FCF CleanTech Venture Capital Report – 2023 published

Key findings are:

• The boom in the CleanTech venture capital sector is slowing down: although deal volume in 2022 in the relevant sub-sectors has once again increased significantly from €7.3 billion to €9.7 billion, the number of deals has decreased significantly (902 vs 1,110 in the previous year) – especially in the last quarter of 2022. Nevertheless, both values are still well above the volumes achieved in the past (2020: €2.4 billion with 676 deals)
• Sweden leads the ranking by deal volume: With a financing volume of €6.4 billion in the period 2018-2022, Sweden is clearly ahead of the UK (€4.0 billion) and Germany (€2.8 billion). However, this is mainly due to Northvolt’s 4 megadeals (totaling €4.7 billion) – without Northvolt, Sweden would be ranked 4^th behind Germany (same as the ranking by deal count)
• Megadeals dominate the CleanTech sector in 2022: The average size of a financing round has multiplied from €3.3 million in 2020 to €6.6 million in 2021 and €10.7 million in 2022. This is partly due to a higher share of late-stage financing and partly due to some megadeals in the triple-digit million range > €300 million: Northvolt, Climeworks, Rimac Automobili, Einride and Perpetual Next. In Germany, megadeals were contributed by Sunfire (€210m in 2022), Infarm (€177m in 2021) and Enpal (€150 & €100m in 2021)
• Related sectors Energy Storage & E-Mobility attract the highest funding: With a deal volume of €6.8 billion, the energy storage sector leads the way, driven by the rise of e-mobility (€4.6 billion deal volume) and the expansion of renewables, which create additional storage demand. Without Northvolt, the segment Energy Storage would only be ranked 4^th behind Recycling & Environment, E-Mobility and Energy Generation.