EUVC E567 | EUVC Summit 2025 | Hampus Jakobsson, Pale Blue Dot & Romain Diaz, Satgana | ESG, CSR, DEI — Where Do the Acronyms Go?
When Hampus Jakobsson and Romain Diaz took the stage at EUVC Summit 2025, the conversation wasn’t about convincing people that climate matters. That part’s done.
This was about the harder bit:
→ How do we fund the climate transition without compromising ambition?
→ How do we handle LPs who see impact as indulgence, or carbon reporting as box-ticking?
→ And how do we build conviction-led portfolios in a world that wants both velocity and virtue?
One of the most powerful reframes came from Hampus:
“Climate is like mobile or AI—it’s not a virtue, it’s a vertical. The difference is: in AI, we don’t know the problem. In climate, we do—we’re just figuring out the solutions.”
That means climate investing is not philanthropy. It’s not reputation management. It’s venture—with a horizon, a thesis, and real outcomes.
“If you're just looking to carbon offset with our fund, I’m fairly uncomfortable taking your money.”
As Romain and Hampus both pointed out, climate LPs today fall into three broad groups:
Impact-maximizers – want carbon reporting, ESG scoring, metrics.
Return-seekers – want DPI, not data tables.
Narrative-driven LPs – want the signal value of “being in climate.”
A good fund has to navigate all three—with alignment being more valuable than agreement.
“We had an LP walk away from Fund I because we wouldn’t do their carbon reporting. And we were okay with that.”
Instead, Pale Blue Dot found alignment with LPs like IIP, the pension fund for Denmark’s nurses:
“I sometimes ask myself—will this startup help deliver a pension to Danish nurses in 10 years? That’s the kind of alignment I want.”
From methane-reducing agtech to fintech disruptors, the pair underscored the importance of building for what the world will need—not just what it rewards today.
“We’re backing founders who are asking: will this still make sense in 2050?”
The subtext: stop treating the climate transition as a hypothetical. It’s already here. And it’s reshaping everything from agriculture to infrastructure to insurance.
“We don’t need everyone to believe. We just need to keep showing portfolio wins. The returns—and the reality—will take care of the rest.”
The closing message from Romain and Hampus was clear:
We don’t need more virtue. We need more velocity.
Velocity in:
Deploying capital
Backing bold founders
Scaling actual solutions
And reshaping LP mindsets—one fund, one return, one story at a time
The climate transition isn’t waiting. Neither should we.
Climate Is Not a Virtue Signal—It’s a SectorThe Tension: Impact vs Reporting vs ReturnsOn Methane, Neobanks & the Year 2050Climate Investing Is Growing Up