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The whole thing “almost happened by itself,” says Sebastian Heitmann, referring to his VC fund Beyond Black, which officially started on February 11th.

In other words, the project arose out of an interest in sustainability.

The fund differs from many others primarily in its special focus: "We only invest in companies that make a significant technological contribution to reducing CO2 emissions," explains Heitmann in an interview with "Gründerszene".

For example, Beyond Black has invested in the geothermal energy company GA Drilling, which is the fund's first and so far only investment.

Heitmann, who was already an entrepreneur himself, is one of four founding partners.

Joern-Carlos Kuntze, a long-time friend and founder of Berlin Technologie Holding (BTH), was there very early on.

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"Together we thought about what we could do to reduce CO2 emissions, initially with our own money." This resulted in individual, smaller investments, says Heitmann.

Then came Yair Reem, who had previously worked for Hasso Plattner Ventures for a long time, and Oliver Schwarzer, currently CFO at BTH.

Beyond Black: "We are not a charity"

“At first we didn't want to run lengthy fundraising for our fund, that would only have slowed us down,” says Heitmann.

Instead, a decision was made in favor of an ongoing structure and investors have already been found for it, mainly German family businesses.

20 million euros are available for the first year, says Heitmann.

These are to be spread over around ten investments.

The long-term goal is a fund volume of at least 250 million euros.

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If the investor says that the team is looking to make a “significant” contribution to CO2 reduction, then there is a specific benchmark: the technology must be able to save one percent of global emissions, at least in the long term.

“So we're not going to invest in e-scooters, which is too marginal in terms of CO2 savings.

Not even in a shop that sells energy-saving lamps. ”At the same time, Heitmann and his colleagues expect a decent return on their investments.

"We're not a charity."

Beyond Black never invests alone

The creators of Beyond Black are well aware that 20 million euros for a year will hardly be enough to give the companies enough impetus.

Also that with the comparatively low volume they will not be eligible for all good deals.

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"That is why we never invest alone," says Heitmann, "we are looking for financially strong partners." It is more about mobilizing capital in the long term - more than the small Berlin team can do alone.

“But first of all, the really big players have to see good exits.” Because then you can show that investments in sustainability are also worthwhile.

Heitmann, Kuntze, Reem and Schwarzer want to work towards this with their portfolio companies.