Rubio Impact Ventures

🌞 Enjoy the summer with Charlie's agri-tech picks! 🌞 Our awesome colleague Charlie Macdonald has put together some fantastic reads and listens to make your summer both fun and enlightening. Whether you're lounging by the pool or chilling in the garden ⛱️, these recommendations are sure to spark your curiosity and expand your knowledge about the future of food systems and energy transitions. 📘 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: "Regenesis" by George Monbiot. An amazing, thoughtful, and optimistic book on fixing the food system. Monbiot’s insights are deep and hopeful, making this a perfect read for those long, sunny days. Dive in and get inspired about sustainable agriculture and food security. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gf6vuGJ4 🎧 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: "The Energy Transition Show". This super in-depth podcast is all about the energy transition. Ideal for upping your “geek rating” in energy systems while enjoying your summer downtime. Charlie will be tuning in all summer, and we think you should too for some seriously enlightening episodes. ➡️ https://xenetwork.org/ets/ Embrace the sunshine and keep learning! 🌻📚🎧 #AgriTech #EnergyTransition #impact #Innovation #vc

🌊 A tsunami of mental health challenges at work 🌊 In his latest column for De Ondernemer, our managing partner Warner Philips discusses a critical yet often overlooked issue in today's workplace: mental health. 💡 Did you know that 1 in 5 Dutch employees struggle with mental health issues? The situation is even more alarming among younger workers, where 1 in 4 experience burnout symptoms. Despite this, mental health remains a taboo topic at work. ❤️ Warner emphasizes that creating an open and supportive workplace culture is not just beneficial for employee well-being but also for overall productivity and team spirit. He highlights the importance of early recognition and intervention, sharing insights from Rubio’s approach, which includes regular team check-ins, stress-reducing activities, and anonymous mental health support platforms like our partner and portfolio company OpenUp. We believe that by breaking down barriers and encouraging open conversations about mental health, companies can foster a healthier, more supportive environment for everyone. 🫶 Let’s work together to make mental health a priority in the workplace, just as we do with physical health. 💪 Check out the full (Dutch) article to learn more about how we can drive this important change. Link to the article in the first comment ⤵️ #impact #column #mentalhealth #wellbeingatwork #leadership #workplaceculture

More investment news!! 🚀 Meet our latest investment: Female Invest who is on a mission to close the gender wealth gap. 💰💰💰 📊 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲: The financial gender gap remains significant, with women in the USA owning only $0.32 for every $1 owned by men. In Europe, men have 24% more wealth than women on average. At the current rate, it will take 169 years to achieve full financial gender parity. 💡 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Female Invest empowers women through financial education, helping them improve their financial literacy, make informed investment decisions, and achieve long-term financial security. Their platform allows users to learn about investing, simulate investments, and by 2025, make actual investments. 🎉 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱-𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀: In July, – direct after our investment round - Female Invest's additional crowdfunding campaign raised $1 million USD in just 4 minutes, breaking several world records. 👩💼 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗙𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁: Founded in Denmark in 2019, Female Invest is led by a talented team of female founders: Camilla Cloëtta Falkenberg, Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen and Emma Due Bitz. Together they built a strong brand, published bestselling books ‘Girls just wanna have funds’, and achieved numerous accolades, including Forbes 30 under 30 and being the first women from the Nordics to join Finance YCombinator. We look forward to supporting Female Invest in their expansion into the UK and US, alongside our fellow impact investors Sparkmind.vc and Educapital. To learn more about Female Invest and join the movement towards financial equality, check out the  link in the first comment ⤵️ #impact #ImpactInvesting #femaleempowerment #education #tech #finance 

