Climate tech-focused VC funds have popped up so often in recent years in Europe that it’s no longer the USP investors hoped it could be. 

That’s according to Nucleus Capital, which is today announcing a €40m fund focused on a niche far more specific than just ‘climate tech.’ It’s looking to back companies rethinking food production or industrial production using synthetic biology.

“A climate fund is way too generic,” says Maximilian Schwarz, who previously worked at Berlin-based foodtech fund FoodLabs and cofounded Nucleus alongside his school friend Dr Isabella Fandrych, an industrial engineer. 

“The necessity to have green DNA in any kind of business will increase tremendously in the coming years, so I don't think a climate fund is a differentiator. I think every generalist today will be a climate fund in 10 years.”