Key Findings:

• The growth of the booming CleanTech venture capital sector is accelerating: Investments in startups of relevant CleanTech sub-sectors have tripled from about €2.2 billion in 2020 to about €6.8 billion in 2021.
• The boom in CleanTech has so far been driven by the decarbonization of the economy and transport, driven by regulation and society’s desire for climate protection. In 2022, security and geopolitical advantages will be an additional driver for the CleanTech sector.
• The CleanTech sector is “coming of age”: The average size of a funding round has almost doubled from c. €6m to €11m, which is associated with a significantly higher share of late-stage funding in 2021 vs 2017.
• The UK is the leading country for CleanTech investments by number of deals between 2017-2021, while Sweden is by far in first place by deal volume with €4.6bn, followed by UK with €1.9bn and Germany with €1.7bn deal volume. The Swedish volume is mainly driven by 2 companies, Northvolt and NEVS.
• The energy storage & e-mobility sectors attracts highest funding: With a deal volume of €4.6 billion, the energy storage sector leads the way, driven by the rise of e-mobility and megadeals from Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt. The e-mobility sector follows with €2.4 billion in deal volume. In addition to Swedish unicorn NEVS, there were several large financing rounds, especially in 2020-21: VanMoof and Lightyear in the Netherlands, Rimac Automobili in Croatia, and Sono Motors, Ubitricity and EVUM in Germany, which have the potential for larger rounds in the near future.
• For the first time, there were also successful SPAC transactions in the European CleanTech Universe. While Verne Global was listed on the London Stock Exchange, the other companies opted for Nasdaq (Navitas, Arrival) or NYSE (Wallbox, FREYR)