Welcome to the Impact Highlight series, powered by EUVC, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping European venture.
This week,
is joined by
, founding partner at
, a climate-focused Article 9 fund reshaping what institutional-grade impact investing looks like in Europe.
A former serial entrepreneur turned VC heavyweight, Fabian spent nearly a decade at
before launching AENU alongside his brother. Today, he leads a €170M early-stage climate tech fund with one clear mission: backing ventures that can decarbonize at gigaton scale.
In this episode, we dive into Fabian’s journey from angel investor missteps to system-level innovation, and what it takes to truly build an impact-native VC platform—beyond surface-level ESG.
We talk about why the old fund structures don’t cut it for deep tech and climate moonshots, what real accountability looks like for impact metrics, and why mission-aligned founders are starting to demand more than just capital.
🎯 This Episode’s Themes
- Why Fabian walked away from generalist VC to go all-in on climate
- The hard truths of raising an evergreen fund in a bear market
- What it takes to measure impact—beyond the marketing slide
- How AENU’s founders “walk the talk” in company operations
- Why biodiversity collapse may hit harder than climate
Here’s what’s covered:
- 00:00 | Meet Fabian: From founder to Earlybird GP to climate VC
- 03:30 | When the science became too loud to ignore
- 06:00 | Early mistakes in angel investing—and how it shaped AENU
- 08:45 | Building AENU: Clean slate, pure play, Article 9
- 12:00 | Impact metrics that matter: CO₂e saved or removed
- 15:30 | Walking the talk: Travel policy, green ops & founder integrity
- 18:45 | Challenging the 10-year VC fund model
- 22:30 | Why climate tech exits need more patient capital
- 26:00 | The failed evergreen experiment—and what it taught them
- 30:00 | Climate vs. biodiversity: The next systemic wave
- 33:30 | Why Sequoia won’t fix this—but emerging managers might
- 36:15 | Founder redemptions: Building for impact after fast commerce
- 40:00 | The reality of fundraising as an impact-first VC
- 43:00 | AENU’s three pillars: Energy, decarb & climate adaptation
