis­si­ons. With this commit­ment, the World Fund puts the health of the planet at the center of every decis­ion it makes, because climate return is an early indi­ca­tor of finan­cial return. From compa­nies deve­lo­ping alter­na­tive prote­ins to energy storage solu­ti­ons and smart char­ging infra­struc­ture as a service, the World Fund targets breakth­rough compa­nies that have the poten­tial to become market leaders. The need for venture capi­tal in climate tech­no­logy is over­whel­ming: a recent study by the German Energy Agency found that Germany alone needs €22.7 billion to achieve a posi­tive climate impact by 2030.

About World Fund

The first closing of the World Fund is plan­ned for the first half of 2022; the fund has alre­ady star­ted with initial invest­ments. His motto: We back entre­pre­neurs buil­ding climate tech for a rege­ne­ra­tive world. www.worldfund.vc

Consul­tant World Fund: YPOG
Dr. Fabian Euhus (Co-Lead/­­Cor­­po­rate, Struc­tu­ring), Partner
Dr. Helder Schnitt­ker (Co-Lead/­­Ta­­xes), Partner
Lenn­art Lorenz (Regu­la­tory), Partner
Joel El-Qalqili (Struc­tu­ring, Impact & ESG), Asso­cia­ted Partner
Stefa­nie Nagel (Corpo­rate, Regu­la­tory), Associate
Anto­nia von Treu­en­feld (Impact & ESG), Associate
Dr. Fried­rich Wöhlecke (Taxes), Associate

About YPOG
YPOG is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm, opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax, tran­sac­tions, IT/IP and nota­rial services. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally ranked by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, YPOG employs more than 70 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.ypog.law