Cleantech Group Names the 2023 Awards for European Cleantech Investor, Fundraising Achievement, and Deal of the Year

Tallinn, Estonia – 16 November 2023 — Cleantech Group announced this year’s exceptional European companies who have made significant progress in championing sustainable innovation.  These celebrated winners were recognized at an Awards Dinner at the Cleantech Forum Europe yesterday.

The awards are based on the 12 months ending September 30th, 2023.

“This year’s winners stand out among many other impressive achievements in the past 12 months,” said Richard Youngman, CEO of Cleantech Group.

“With 2030 fast approaching, scaling solutions with urgency – firstly, to achieve the halving of emissions targets and secondly, to have momentum for the second and harder 50% to be achieved, 2030-2050 – feels like the critical challenge of our time. And our 2023 awardees are stepping up.”

European Investor of the Year 2023

The European Investor of the Year award recognizes an investor who has demonstrated positive outcomes and progress across the major activity set – fundraising, realizing positive returns for LPs, and portfolio management — both in progressing the current portfolio and adding quality new companies.

The venture capital team of Eurazeo, a €33.5B private markets asset manager, is the standout European investor across the full activity set for the past 12 months, demonstrated by:

• The final close of the Eurazeo new Smart City investment program, at €400M – oversubscribed, with an interesting and expanded group of international LPs. This program is primarily dedicated to support the growth of outstanding impact-driven companies.
   
• The successful sale of Breezometer to Google in the latter parts of 2022, a positive exit for investors.
   
• The capital they are putting to work. With approximately 10 deals in 2023, including most notably in 1KOMMA5°’s €215M Series B after co-leading its Series A, Eurazeo has helped take this high-flying European company to unicorn status in under two years from its founding.

Standout European Fundraising Achievement of the Year 2023

The Standout European Fundraising Achievement of the Year award is for a company active in clean technology whose fundraising achievement stands out for any combination of its audacity or its novelty, its impressive execution or the quality of its syndicate, or its pioneering and example-setting nature.

H2 Green Steel is a developer of large-scale, integrated, digitalized, and automated steel plants with lower carbon impact.  The company was the clear winner this year because they:

• Announced in October 2022 that, on the equity side it had closed its Series B1 round of €260M.
   
• This has recently been followed by their latest equity round of €1.5B in September 2023, alongside debt financing of over €3.5B.

This is what scaling with ambition and urgency looks like.

European Deal of the Year 2023

The European Deal of the Year award recognizes stand-out deals, considering not only their financial characteristics, but also for the wider impact and what the deal says for the future of deal-making for clean technology companies and investors, and for the direction and future of sustainable innovation.

Verkor is a producer of low-carbon batteries for electric vehicles and stationary storage.

• Verkor recently secured more than €2B, thanks to a Series C of €850M, €600M of bank finance from the European Investment Bank, and grants amounting to approximately €650M.
   
• This is the largest financing ever for a French start-up. And it is a great example of the kind of public and private, equity and debt — combinations which are going to be needed in ever-larger volumes to meet our climate goals and decarbonize the global industrialized economy.

About Cleantech Group

Cleantech® Group is a research-driven company that helps corporates, public sector, investors and others, identify, assess, and engage with the innovative solutions and opportunities that are related to the world’s massive, and growing, environmental and climate challenges.​ Our insights and expertise are delivered to clients all over the world through our Research, Consulting, and Events.  We have been the leading authority on global cleantech innovation since 2002.​