Participated · Series C · May 2022

zolar operates an online platform that provides homeowners and regional tradespeople access to individual residential solar solutions and related energy-management products. The company recently launched zolar Easypay, a flexible, individual instalment loan that lets customers choose between a one-time upfront payment or a monthly fee to own systems. This financing product expands zolar’s consumer offering and aims to make solar adoption more accessible and affordable. zolar states its mission is to enable people to benefit from self-generated green energy while contributing to climate protection. The company aims to supply more than ten million European households with renewable energy by 2030. Since being founded in 2016, zolar has raised close to €300 million to support its growth. Zolar offers an online configurator that simplifies buying or leasing customized rooftop solar systems for homeowners and coordinates installations through a network of local craft businesses. The company says enquiries about installing solar systems have more than quadrupled this year amid rising energy prices, and it currently works with 500 local installers. Zolar plans to expand that Craftship Partner Network to 3,000 installers by 2025 and will open a training centre this year to address the renewable sector skills gap. The product roadmap includes new digital energy features such as an energy management system, a dynamic electricity tariff and a smart control to auto-charge electric cars at optimal times. Zolar has previously raised €59 million and its installer network recently benefited from $23 million in support from Ecosia. CEO Alex Melzer has set a goal to supply 10 million European households with either a solar system or renewable energy by 2030. Zolar provides residential customers with photovoltaic systems using an all-in rental/lease model designed to lower upfront costs and bureaucratic barriers. Customers can rent systems for as little as €54/month, with monthly pricing tied to individual electricity consumption and system size. Leases run for 20 years, after which homeowners can purchase the system for a symbolic €1 and typically continue to use it for another ~10 years. The company aims to expand into new markets and will deploy fresh capital to accelerate that growth. Zolar positions its offering similarly to competitor Enpal and emphasizes making solar energy accessible, affordable, and effective for a broad consumer base. The company is led by founder and CEO Alex Melzer. Zolar provides fixed-priced photovoltaic systems through an in-house Zolar Online Configurator that lets homeowners plan, compare and commission PV systems online. The company pairs its digital sales platform with a network of local partner installers to deliver end-to-end rooftop solar deployments. Zolar is expanding its product portfolio to integrate energy storage and electric mobility, and aims to enable electrified, smart households. Management says revenue grew significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic and the company is targeting to triple installations across Germany in 2021. Zolar positions itself as a customer-centric next-generation energy company focused on decentralised renewable systems and carbon footprint reduction. The Berlin startup employs around 150 people across Germany and emphasizes climate protection as a primary business priority. Zolar develops photovoltaic systems and energy-management solutions for homes, producing solar panel systems that provide power when needed and store the rest. Its core products include the Zolar Online Configurator for customers and the Zolar Project Center portal for partnered installation technicians to digitise their work. The company aims to become a key data provider for the accelerated energy transition by optimising its digital platforms and expanding internationally. According to a press release, revenues this year have doubled compared to 2019. Zolar will use the new funding to expand abroad and to establish itself as a go-to company for clean energy and individual solar systems, CEO Alex Melzer said. Founded in 2016 and based in Berlin, the startup previously raised a €4 million Series A three years earlier.

Participated · Series C · Apr 2022

Labster builds fully interactive virtual laboratory simulations used in high schools and universities to enhance science learning. Its platform combines game-development techniques with learning psychology to offer life-like lab experiences that can replace or supplement in-person labs. Labster supports over 3,000 universities and high schools, tens of thousands of courses, and millions of students every year; over 5 million students have used the platform. The company employs 350-plus people from over 30 countries and delivers simulations across 70-plus countries. Labster is expanding its simulation library and broadening offerings to younger students and adult workforce skills training, aiming to reach 100 million students through institutional and government partnerships. It positions its product for hybrid, remote, and in-person learning modalities and reports improvements in student engagement and reduced failure rates. Labster provides immersive virtual science laboratory simulations to colleges, universities and high schools via institution-level subscriptions, with features such as 3D animations, replays, quiz questions and a virtual learning assistant. The company positions itself as a platform for immersive learning rather than a content company and is building tooling (Labster Portal) for teachers to track student usage and embed lessons. Labster has paused large-scale VR headset efforts to prioritize solutions that work on hardware institutions already have. The startup reports more than 2,000 colleges, universities and high schools on its platform and has signed deals including the entire California Community College network (over 2.1 million students) and a country-wide agreement in Denmark. Management says the new capital will be used to increase staff, expand into regions including Latin America and Africa, and invest in product development to better support teachers. Labster has set goals to serve 100 million students in the coming years and to enable users to customize and build their own simulations on its platform. Labster builds virtual-reality and simulated laboratory experiences for STEM students, sold to institutions via subscription tiers that control access levels. Its simulations include 3D animations, replays, quiz questions and a virtual learning assistant to supplement in-person courses. Usage of Labster’s VR product increased 15X since March, and the company added 2.1 million students through a deal with all of California’s community colleges. The majority of customers are private institutions, and growth has been driven by larger annual license deals and partnerships. Labster plans to use new capital to expand in Asia and to bolster its mobile offering for high-mobile markets. Since being founded in 2012, the company has raised $40 million to date and its valuation is reported above $100 million. Labster, launched in 2013 and headquartered in Denmark, provides fully interactive virtual laboratory simulations powered by VR for students in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and general sciences. The company offers about 70 virtual labs designed to increase participation in STEM curricula and improve learning outcomes and retention. Labster’s simulations aim to give students access to experiments they might not otherwise have due to cost or limited lab time, and the product is sold as a subscription with institution and individual student account models. By 2018 more than 150 universities and high schools had adopted Labster, a quadrupling of annual growth that put the software in the hands of over 200,000 students worldwide; customers include Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Exeter and ETH Zurich, and partners include Google, Arizona State University, Lenovo, Pearson and Springer. The company will use new funding to expand its STEM content catalog, develop additional lab simulations, and continue scaling U.S. operations including customer support and sales. Labster builds interactive 3D simulations of laboratory experiments and equipment designed for life‑science teaching, delivered via a platform built on the Unity game engine. The company has created around 65 simulations and supports both B2B sales to universities and B2C access for individual students. Labster aims to replace traditional textbooks up to graduate level with immersive, reusable simulations and has worked with institutions such as MIT and Imperial College. The platform is cross‑platform (desktop/tablet with VR/AR support planned) and includes a “lab builder” tool to let educators and students create content. Currently around 150 institutions use Labster, with primary markets in the UK and the US and additional users in Asia and South America. With the new funding the company plans to expand simulation content across more science topics, accelerate product development, and grow sales, marketing and headcount.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2022

