Exclusive: European climate fintechs raised 2.5x more VC funding in 4x more funding rounds than North America

Climate fintech report

CommerzVentures’ report, which analysed 645 climate fintech startups across Europe and the US, examining 10+ attributes per company using Pitchbook and Crunchbase data,  exclusively shared with TFN, shows that climate fintech investments have reached $2.7bn globally, a 17% increase from the previous year. While overall venture funding grew by just 3% in 2024, climate fintech investments consistently outperformed throughout the year.

Europe maintained its lead over the US, with European climate fintechs securing 2.5x more VC funding ($1.948M vs $765M) across 4x more financing rounds than North America (111 vs 27). Notable funding rounds include 1komma5 ($232M), Envria ($200M), Iceye ($158M), Osapiens ($120M), and Cloover ($114M). Germany leads with $832M in funding, while energy fintech startups emerge as the hottest trend, raising over $870M.

Tech Funding News spoke with leading climate fintech players and VCs to get their insights.

Over 50% of deals target early-stage startups

The 2024 funding landscape showed strong promise. The report reveals robust early-stage investment activity, with 53.6% of financing rounds at pre-seed and seed stages, 25% at Series A, and 21.4% at Series B or later. Notable rounds include Cloover (€105M seed funding), Carbmee (€20M in Series A), Prewave (€63M in Series B), Datamaran ($33M in Series C), and 1Komma5 (€150M in late stage).

Image credits: CommerzVentures

Paul Morgenthaler, Managing Partner at CommerzVentures, told TFN: “Simply put, the market opportunity in Europe is bigger. This is driven by regulation and societies demanding more climate action from political actors and corporations. A key finding was the growing importance of big data and AI solutions for managing transition and physical climate risks.”

Dr Moritz Belling, Principal at Earlybird, a Berlin-based VC, added: “The intersection of FinTech × ClimateTech is gaining tremendous momentum. We’re witnessing unprecedented growth in new energy assets — from consumer level to corporate and grid-scale deployments. All these assets require financing, and companies like Enpal have demonstrated this is a compelling opportunity.”

Belling continued: “Most of these assets are still deployed by conventional companies, such as traditional electricians and installers who need innovative financing solutions. This trend has driven fintech companies to develop embedded financing solutions and software infrastructure, enabling incumbent companies to access financing while helping financial institutions deploy funding into these asset classes.”

When asked, CommerzVentures did not report on female funding in climate fintechs across Europe. Here are our latest findings on this topic.

$870M for energy and fintech synergy

Energy fintech startups received the most funding in 2024, at $870M, followed by carbon markets, at $460M, and climate risk, at $404M. Amos Wittenberg, founder and CEO of London-based climate fintech Unwritten, shared insights on the climate risk industry’s growth: “Regulatory changes, particularly CSRD and TCFD, have created immediate demand for climate-related risk data and reporting solutions. There’s also recognition that climate change presents real material risks and opportunities for investors, even as momentum has slowed for some major target-setting and decarbonisation organisations.”

Image credits: CommerzVentures

Wittenberg emphasised: “Investors continue to procure data and focus on risk management, despite pulling back from pure reporting and transition planning. VCs found investing in climate-related hardware and deep tech challenging, leading them to focus more on software and services that can scale rapidly and address climate problems.”

Shilpika Gautam, founder and CEO of carbon financing platform Opna, told TFN: “I’m excited to see greater overlap between climate mitigation and adaptation themes. “I’m also excited to see more institutional capital, such as asset managers and pension funds, strategically investing in high-quality carbon and climate projects that simply make better business sense. To do this, they need help understanding lending and investing opportunities, optimising due diligence, and managing portfolios. I’m particularly excited to see AI automating routine functions and parsing large quantities of data for these offerings.”

Germany is leading the way, followed by the UK and Sweden

In 2024, German climate fintech startups led European funding with $832M. Belling explained to TFN: “Germany has seen a boom in renewable energy installation, creating market champions like Enpal and 1Komma5 — role models that pressure incumbents to compete. These companies have developed not only talent accessible to startups but also financing channels and partners eager to deploy capital into renewable assets.”

Image credits: CommerzVentures

The UK ranks second with $276M in funding (roughly a third of Germany’s total), influenced by available capital, entrepreneur presence, and company setup costs. At the same time, Sweden ($223M) and Finland ($158M) show impressive funding volumes relative to their economic size.

Gautam observed: “The UK has traditionally been a strong financial services hub. Progressive regulation has created a mature, successful fintech ecosystem with high talent density. From infrastructure to payments to insurance and beyond, many from this talent pool now apply themselves to climate, working with traditional players to solve climate mitigation and adaptation challenges. This has created a powerful UK—especially London-centric—climate fintech ecosystem.”

A bet for 2025: what awaits us?

The climate fintech momentum continues building. German climate fintech Bees & Bears secured €500M in January 2025. Belling concluded: “We expect this trend to continue, focusing specifically on embedded financing and software infrastructure that helps financial institutions deploy funding.”

Morgenthaler added: “Heading into 2025, climate policies may feature less prominently on political agendas than in previous years. However, most corporations continue decarbonising their value chains and remain committed to net zero objectives. Climate fintechs must quantify ROI and time-to-value for the year ahead to unlock budgets.”

Interestingly, some experts see climate fintech evolving beyond a niche category. Gautam noted: “By 2025, I foresee climate fintech becoming simply fintech — integral to managing climate risks and carbon as core business functions.”

The post Exclusive: European climate fintechs raised 2.5x more VC funding in 4x more funding rounds than North America appeared first on Tech Funding News.

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