SET Ventures

Energy Impact Partners (EIP) is a global investment platform leading the transition to a sustainable energy future. EIP brings together entrepreneurs and the world's most forward-looking utilities and operating companies to advance innovation. With over $1.5 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally across venture, growth, credit and infrastructure – and has a team of more than 50 professionals based in its offices in New York, San Francisco, Palm Beach, London, Cologne and Oslo.

The next-generation of European and Israeli climate-tech founders are poised to solve humanity’s most pressing challenge, but are heavily underfunded and underrepresented at Seed stage. Benefitting from unparalleled levels of engagement with the climate tech community, our platform-based model backs the pioneers building the technology that will become the infrastructure of tomorrow. Given that decades of collective actions got us into the climate mess, we leverage Energy Tech Summit, Energy Tech Challengers and Climate50 to make a collaborative effort to mobilise resources and get humanity back on track to decarbonize the economy.

Leveraging decades of climate tech investing experience, we support early-stage entrepreneurs building transformative companies that do more with less. We back teams that are based in North America who are innovating across atoms, bits, or business models. Our initial investments range from formation capital to Series A, and we support companies as they scale.

We utilise our network and experience in both early-stage energy businesses and large-scale energy asset deployment to identify and evaluate the energy transition solutions of tomorrow. Virida is an innovative fund that contributes to the energy transition by addressing the funding gap during the commercialisation stages of capital-intensive scaleups We support strong management teams working in the energy transition to scale their businesses. We identify structures to de-risk and grow companies to attract large capital volumes of infrastructure investors Exceptional Team: Complementary team of senior sector specialists with significant experience in energy transition investment, management & advisory Proven Expertise: Solid track record in the financing, development, construction and operation of renewables as well as in company building for > 2 decades Market Need: While an increasing share of VC & PE capital flows into energy, asset-heavy scaleups face a funding gap Virida Capital is backed by the Green Giraffe Group, consisting of 170 professionals across four continents who have accumulated deep energy transition sector knowledge and a large partner network Green Giraffe Group are finance pioneers in the energy transition since 2010. Approach We use our specialised sector knowledge to create value Deep in-house knowledge of the energy sector, project finance and operational growth management Access to a growing network of specialist capabilities to support early-stage ventures Sector: Energy Geography: Europe Ticket size: EUR 3 -10 M Investment strategy Virida will leverage substantial investment opportunities beyond traditional wind and solar energy to enable seamless system integration Investment criteria Capital intensive: We invest in new energy transition technologies and business models with a hardware component, which require a significant amount of investment to establish, grow and scale Positive climate impact: We only invest in companies which contribute significantly to the energy transition and have a clear commitment to uphold high environmental and social standards Technology readiness level (TRL): We invest in technologies which have successfully demonstrated technical feasibility. They are in the prototype validation or full-scale field demonstration and commercial deployment phase (TRL 6-9) Clear path to cash-flow: We invest in high-growth companies to support them in their growth and profitability strategies, such as scaling operations, optimizing sales and pursuing strategic partnerships. A pipeline of future revenue generating projects exists

Prelude Ventures invests in and supports early-stage startups with the greatest potential to mitigate climate change. We invest early and accept informed risks through a fundamental emphasis on venture-level returns combined with a deep understanding of the challenges of frontier technologies and markets. In 2009, we started the company with a commitment to take action. We began with a simple idea: the economy of the future will be driven by the climate needs of today. We saw an opportunity to invest in and support bold thinking that could help turn the tide against climate change while building the next generation of category-defining businesses. We were in a position to help these entrepreneurs change the world. So we did. Years later, this continues to be our central ethos: if we can act, we must. The transition to the low-carbon economy is the greatest investment opportunity of this century. We champion the brightest ideas and the boldest entrepreneurs with the goal of achieving the greatest positive impact on climate.

We are an early-stage venture capital firm investing in companies that jumpstart new industries in the emerging markets of Europe. Investment thesis Infrastructure for innovation We invest in startups that build the infrastructure for innovation and jumpstart new industries by breaking vicious cycles. The root of all evil Vicious cycles are endemic in emerging ecosystems - they are the byproduct of systemic deficiencies and make it difficult or even impossible for the emerging ecosystem to grow and develop. Example of such a vicious cycle at work in Central and Eastern Europe: the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is slowed down by the lack of the charging infrastructure; conversely, the charging infrastructure is not being built because of the lack of the EVs to use it. Because of their systemic origin, breaking such vicious cycles is a capital-intensive and a long-term endeavor - the kind of task a VC fund is both qualified and responsible to assume. On a high note - the root of all evil is where the promise of venture returns lies. A (technological) leap of faith Emerging ecosystems are strong enough to leapfrog existing technologies and adopt the solutions of the future. It happened in the past (see LTE adoption in Africa/India leapfrogging classical landlines) giving birth to a breed of companies that created their own markets. These startups are the backbone of the future ecosystem populated by dependent/client third parties. Opportunities A brave new world B2C - The rising billions In 2000, 6% of the world population was connected to the internet. In 2010, online adoption increased to 23% or 2 billion people connected. In 2020, more than 66% of all people will have online access. That’s an additional 3 billion people that will get access to the internet, raising the total number of connected population to 5.5 billion. B2B - The unicorn of one It is now possible to start a company valued at $1BN from your garage, with no assets and basically no employees. And this company may serve the giants of the corporate world. Fortune 500 companies already acknowledged that innovations come from small companies agile enough to disrupt industries. Today, the business development and strategy VPs turned into innovation scouters actively seeking emerging technologies and valuable teams to acquire or hire. Let’s talk money How we do it Our philosophy Our philosophy is quite straightforward: we invest at the earliest stages in companies whose founders have skin in the game, are coachable and address big markets. If the opportunity is real, we prefer to be the first institutional investor in such startups. Geography Our firm recruits regionally (in CEE) and invests locally (in Romania) to take advantage of country’s great technical talent, low labor costs, low operating costs and high-speed Internet access. Equity Because of our active engagement with our companies, we typically will take a correspondingly substantial equity ownership position (5% to 15%) in our investments and will join as a member of the company’s board of directors (Series A). Accelerator Stage At the Accelerator stage - we invest anywhere between €50,000 and €200,000 in exchange for 5% to 15% common stock. Series A At the Seed stage - our sweet spot is €500,000 but, if the opportunity is real, we can invest up to €4,500,000 in one company. Timing We are fast to say NO – won’t waste your time. Saying YES takes a bit longer: 4 to 6 weeks on average, but that depends on you too.