Germany-based ecologically-minded search engine operator Ecosia formed a venture capital vehicle dubbed World Fund yesterday with a €350m ($405m) targeted close, to back entrepreneurs working to tackle climate change.
Sustainability investment platform Econos is among almost 60 limited partners for the fund, as are private investors including Rolf Schrömgens, Verena Pausder and Philipp Pausder.
Founded in 2009, Ecosia runs an online search engine and donates its advertising proceeds to reforestation initiatives. More than half of World Fund’s capital has already been earmarked for investment, and the vehicle is on its way to a first close scheduled in the first half of 2022.
World Fund targets early and growth-stage developers of technologies that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in areas such as energy, mobility, construction, food and agriculture. Ecosia itself had acquired a 20% stake in UK-based wooden debit card developer TreeCard for $1.3m in October 2020.