💰💰 Investment News!! 💰💰 Meet NoPalm Ingredients, who is on a mission to revolutionize the industry with local, circular, and sustainable oils as alternatives to palm oil. 🌱 The Big Idea: NoPalm has developed a yeast based fermentation process to produce low cost oils & fats, perfect substitutes for palm oils in food, cosmetics, and home care products. Palm oil comes at a huge environmental cost to virgin rainforests while NoPalm’s yeast oil needs 99% less land and reduces emissions by more than 90% - it's the wonder oil we need. 🌍 Why It Matters: We believe companies like NoPalm are essential to living inside our planetary boundaries. That's why we're leading this investment round, alongside the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), Oost NL, Fairtree Elevant Ventures, and several business angels. This investment enables NoPalm to scale up their impressive results so far to large-scale production and secure long term contracts with their pipeline of engaged food and cosmetics customers. 💪 Let’s Go Green! Excited to collaborate with Lars Langhout, Prof Dr Jeroen Hugenholtz and Jeroen Blansjaar on this journey. Let's create a waste-free, sustainable world together! Join us in supporting their mission! Check out the link in the first comment to learn more about NoPalm Ingredients ⤵️ #impact #ImpactInvesting #sustainability #environment #innovation #tech #greentech

Hej hej! We are happy to announce that our portfolio company & partner RABLE has landed in Sweden as part of their international expansion journey. Rable’s innovative solar panel mounting system will contribute to unlocking solar energy potential of all roofs in Sweden! 🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪 Their advanced grid lattice structure allows for the installation of solar panels on even the weakest flat roofs, making solar energy more accessible than ever. This launch comes in response to the strong interest Rable has received from Swedish installers, building owners, wholesalers, and EPCs. We’re excited that Erik Valks and team Rable can now bring their expertise and groundbreaking solution to the Swedish market, where the demand for sustainable energy solutions is rapidly expanding. Interested in learning more? Follow Rable on LinkedIn and explore further at https://www.rable.com/se/ #solar #tech #innovation #impact #impactinvesting #sustainableenergy #HejSweden

🚀 Dive into the EU Emission Trading System (ETS), the world's largest carbon emission trading scheme. As part of Rubio's deep dive series, we've explored the dynamics of the ETS to uncover valuable lessons for climate tech founders and investors. Key takeaways: 1️⃣ Decreasing Carbon Supply: The EU Commission's annual reduction of the emission cap drives long-term decarbonization, not fluctuating allowance prices. This is crucial for climate tech sales pitches focused on future risk mitigation. 2️⃣ Sector-Specific Benefits: While the energy sector sees immediate impacts from ETS, industrial sectors like steel and cement await the removal of free allowances for significant change. 3️⃣ CBAM's Game-Changing Impact: Starting 2026, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will level the playing field by imposing the same carbon costs on imports, erasing the threat of "carbon leakage." Rubio’s Strategic Focus: 🔋 Supporting energy sector ventures like Sympower, taylor., RABLE, and Amber Electric in grid decarbonization. 🌱 Investing in technologies for hard-to-abate sectors, including Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS), green hydrogen, and novel furnace technologies like RIFT. Link to the deep dive in the first comment ⤵️ #impact #climate #tech #sustainability #EUETS #impactinvesting #vc

As the summer sun (finally!) ☀️ shines brightly and many of us take a well-deserved vacation, it's the perfect time to reflect on your future and explore new opportunities. Whether you're relaxing on the beach ⛱️ or chilling in the garden, take a moment to check out the job openings at our portfolio companies (link in the comments ⤵️). Your perfect opportunity to refresh your career and drive meaningful impact might be just a click away.   🔎 Explore the vacancies at Renewaball, HealthSage AI, Amber Electric, Cleverly, Valyuu, RABLE, E-magy, SOLASTA Bio, RIFT, Vytal | The reuse system, NOVAMEAT, Winc Academy, Sympower, Arborea, Wakuli, SkillLab, Microverse, Lingvist, DeWarmte, GoodUp, Olio • Share More, Waste Less, Sama, SkinVision, taylor., GoodFuels, OpenUp, Mosa Meat, Sympower, tiney, Incision, Prêts, Hero and…   🌍 Contribute to projects that make a real difference. 🤝 Collaborate with innovative, passionate teams. 🚀 Grow alongside companies dedicated to impact.   Seize this summer to reflect and act. 💪🌟💚 #jobopportunities #impact #career #impactinvesting #JoinTheChange #RubioPortfolio

