Only two new climate tech unicorns were created in Europe in 2023: French gigafactory startup Verkor and Germany’s 1Komma5, which supplies heat pumps and solar panels to households.
Meanwhile, others lost their unicorn status: Swedish battery maker Polarium saw its valuation halved, according to documents obtained by local media.
We’ve calculated which climate tech companies could reach a unicorn valuation in 2024.
To get a place on this list of Europe’s climate tech soonicorns, companies had to be founded since 2005, have a valuation of at least $500m and have raised a round since 2020 to be considered. Sifted’s analysis is based on Dealroom data.
Otrium
Dutch startup Otrium runs an ecommerce marketplace for brands to sell excess stock with the aim of diverting more clothing away from landfill or even — as once happened with Burberry — being burned.
Otrium raised a $120m round in 2021, co-led by BOND and Index Ventures. It then secured €16.6m in December last year. Otrium closed its US operations to allow it to focus on the European market.
HQ: Amsterdam
Launched: 2015
Valuation: $900m
Deepki
Deepki runs a platform aiming to help the real estate industry reduce its emissions. It collects and aggregates data on companies’ sustainability metrics: things like carbon emissions, water and energy usage and waste, as well as other ESG measurements. It tries to automate the process as much as possible, using APIs and web scraping tools.
Deepki raised a $166m Series C round in March 2022, led by Highland Europe and One Peak Partners.
HQ: Paris
Launched: 2014
Valuation: $660—990m
H2 Mobility
H2 Mobility works on hydrogen-filling infrastructure. It’s built a network of stations across Germany. Its cap table is corporate investor heavy, including Hyundai, Shell, Total Energies and Equinor.
HQ: Berlin
Launched: 2015
Valuation: $605m
GO Sharing
GO Sharing offers electric mopeds which people can rent. It’s got 10,000 e-mopeds and it is operational across six countries — the Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey, Germany, Italy and Austria.
HQ: Nieuwegein, Netherlands
Launched: 2019
Valuation: $605m
Carbon Clean Solutions
Carbon Clean Solutions works on carbon capture and storage tech (CCS) which captures the carbon produced in industrial processes before it reaches the atmosphere, be it in cement and steelmaking processes, oil refineries or natural gas production.
CCS has its critics, with scrutiny centred on the idea that the tech allows the continued use of fossil fuels.
Carbon Clean Solutions secured a $150m Series C round in 2022.
HQ: London
Launched: 2009
Valuation: $600-900m
Sunfire
German startup Sunfire aims to help industrial companies decarbonise by developing and producing electrolysers for the production of renewable hydrogen and syngas — a synthetic gas which can be used as an alternative to fossil fuels.
Sunfire raised an €86m Series D in 2022 and received a €169m grant from the German government last year.
HQ: Dresden, Germany
Launched: 2010
Valuation: $600m
Be.EV
Be.EV builds and operates EV charging infrastructure. The company has installed tech across Manchester, where it is based and is now expanding out across the north of England. In 2022, Be.EV secured £110m from one of the UK’s largest energy companies, Octopus Energy.
HQ: Manchester, UK
Launched: 2019
Valuation: $581—817m
Connected Kerb
Similar to Be.EV, Connected Kerb also installs EV charging stations. The company secured a £110m cheque from Aviva Investors in late 2022.
HQ: London
Launched: 2017
Valuation: $581—871m
APK
APK works on advanced recycling processes to break down plastic waste and “multi-layer packaging materials” (those which combine plastics and paper, for example.) APK uses a solvent to split out different polymers.
The company secured a €130m round from investors including LyondellBasell, a chemical company.
HQ: Merseberg, Germany
Launched: 2008
Valuation: $572—858m
ICEYE
Finland’s ICEYE builds satellites that offer monitoring capabilities in real-time for things like floods and wildfires. It spun out of Aalto University in 2015 and has raised $302m in funding, according to Dealroom.
ICEYE closed a $136m Series D in 2022 from investors including Molten Ventures, Seraphim Space and the British Business Bank.
HQ: Espoo, Finland
Launched: 2015
Valuation: $544—816m
The rest of Europe’s climate tech soonicorns:
Flying Whales
HQ: Suresnes, France
Launched: 2012
Valuation: $537—805m
Stark Future
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Launched: $531m
Valuation: 2019
Ineratec
HQ: Karlsruhe, Germany
Launched: 2016
Valuation: $519—779m
Polarium
HQ: Stockholm
Launched: 2015
Valuation: 5.3bn SEK ($510m)
BNRG Renewables
HQ: Dublin
Launched: 2007
Valuation: $506—759m
