From a ‘literal’ experience to $100 million, this VC is raising its second climate tech seed fund – TechCrunch
If you ask me, climate tech investor Contrarian Ventures has no objection.
The five-year-old company is targeting $100 million for its second seed-stage fund, and it’s doing so smack in the middle of a climate technology trading boom. So if anything, it’s trendy.
But when the VC is at the seed stage – the supporter of the electric bike maker Zoomo and solar data company PVcase — which launched with a $13.6 million fund in 2017, its focus was “clearly the opposite,” founding partner Rokas Peciulaitis told TechCrunch, as “the prevailing industries at the time were AI. and Fintech.”
The launch also marks an unexpected turning point for Peciulaitis, who says he has entered the scene with “real climate technology field experience that is no climate”. Recently he left a inflation-business job at Bank of America, where the job “wasn’t done in the slightest,” Peciulaitis said in a nod to the bank’s reputation as a main sponsor of fossil fuels.
In 2017, Pitchbook recorded 578 climate technology contracts globally, totaling $12.5 billion. Since then, the field has tripled in size, as extreme weather events caused by climate change take up more space in our collective consciousness. On that point: Pitchbook tracked 1,130 climate tech deals globally in 2021, ranked first in value of $44.8 billion. Climate technology is great now, but Peciulaitis’ Lithuania-based joint venture has always stuck to its name.
Like any venture capital firm, Contrarian says it stands out for its emphasis on “developing great relationships with founders”. On the physical front, the company invests in technology that can help decarbonize transportation, industrial processes, energy and buildings.
To date, Contrarian has completed 21 deals and this year it has expanded beyond Lithuania with new partners in Berlin and London. The company backs emerging startups in Europe as well as Israel, but nowhere else in the Middle East. Currently, the company does not invest in technology related to agriculture, although the portfolio has significant carbon emissions its own.
In an email, Contrarian said it counts London-based tech VC Molten Ventures among its limited counterparts. The company declined to share a complete list of its LPs, but stated that none of them are fossil fuel companies.
