“It’s not only a green thing, it’s really a cross-party conviction that we need to move ahead in order to be globally competitive, and that there is a strong industrial push behind it. ”
— Lena Thiede
In a society pushing most planetary boundaries, how can venture capital step in and scale the technologies we need to change the world?
That’s the power behind Planet A Ventures, led by environmental advocate and policymaker Lena Thiede.
Lena is a co-founding partner of Planet A — a cutting-edge green tech venture capital fund that only invests in European startups with a proven and significant positive impact on the environment. They’ve already hit an important milestone, raising an impressive €160 million in 2023 that has been put into action for backing and scaling startups with groundbreaking green technologies in development.
What’s truly unique about Planet A Ventures is that they’re the only early-stage VC with an in-house science team dedicated to conducting rigorous life cycle assessments before investing, which Lena leads. This means they place the highest value on impact as the primary screening metric, guaranteeing significant positive outcomes for climate, biodiversity, and beyond.
Lena is a prominent figure in environmental research and policy, thanks to her substantial background in climate science and over 11 years of experience as a senior government official at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
She knew early on in her childhood that she wanted to be involved in political science and environmental protection, a desire that landed her in government programs in Tanzania and East Africa, focusing on biodiversity and water resource monitoring and evaluation. Lena has also done environmental research for the German Advisory Council on Global Change, OECD, GIZ, and the Ecologic Institute. She also advises the EXIST Program of the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, promoting more science-based startups.
Tune in to hear all the fascinating examples of science-based impact investing that Lena shares, along with how Planet A is transforming the landscape of sustainable venture capital.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Connect with Lena: LinkedIn
- Planet A on LinkedIn
- Planet A website
- Planet A on Medium
SHOW NOTES:
[00:00] Meet Lena Thiede & her formative years
[08:23] Lena’s time at the Ecological Institute in Berlin & 3plusx
[13:48] Moving to Tanzania & Managing the Serengeti & Selous game reserves
[19:16] Relocating to Cape Town, founding Planet A, and Lena’s other ventures
[25:55] A high level overview of Planet A ventures
[33:48] The relationship between impact and financial returns
[34:51] Planet A’s investment universe & how they measure impact
[48:42] Conducting lifecycle assessment analysis
[54:51] Positive impact beyond Planet A & the biodiversity lifecycle analysis
[59:55] An end-to-end look into a Planet A investment
[01:08:53] Rapid fire questions
MORE LENA THIEDE QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW:
“The science-driven approach not only allows us to take very precise investment decisions, it also attracts mission-driven founders that value our credibility, because everybody is green at the moment, and it’s very hard to cut through that noise. ”
— Lena Thiede
“I am deeply convinced that we don’t have the time to just throw money into the air and see what sticks. We need to understand what are the solutions that really move the needle. And that is why we anchored impact into every step of our investment process. ”
— Lena Thiede
