The Investment Thesis Behind Almi Invest's GreenTech Fund
As Sweden's most active startup investor, Almi Invest sees a lot of pitch decks. We discuss how their new fund investing in Food, Ag, and ClimateTech.
Almi Invest is Sweden's most active startup investor with 3 billion Swedish kronor under management. They make about 50 new investments each year, and since their inception have invested in 660 companies, some of which have been acquired by the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Apple or IPOed at a billion kronor level on the stock market.
Almi Invest’s new GreenTech Fund is partially funded by the Swedish Energy Agency along with the European Union and its focused solely on making investments into companies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has 650 million Swedish (60 million euro) kronor under management. Our guest today is Investment Manager Karen Ebbinghaus. In this episode, we dive into their investment thesis, what a GreenTech business model looks like, how food plays into the sector, and what they are looking for in a pitch deck.
Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 1:40
Welcome Karen. I'm excited about this conversation with you. You're a little bit of a different interviewee than we've had before because you're working for a GreenTech fund, which has a much broader perspective than just food. So, I'd love to get started by having you introduce what Almi Invest is. What is the investment thesis you guys have? And what is your role in the organization?
Karin Ebbinghaus, Almi Invest 2:02
Well, great to be here. I'm glad to be participating in this podcast to describe further what we do. If I go back to describe what Almi Invest is, I think the best word to describe us is that we’re Sweden's most active startup investor. So, we're a venture capital company investing all over Sweden, basically through eight regional venture capital companies as well as one national GreenTech venture capital company. We manage about 3 billion Swedish kronor. We're actually celebrating our ten year anniversary this year. We have invested in more than 660 startups. That's a lot. I think we have almost 300 portfolio companies and we're approximately 50 investment managers working all over Sweden. Our role as a sector independent public venture capital company is to serve as a bridge to private equity and contribute to a functioning venture capital market throughout Sweden. We have, over the years, co-invested with about a 1,000 business angels and other institutional investors. And a few years ago, I think about two years now, the GreenTech Fund was started because it was quite apparent that there is a need for venture capital in the energy and environmental sector, which is dominant because there's not that many investors active in that space.
Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 3:51
I see. So, when you say GreenTech, what are the main areas then that you're looking at investing into? And how many cases have you guys actually processed so far?
Karin Ebbinghaus, Almi Invest 4:02
For us, the definition of GreenTech is actually we're focusing on products and services that have a CO2 reducing effect. It's the greenhouse gas emissions that we want to reduce. So, it could be investments in areas from renewable energy, recycling systems, energy production, storage, waste management, and also food tech and the food industry because as you know, the world's food consumption is about 22% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. So, food is really contributing to the greenhouse gas issue and the climate. So, we need to address that as well, not only what you perhaps think of when you think of CO2 reduction from energy or more heavy industry.
Analisa Winther, Nordic FoodTech Podcast Host 5:02
Are you guys looking at anything in particular in relation to food? Or are you seeing a trend in the kinds of cases coming across your desk that you can elaborate on?