Lyon-based VC Axeleo Capital has achieved the first closing of its €250 million Green Tech Industry I Fund, securing €125 million to support industrial startups in renewable energy, sustainable materials, green mobility, and agriculture. Investors include Bpifrance, Veolia Group, and Crédit Mutuel.
- Founded in 2017 by Eric Burdier and Mathieu Viallard, Axeleo Capital is an early-stage VC managing €300 million in assets. The firm supports European startups at seed to Series B stages, focusing on sectors including B2B software, PropTech, Construction Tech, and GreenTech.
- The Axeleo Green Tech Industry I (GTI I) fund aims to make 15 to 20 investments across Europe, with lead investments ranging from €3 million to €10 million.
- The fresh fund will focus on sectors such as energy, including renewable energy and storage, chemicals and materials, like biomaterials and plastic recycling, agriculture and food, such as bio-based fertilizers and pesticides, and mobility, including electric motors and the decarbonization of air and sea transport.
- With the initial fund, Axeleo Capital has invested in Sweetch Energy, a Brittany-based renewable energy company that generates clean electricity from saltwater using its INOD® osmotic energy technology.
- The fund was supported by prominent investors, including the Révolution Environnementale et Solidaire fund, backed by Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale 's societal dividend, Bpifrance, and the Fonds National de Venture Industriel (FNVI) managed by Bpifrance.
" The support of our sponsors and investors, whom we thank for their confidence, reinforces our collective ambition to contribute to the emergence of tomorrow's European and green industrial sectors’, Guillaume Sarlat and Marc Lechantre are delighted to say," commented Guillaume Sarlat and Marc Lechantre, Venture Partners at Axeleo Capital.
- The fund will be used to finance the first factory of European industrial startups dedicated to the ecological transition, providing crucial support to startups at the stage of setting up their first plant and scaling their operations.
"In line with our values and our entrepreneurial DNA of supporting founders, this fund allows us to address a field of major innovations around decarbonization, green technologies, and the renewal of industrial sectors in Europe," Claim Eric Burdier and Mathieu Viallard, co-founders of Axeleo Capital.
