It’s been a rocky year for Europe’s climate tech ecosystem, encapsulated by the bankruptcy of Northvolt, Europe’s best-funded and most talked about climate tech startup. In today’s newsletter we break down the data on the year that was,using Sifted's H2 2024 report: scroll on for that.
Elsewhere, as well as company downfalls, in recent weeks, the term ‘climate tech’ itself has come under fire. The debate started in November when American investor Tommy Leep fired off a short tweet:
A final note from me: this is our last newsletter before the holidays — thank you for reading this year, and to everyone who’s got in touch with feedback and tips. We’ll be back in January 💚
And move to Lithuania — a country that blends fast-paced tech careers with fulfilling lifestyles. It's the destination where opportunity, innovation and quality of life meet. Ready to join a community that dreams as big as you do?
The proposed system, with a capacity of 200MWh, will convert renewable electricity — from sources such as wind and solar — into heat, stored in molten salt tanks at over 500°C. This stored heat can be used on demand to replace fossil fuels in Arla's milk powder production at its plant in Holstebro, Denmark, enabling up to a 100% reduction in CO2 emissions from process heat.
The project is now seeking EU support of around €20m-30m, and when funding is secured it plans to have the system up and running by 2029.
✈️ Munich-based Vaeridion, which is building an electric plane, has raised a €14m Series A led by World Fund. Vaeridion is aiming to deliver its first plane by 2030. It's an interesting time for an electric aircraft company to raise — the giants in the sector, Lilium and Volocopter, have both had a tricky year.
🚚 Swedish-German truck maker Scania is in discussions to acquire one of Northvolt’s battery subsidiaries,Impact Loop reportedthis week. The two are said to be discussing the sale of components owned by Northvolt Battery Systems, a subsidiary based in Stockholm which counts mining equipment manufacturer Epiroc as a client.
Scania and Northvolt have a long history: the truck manufacturer signed an offtake agreement to buy batteries from the gigafactory. Scania also invested in Northvolt,lending it $100m under its bankruptcy deal in November.
🇬🇧 A new report from lobby group Startup Coalitionsuggests that UK climate tech founders are lukewarm about the impact the new Labour government’s had on the industry during its first months in power.
The majority (38 out of 59) believe that the party’s victory was “quite good” or “very good” for the industry, but they’re less impressed by the progress so far. Only 11 of the 59 surveyed said that the first five months of the Labour government had been a good thing for their business.
Climate tech in 2024: a story in two halves
2024 started with a bang. In mid-January Swedish battery startup Northvolt secured $5bn in debt financing, cementing its position as Europe’s best-funded startup and signalling the increasing willingness of banks to back climate tech (23 of them joined the round.)
The money continued to pile in that month, with Stegra (previously H2 Green Steel) netting €4.5bn in debt and equity. The flurry continued into March, when SoftBank-backed Enpal, which provides solar panels to consumers, raised a €1.1bn debt financing vehicle. Smaller companies also started to bring in debt: German solar startup Zolar secured €100m in April.
The rounds saw climate tech’s debt financing hit €14.4bn in the first half of this year — dwarfing other sectors.
However: that trend came to a screeching halt in the second half of this year. Combined, Europe’s climate techs raised €1.5bn in debt, a 90% dip compared to the first half of the year.
By the second half of 2024 murmurings of trouble at Northvolt had begun to surface, starting with the news that BMW had scrapped an order with the gigafactory.
“The performance of Northvolt has likely spooked the banks that were so bullish about European tech at the start of the year,” Sifted senior analyst Ruggero Di Spigna writes in our H2 report.
So, across a year of two halves, which climate tech vehicles brought in the most?
Energy storage came out top — though its total includes €5bn of debt financing for Northvolt — while advanced materials was buoyed by Stegra’s €4.5bn raise.
Agritech and electric vehicle technology saw a flurry of smaller, earlier-stage rounds. Early on in the year, we spoke to investors who hailed2024 as the “year of grid tech”and, while VCs have continued to wax lyrical about the opportunities in the sector, it brought in less than other areas — filed under ‘Smart Grids’ in our categorisation.
2024 saw just one climate tech unicorn crowned: Newcleo, a nuclear fission startup which moved its holding company from the UK to France this year. Newcleo secured an €87m round in May and a further €48m in September.
In our next newsletter in January, we’ll dive into what trends investors expect to dominate in 2025. Share your thoughts on that with me:freya@sifted.eu
We ventured through 2024 to rank the region’s most innovative high-growth startups in fintech, green energy, healthtech and many other sectors. We also dig into the trends and data to understand what factors are fuelling their growth. See the rising stars.
Zürich, Switzerland-based ANYbotics has raised a further $60m, taking its total Series B funding to $110m. The Series B extension was led by new investors Qualcomm Ventures and Supernova Invest.
The company, which spun out from ETH Zurich in 2016, builds four-legged robots designed to inspect places like energy and industrial plants. Its customers include industry giants such as BP, Siemens Energy and Petrobras.
Having recently opened an office in Silicon Valley, the Swiss startup plans to use the funding to further expand in the US.
Brussels-based Bnewable, which develops and implements renewable energy storage and management solutions, raised €40m in funding. RGreen Invest led the round and was joined by investors including Wallonie Entreprendre and Dovesco Fund Investments.
Jyväskylä, Finland-based Aisti, which specialises in innovative acoustic tiles made from renewable wood fibres, raised a €29m Series A. Maki.vc led the round and was joined by investors including Voima Ventures and Valve Ventures consortium.
Lugano, Switzerland-based Hive Power, which develops software for smart grids, raised €3.5m in seed funding from investors including Axpo, Creadd Ventures and Swiss Technology Fund.
Unlock free access to Sifted’s award-winning journalism, a guaranteed spot in our startup database and priority access to startup events with a Sifted for Startups subscription. We’ll help accelerate your startup’s growth.
