Climate50 2.0 — Contrarian Ventures x 2150

Filling the Blind Spots of Climate Tech Ecosystem

Firstly, let’s start with some context and reflection. Since the launch of the Climate50 back in January of 2021, it has grown to a platform with over 190+ climate-focused VC firms. We had over 20k+ visitors on the website, and over 200+ founders used the “check the fit” feature to ease their fundraising efforts.

We can confidently say that founders have used this as a trustworthy resource for their fundraising. We are genuinely proud of the results. We always believed Climate50 was never about the VC “pat on the shoulder” but acted as a Rolodex and a credible source of information for the founders’ community. It’s great to see those founders found it a valuable resource. We hope many of these climate tech businesses will be funded and become truly game-changing technologies, accelerating the shift towards net-zero. Equally, great to see that the list is growing fast with newly minted Climate Tech VC firms in 2021. It is hard to keep the tabs; thus, if we are still missing someone, please don’t be a stranger and reach out to us or nominate fellow investors.

Continuing our mission of raising awareness around the threat of climate change, inspiring more investors to join the climate fight, and deploying capital in the most critical transition humanity has ever faced, we are excited to announce that the annual Climate50 list for 2021 is live. Cast your vote for the most impactful Climate Tech investors until the 21st of April. We are looking to announce the final top 50 Climte50 list and the ultimate category winners on the 25th of April.

Mobilizing Climate Capital

At Contrarian Ventures, we recognize that mobilizing capital for climate action will be about creating a collaborative ecosystem of partners across different stages and expertise. When we initially launched Climate50, we got many endorsements and support from fellow VCs and the broader Climate Tech community. However, some of these dialogues continued and expanded our view of what could be done with the Climate50 platform. Thus, we have some news to share with you.

We are delighted to announce our partnership with 2150 — a leading global Climate Tech Venture Capital firm focused on solving some of the most significant problems facing the planet today. From our first interaction with the 2150 team, we immediately clicked and felt very aligned on the vision and mission what the future for the Climate50 platform holds. Thus, we are excited to welcome 2150, and we are confident that together we will build and take Climate50 to the next phase.

“We are excited to take Climate50 to the next level together with 2150 partnership. We have loads of big plans for what’s next for Climate50. To solve one of the biggest crises humankind has ever faced, and with a defined timeline, we need to bring more transparency and mobilize more capital,” shared Rokas Peciulaitis, Founder of Contrarian Ventures and Climate50.

Christian Jølck, the co-founding Partner of 2150, added — “Dozens of VC firms are now making the scaling of technologies that can have a material impact on the climate crisis their core mission. Alongside them we are beginning to see a growing support from large pockets of institutional capital begin to support this effort, which is critical and welcome. Those forward-thinking pools of capital must also be celebrated!”

Climate50 will continue to create more transparency about who is proactively allocating more capital towards the net-zero agenda. While initially, Climate50 started to bring transparency to the VCs, next we will kick-start a new chapter and explore who is the money behind the VC money — Limited Partners, commonly referred to as LPs.

So, What Can be done?

As Greta Thunberg put it last year — “Net-zero by 2050, blah blah blah”, while addressing the crowd of leaders and urging them to take climate pledges seriously and match them by action. If one in the LP community truly believes in the importance of climate change, one needs to put their money where their mouth is and increase their funding towards Climate Tech funds. LPs need to get up to speed, understand the urgency, and get educated on this emerging category.

Not tomorrow, but now. And with that, we can’t wait to update you on this next initiative within the Climate50 platform — so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, we invite you to vote for your leaders at Climate50!