EDURINO offers a platform that combines educational games, ergonomic input tools, animated characters and physical elements (figures and an ergonomic pen) to teach reading, logical thinking, coding and environmental knowledge. The product blends digital storytelling, age-appropriate interactive content and analogue play to create intuitive learning experiences for children aged four to eight. The company was founded in 2021 and has an interdisciplinary team of over 40 educators, game designers, psychologists and scientists; learning effects are evaluated with the University of Cambridge. EDURINO has sold over one million products and is used in more than 1,500 educational institutions. The company is developing a low-code system to enable content creation without manual programming. Future plans include new content such as video formats, hybrid digital-analogue products, integration with popular children’s brands, and international expansion including the UK. Edurino, founded in 2021 in Munich by Irene Klemm and Franziska Meyer, builds a hybrid learning platform combining a digital app, haptic play figures and an ergonomic stylus for children aged 4–8+. Its offering is used by more than 160 educational institutions and the company has sold over 100,000 products to families in the DACH region. Last year Edurino signed distribution agreements with over 10 major retail and online partners in the DACH region, including Media Markt, Saturn, Müller, Thalia and MyToys. The company employs a remote team of over 45 people. Edurino intends to use recent funding to accelerate international expansion within the DACH region. Edurino offers a hybrid learning system combining an ergonomic stylus, a toy fox named Mika and a learning app designed for preschoolers aged four and up. The product blends physical toy figurines with digital content so children learn through play while parents can track progress and regulate screen time. The app independently announces the end of play time and switches off when allotted screen time has elapsed, and the learning journey adapts to each child’s developmental stage. The company has tested integration in over 20 kindergartens and ran a crowdfunding campaign that exceeded its target by 60%. Founded by Irene Klemm and Franziska Meyer, Edurino is positioning itself to expand content beyond literacy into numeracy and to build a holistic learning system for preschool and older children. The startup plans to bring more figurines to market and launch its products in retail this year.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2021

Responsibly is a Copenhagen-based supplier data platform for responsible procurement that employs AI to find and understand data generated within the sustainability sector. Its platform analyzes factors such as carbon emissions, gender pay gap, human rights, and deforestation to produce a supplier sustainability data score. The company serves customers including CERN and Chr. Hansen. Responsibly intends to use the newly raised funds to expand operations and development efforts. The product is positioned to help companies assess supplier sustainability and lower data compliance costs. Responsibly offers a platform that benchmarks suppliers across environmental and social metrics, including deforestation, water pollution, human-rights violations, and gender pay gaps. The company is building a layer on top of existing data providers so procurement teams can flexibly read, interpret and use supplier information for sourcing decisions. It plans to soft-launch the first version of its platform and will analyze supplier data for more than 10,000 suppliers for pilot customers. The product targets retailers, builders and other purchasers to bring transparency into procurement and enable impact-driven sourcing. Responsibly competes with EcoVadis and Integrity Next. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Thomas Buch Andersson. It raised funding to accelerate development and customer pilots.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2021

CleanHub operates a platform that links brands whose plastic products may pollute oceans with local collection partners in coastal regions of developing countries. Founded in January 2020 by Bosse Rothe, Joel Tasche, and Florin Dinga, the company uses a track-and-trace process to allow companies to verify and neutralise their plastic emissions. The platform is trusted by over 250 brands, including Noughty, Yamo, everdrop, Only One, and Mövenpick. Alongside its environmental verification service, CleanHub focuses on bridging waste-management gaps and enabling brands to purchase plastic-collection services. The company announced a $7 million funding round and has appointed Louis Pfitzner as Co-CEO to oversee commercial growth and revenue generation. Cleanhub operates a platform that connects brands whose plastic products may end up in oceans with local collection partners that recover non-recyclable plastic in coastal regions of developing countries. The service uses a track-and-trace process so companies can verify a positive environmental impact by neutralising their plastic emissions. The company was founded in January 2020 by Bosse Rothe, Joel Tasche, and Florin Dinga. Cleanhub has partnered with more than 70 brands, including Noughty, FOAMIE, Vuori, Nordgreen, Share, OceanBrands, and Würth. It reports having recovered the environmental equivalent of the weight of more than 20 million water bottles in India, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Brazil. The new funding will be used to further flesh out the technology stack and expand its tracking abilities for larger collections.