2150, the venture arm of private investment firm Urban Partners with offices in London, Oslo, Berlin and Copenhagen, has raised €197m for its second fund.
The fund, which invests in the ‘urban stack’ — including startups developing resilient construction materials to those working on the electrification of transport options — is backed by the Augustinus Foundation in Denmark, Novo Holdings, Danish state-back fund EIFO and US-based pension fund Church Pension Group. German family office Viessmann Generations Group and Finnish family offices Security Trading Oy and Virala Group are also LPs.
Christian Hernandez, 2150’s cofounder, says its investments from the fund will be a mix of “SaaS type software” and “physical stuff that hasn’t existed before” — anything “to make cities thrive”.
“You need to think about the inputs and outputs,” he tells Sifted. “The water that flows in, the waste that flows out — and even the utilities that power the city.”
2150's strategy and track record
2150 will invest in 20 Series A and B companies out of the fund, with half going to Europe-based startups and half going to companies in the US. The firm will write cheques of €3m-15m, and half of the fund will be kept for follow-on investments.
As with the VC’s previous fund, it will look to take double-digital ownership in the startups it invests in — some will be 16-17%, some will be 7-8%, Hernandez says. It is also looking for founders who have a combination of commercial, scientific and manufacturing acumen.
Since Q1 of last year it’s made three investments out of the fund. It led a €14.1m Series A in Cologne-based Metycle, a marketplace for global metal recycling; it led a £22m Series A in London-based Mission Zero Technologies, which develop technology to take carbon dioxide out of the air; and it participated in AtmosZero’s $21m Series A, a US-based startup developing industrial heat pumps to decarbonise industrial steam.
Alongside revenue, the fund tracks portfolio companies for KPIs including air pollution rates and water savings. In 2023, 2150’s portfolio companies mitigated almost one megatonne of carbon dioxide, Hernandez says, adding that he expects that to be even bigger in 2024.
Tough fundraising market
2150 started raising its second fund less than two years ago, but raising took a lot longer than it did for its first fund, which it raised in 2021. “The overall tech market has been slower. LPs are getting less distributions,” Hernandez says.
“We saw it coming slowly, then quickly right? Interest rates going up, limited liquidity, then elections and then greenhushing happened,” he adds.
