2150 launches $240m fund to reduce largest cities' carbon footprint

A new venture capital fund “2150”, with a budget of $240m, is set to launch with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint of the world's largest cities by investing in green tech.

The fund will back startups that inject carbon into concrete or that create monitors for the energy used in buildings among other things, reported TechCrunch on Tuesday.

The fund’s manifesto states that they will attempt to improve cities: “By building companies that leverage structural shifts, kill inefficiencies, remove pain points and enhance environmental upside.

"And have the potential to benefit billions of people, create billions in commercial value and lower gigatons of emissions.”

Management also said that it would only invest where sustainability impact can be measured, aiming for an initial portfolio consisting of around 20 companies.

The final close of the VC fund, which will have offices in London, Copenhagen and Berlin, is anticipated for mid-2021.

Sitting on the advisory board of 2150 were the former chief sustainability officer of the Obama administration and renowned urbanist and academic, Richard Florida.

The fund’s Limited Partners included a mix of institutional capital and family offices including Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker, Denmark’s Green Future Fund and Novo Holdings.

Anchor funding would be provided by NREP, a sustainable real estate fund manager with a large Northern European footprint and platform.

Mikkel Bülow-Lehnsby, Partner at 2150 and Chairman and co-founder of NREP, said: “With NREP we have been on a 15-year mission of making real estate and cities more efficient, customer-centric and sustainable. With 2150 we are leveraging all of NREP’s learnings and ambitions and partnering with our industry peers to identify and accelerate technology that can help us support our purpose of making real estate better.

“I am convinced that 2150’s mission-aligned team will play an important role in designing a future in which the convergence of entrepreneurship, technology and sustainability will reverse the built environment’s negative impact on the planet.”