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If you ask me, climate tech investor Contrarian Ventures isn’t so contrarian right now.
The five-year-old company is targeting $100 million for its second seed-stage fund, and is in the middle of climate-technology innovation. So, if anything, it’s trendy.
But when the seed-stage VC — backer of e-bike maker Zoomo and solar data company PVcase — launched in 2017 with $13.6 million in funding, the focus was “clearly the opposite,” co-founder Roxas Peciulatis told TechCrunch as “industries.” AI and fintech were in vogue at the time,” he said.
The launch marks an unexpected milestone for Pessulites, which says it has “literally zero experience in the climate technology sector” as it enters the space. He recently left a job in the inflation business at Bank of America, a job “not perfect at all,” Pessulatis said, citing the bank’s reputation as a major fossil fuel fund.
In the year In 2017, Pitchbook recorded 578 climate technology deals worldwide, totaling $12.5 billion. The sector has tripled in size as climate change-driven extreme weather events occupy an ever-present place in our collective consciousness. In the meantime: Pitchbook tracked 1,130 climate technology deals globally by 2021, worth $44.8 billion. Climate technology is cool now, but Pesulites, a Lithuanian venture firm, is sticking to its name.
Like any venture capital firm, Contrarian says it stands out because of its focus on “creating good relationships with founders.” Materially, the firm invests in technology that helps decarbonize transportation, industrial processes, energy and buildings.
Contrarian has completed 21 deals to date and has expanded beyond Lithuania this year with new partners in Berlin and London. The company supports emerging startups in Europe and Israel, but nowhere in the Middle East. Currently, the company does not invest in technologies related to agriculture, although the sector has its own high carbon footprint.
In an email, Contrarian said he counts London-based tech VC Moulton Ventures among his limited partners. The organization declined to share the full list of LPAs, but noted that none were fossil fuel companies.
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