Wolves summit Vienna

The Wolves Summit in Vienna provided a great opportunity for Margareta and Dimitri to engage with a diverse group of investors, startups, and other stakeholders in the tech industry. The event's focus on climate tech investments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) appears especially relevant given the increasing global emphasis on sustainability and climate change mitigation.

The PwC Net Zero Future50 report, released during the summit, highlighted interesting trends and insights into climate tech investments in the CEE region. According to the report, investments in this sector have surged from US$10.6m in 2013 to over US$502m in the first half of 2021. However, the investments are highly concentrated in specific sectors and countries. For example, the Mobility and Transport sector attracted most of the climate tech funding, while startups in Estonia and Lithuania managed to raise 74.8% of the total investment in the region.

www.pwc.com

The next generation of climate tech start-ups have the potential to help us bend the emissions curve. We have explored the climate tech investment landscape in Central and Eastern Europe and highlighted 50 innovators that illustrate various decarbonization opportunities across the region.

In contrast, Poland, despite having the largest economy, has only raised 4.65% of the total climate tech funding in CEE between 2013 and the first half of 2021. Also, notably underfunded areas included the Food, Agriculture and Land Use sector and the Energy sector.

The report also profiled 50 innovative climate tech startups in the CEE region, based on their maturity stage, scalability, and climate impact. These startups represented twelve countries, with the most from Poland and Estonia. Interestingly, a majority of these startups are in the early stages of their journey, with only 20% having secured Series A/B funding.

The key takeaway from the report is that while the climate tech ecosystem in CEE is still in its infancy compared to other regions, there's significant potential for growth and diversification. This situation presents opportunities for early-stage venture capitalists interested in investing in pre-seed, seed, growth, and early-stage companies in the climate tech sector.

Wolves Summit and PwC's collaboration on this report emphasizes the importance of platforms that connect startups, investors, and partners for driving innovation and growth in critical sectors like climate tech. This sort of collaborative effort seems necessary for advancing climate tech solutions and for encouraging investor funding to align with climate tech entrepreneurs, as underscored by Agnieszka Gajewska, ESG Leader at PwC CEE.

Overall, the attendance at the Wolves Summit was a fruitful networking and learning experience.