THOSE BACKERS

MEET us

Backing the technologies that will make Europe powerful and decarbonise our continent.

We are a VC fund that backs founders building the technologies Europe needs to compete - in energy, industry, and food and agriculture.

These are the sectors where decarbonisation and industrial strength converge, and where the most compelling venture opportunities of the next decade are being built.

DANIJEL VIŠEVIĆ

Managing Partner

DARIA SAHAROVA

Managing Partner

TIM SCHUMACHER

Managing Partner

CRAIG DOUGLAS

Partner

DR. NADINE GEISER

Principal

DR. MARK WINDEKNECHT

Principal

JAN SCHIERLE

Chief Financial Officer

MORGAN SHEIL

Chief Climate Officer

VERONICA FRESNEAU

Communications Director

TOBY LOVETT

General Counsel

MERYEM CHERIF

Head of Investor Relations

NIKLAS OETTLE

Senior Finance Analyst

ROBIN NEFF

Investment Manager

NICOLE KEATING

Impact Analyst

OPHÉLIE LAURIN

Investment Associate

CARA REUNER

Investment Associate

LAURA FORERO

Investor Relations Officer

SEBASTIAN LINDNER-LIAW

Investment Research Analyst

HANNAH HEDBERG

Executive Assistant

CHLOE LE

Junior Fund Controller

DANIEL VALENZUELA

Venture Partner

PAWEL MICHALSKI

Venture Partner

CHRISTIAN KROLL

Venture Partner

MARIANNE ABIB-PECH

Venture Partner

ANDREAS SLETTVOLL

Venture Partner

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those ADVISORS

Prof. Dr. Veronika Eyring

Lead IPCC Contributor, DLR & Uni Bremen

Prof. DR. Dietmar Harhoff

Director, Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition

DR. Sabine Erlinghagen

CEO, Siemens Grid Software

Dr. Gregor Hagedorn

Academic Director, Natural History Museum, Berlin

Simone Kaiser

Deputy Head of Responsible Research & Innovation Unit, Fraunhofer Institute

Hannah Wickes

Former CMO Ecosia & Board Executive

Prof. dr. Kai Bühler

Professor for Digital & Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Serial Entrepreneur with 3 exits

Andreas Kuhlmann

CEO, Christ & Company

Chad Frischmann

CEO, RegenIntel & Research Director, Project Drawdown

Filmon Zerai

COO, Holtzbrinck Digital

Andreas Rickert

CEO, Phineo

Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen

Scientists for Future, Doctors for Future
& best-selling author

Prof. Thomas Bendig

Chief Innovation Officer, adesso SE

Pieter van Midwoud

Chief Planting Officer, Ecosia
Backed by leading institutions

This operation benefits from support from the European Union under the InvestEU Fund.

FURTHER partnerS

Leading research institutes, think-tanks
and universities

your questions

our answers

What is your investment approach?

We back transformational technologies that can redefine industries and, at scale, make Europe more powerful, sovereign, and decarbonised. Our guiding principle is to look at addressable solutions over time, including a technology's product sales, target market, climate footprint, and relationships with other solutions.

Our investment approach is rooted in science and evaluates every opportunity through its Climate Performance Potential (CPP), a metric that assesses whether a technology can deliver significant annual emissions reductions at scale. Our CPP aligns with leading global methodologies and emissions measurement frameworks. If you want to learn more, check out our latest Impact Report.

What sectors within deep tech do you focus on?

We invest where technology can decarbonise and strengthen Europe's most critical industries. That means Energy, Industry, and Food & Agriculture, three sectors that together represent the foundation of European power, competitiveness, and sovereignty. Each is a trillion-dollar market undergoing structural redesign, with urgent buyers and a generation of European founders already building into them.

In which stages does World Fund invest?

World Fund backs companies from seed to growth, with initial ticket sizes typically between €1–15m and significant capacity for follow-on rounds. We support founders as their technology moves from lab to market and from pilot to scale, including up to and through Series B, a stage funding gap that is one of the biggest constraints on European decarbonisation tech reaching its potential.

What are the key evaluation criteria when considering an investment?

We back exceptional founders building technologies with measurable decarbonisation potential, strong tech differentiation, and venture-scale market opportunities. Our thesis is simple: the technologies that will make Europe powerful are the same ones that will decarbonise it. Commercial leadership and climate impact are the same thesis.

What support do you provide to portfolio companies beyond capital?

World Fund is an active and long-term partner to its portfolio companies. We work closely with founders on strategy, go-to-market, hiring, platform, communications, and the scaling challenges specific to deep tech businesses. From regulatory navigation to commercial introductions to tier-one media visibility and network effect at the moments that matter most.

We also reserve significant capital for follow-on rounds, ensuring that the companies we back have the firepower to scale at home rather than being acquired abroad or forced to raise elsewhere.

What is World Fund’s track record and performance to-date?

World Fund closed its first climate tech fund at €300 million in 2024 - the largest debut climate VC fund in European history at that time. The fund drew support from major institutional investors, including the European Investment Fund, KfW Capital, BPI France, NRWbank, and pension funds such as the UK Environment Agency Pension Fund and Wiltshire Pension Fund.

World Fund has made more than 20 initial investments and several follow-ons, with numerous more portfolio companies due to raise at higher valuations in the months to come. This includes unicorn IQM Quantum Computers (which IPOed in August 2026), across energy, food, ag, quantum, semiconductors and beyond. Explore our full portfolio here for more information.