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Even before the health crisis that began in 2020, there was a growing realization that we would not last long on this planet without contributing to achieving the climate goals. Today, the war in Ukraine, the tense geopolitical situation and the energy crisis have inevitably caused polarization in this way of thinking. Some are ready to throw the entire idea of the green transition in the trash to find quick solutions, while others are prepared to invest in it as much as possible to immediately start moving towards future solutions.

SmartCap Green Fund, SmartCap’s initiative to accelerate the launch of innovative products, services and technologies supporting the green transition, aims to publish the detailed terms of direct investments from the fund by the end of October.

SmartCap announced on September 6th a Call for Expressions of Interest (Call) to find up to two private fund managers, who would establish green technology investment funds to which SmartCap Green Fund will make a cornerstone investment of 20 million euros each.

On August 25, SmartCap together with PwC Estonia held a seminar at StartupDay 2022 on EU Taxonomy regulation vis-á-vis green investments.

On August 15, 2022, SmartCap held a Market Consultation for the upcoming call for establishing two greentech funds. Below is the video recording of the event as well as the Questions & Answers document.

SmartCap Green Fund seeks to invest 40 million euros in total in two private capital funds to accelerate the launch of innovative products, services and technologies supporting the green transition.

Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the past year was a successful one for SmartCap, which invests in Estonian start-ups – through funds and direct investments, the investments of SmartCap Venture Capital Fund reached more than one hundred companies with a total turnover of nearly €850 million by the end of 2021.

SmartCap has selected Superangel as the deep tech fund manager, which will be raising additional private capital to the state’s 15 million anchor investment in order to invest in the development of deep tech companies.

SmartCap is organizing a public tender to find a lead to a science accelerator with the aim to stimulate innovation through a programme designed to guide participants and their ideas through developing protoypes and help commercialize an investable product in the fields of green technology and enhancement of natural resources.

Despite the increasingly devastating natural disasters and new crises that are shaking societies, we need to talk about the “green transition”, and talk loudly, writes SmartCap Fund Manager and Member of Board Sille Pettai.

According to a recent study conducted by EY among entrepreneurs and investors, GreenFund which was set up to accelerate the green transition, and which presently has 100 million euros available, should focus its investments primarily on hardware companies, whose solutions are more time-consuming and riskier compared to software.

Venture capital investors and VC funds estimate that the start-up companies with the greatest potential in the coming years are those which focus on green solutions, deep tech, decentralised finance and crypto, as well as improving health systems.