Almi Invest raises SEK 650 million for a GreenTech venture capital fund

Almi Invest and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth have concluded an agreement regarding a national fund for investments in innovative small and medium enterprises. The GreenTech fund focuses on products and services that have a CO2-reducing effect. Investments will be made in areas such as renewable energy, recycling systems, energy, waste management, and combustion The capital will be invested in about 50 companies by 2023. Co-funders for the fund are Almi Företagspartner, Almi Invest, the Energy Agency and the European Regional Development Fund.

Almi Invest is Sweden’s most active investor, with a presence throughout the country via eight regional venture capital companies. Since 2009 Almi Invest has invested about SEK 2 billion of regional funds in early growth companies. Now Almi Invest has raised SEK 650 million for a new national GreenTech fund.

The need for risk capital in the energy and environment sector is larger than in many other sectors. Barriers such as large capital requirements, a long commercialization process and regulatory risks that are difficult to assess are factors that have caused the shortage of capital that has created a need for a special GreenTech fund.

• “We are proud to have been entrusted with the mandate to own and run a fund with an investment focus on a key area of importance for the future in Sweden. Using our large investor network, our presence throughout the country and strategic partners, we can make a difference for new GreenTech growth companies for which there is currently a shortage of venture capital. The plan is for the fund to be staffed and ready to invest in the first quarter of 2017,” says Mikael Karlsson, CEO of Almi Invest.

The purpose of the fund is to bridge the market gap between supply and demand for venture capital investments in innovative companies that help to reduce greenhouse gases.

• “This is a major step in the conversion to a sustainable energy system. As a co-funder and partner in the new GreenTech Fund, we will be able to contribute both expertise and inflows of investment objects in a way that promotes sustainable development in the community along with growth, innovation and Swedish export opportunities,” says Erik Brandsma, Director General of the Energy Agency.

Here are three examples of portfolio companies that Almi Invest has invested in within GreenTech in existing funds:

One company is D-Laboratory, which is working on digitizing the electricity grid. It offers electricity companies the service of detecting and analyzing error indicators in the grid and can protect subscribers from power outages. Another example is Gårdsfisk, which sells an organic fish farming system for fish farming on land, close to consumers, with recycling of fertilizer for agricultural purposes. A third is Ferroamp, which has developed a smart energy hub that is the brain in a local DC grid which links solar panels with energy storage and energy consumers. It provides lower energy losses and a cost-effective scalable grid.