Curious about how the new EU AI Act impacts WorkTech and EdTech startups? 🤔 We've got you covered! 🔥 In our latest blog post, Partner Ilonka Jankovich and intern Paul de Ruijter unpack the Act's framework and its real-world implications, featuring insights from our portfolio company, SkillLab. 🔍 Key Highlights: 🌟The AI Act's risk-based classification system 🌟Practical steps for startup compliance 🌟SkillLab’s strategic approach to aligning with the AI Act 🌟Discover how your startup can navigate this new regulatory landscape and stay ahead in AI innovation. 👉 Check out the full article for an in-depth analysis through the link in the first comment ⤵️ #AI #TechStartups #EdTech #WorkTech #EUAIAct #Innovation #Compliance #impactinvesting

We are happy to announce a new milestone for our portfolio company Vytal | The reuse system, who secured over €6.2 million new capital, enabling them to accelerate their deposit-free digital reusable packaging solution across Europe 💰💰💰 The round was led by Emerald Technology Ventures through its Sustainable Packaging Innovation Fund, and includes contributions from VENTIS CAPITAL and existing investors Grazia Equity, Kiko Ventures, Chi Impact Capital and Rubio 🤗. Vytal is the largest digital reuse system in Europe🇪🇺, with Germany 🇩🇪 as its leading market. Recently, the Vytal team celebrated at fan zones in Cologne, Stuttgart, and Berlin during the European Championship. At these events, 60 stands served food using Vytal’s reusable packaging system. Vytal collaborates with over 7,000 partners across 17 countries to minimize single-use packaging and advocate for sustainable alternatives. Corporate campuses, universities, business districts, airports, city centres, shopping malls, trade fairs, festivals, and entertainment venues can adopt Vytal-powered reusable solutions. Every year, the EU throws away 66 billion 😲 single-use food and drink containers. Vytal aims to transform the packaging industry and eradicate single-use packaging with its reusable solutions. Using software and data analytics, Vytal offers efficient, cost-effective and sustainable packaging choices that benefit both businesses and the environment while creating a true circular economy. The new investment will enable Vytal to expand into new markets and enhance their software and data-driven solutions for stakeholders across the reusable packaging circular value chain. Congratulations for reaching this new milestone Fabian Barthel, Josephine Kreische, Dr. Tim Breker, and the rest of Team Vytal 🚀 And looking forward to our collaboration with Emerald, Grazia and Kiko Ventures! #impact #impactinvesting #serieA #sustainability

💥 Climate Clash @ Rubio 💥 If you’re feeling discomfort in climate tech at the moment, you’re not alone. With temperatures rising, planetary boundaries exceeded, climate politics regressing, and more cautious climate tech funding there’s plenty of good reasons to feel the unease.  But we say, embrace the discomfort! ❤️ That was the overarching theme of our 2024 “What the Heck, It's Climate Tech!”. Driven by curiosity and our own feelings of climate vulnerability, we tackled some of the most uncomfortable climate tech questions of 2024. Where and how should we invest our limited climate action funds 💰? When should corporations take climate responsibility? Is climate regulation our superhero 🦸 or merely a sidekick? Helmer Schukken called out that to be a VC is to be a "paranoid opportunist", making the case for Rubio’s True, Eager & Bright values keeping us focussed on true partnership and a Just Transition. Next Charlie Macdonald shared Rubio's take on climate tech, that embracing uncomfortable investing helps us find fundamentally transformative ideas beyond the hype. And we hosted two  “Climate Clash” debates on thorny topics with the experts. In the first, Mark van Baal (Founder, Follow This | Shareholders change the world) and Ernestien Idenburg (Co-founder, The Zoönomic Institute) shared contrasting models of steering corporate decisions from the courtroom vs the boardroom. And in the second, Jakop Dalunde (MEP) and Nancy Kabalt- Groot (Chair of Sympower, Partner at Windkracht 5! 5, and Board member of Fastned, Ennatuurlijk B.V., Better Energy) tackled how regulation like the ETS and CBAM from Brussels is playing out in the world. A huge thank you to all the guests who made this event unforgettable – a great mix of Amsterdam's start-up ecosystem and industry professionals from the energy, agrifood, and circularity sectors. We loved connecting with all the passionate entrepreneurs, operators, and investors dedicated to Climate Tech. Here's to many more exciting events! 💪🔥 #impact #impactinvesting #people #climate #tech #event