Netherlands’ LUMO Labs launches €100M fund for European impact startups

Dutch venture capital fund manager LUMO Labs is launching a new €100mn fund for Europe’s impact-driven tech startups.

Building on LUMO Lab’s existing investment strategy, the new Rise Fund will target startups that develop emerging technologies which align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The technologies include AI, blockchain, IoT, VR, and AR. Their application needs to serve LUMO Labs’s focus areas of SDGs: Good Health and Wellbeing, Quality Education, and Sustainable Cities & Communities, and Climate Action.

The Rise Fund will also aim for more regional diversification beyond the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium where LUMO Labs is mostly active. The investment team is now expanding its focus on Scandinavian countries, the Baltic States, Spain, and Portugal. Startups from the rest of Europe can also apply for funding.

The fund will invest in approximately 30 to 35 impact-driven tech startups over the next four years. The selected startups will also receive access to the LUMO coaching programme, which aims to optimise economic value creation and maximise the companies’ environmental and social impact in line with the fund’s objectives.

Multiple parties have already committed capital to the Rise Fund, including individual investors, family offices, financial institutions, and Dutch regional development agencies, such as BOM and Oost NL.

LUMO Labs was founded in 2016 by Andy Lürling and Sven Bakkes. The duo launched the first fund in 2020. Since then, LUMO Labs has invested in 23 impact-driven and deeptech startups, such as Alphabeats, Enliven, and Hulo.

According to Lürling there’s a long list of challenges that startups can address, from urbanisation and the increasing lack of drinkable water to the aging population and healthcare shortages.

“We would love to see entrepreneurs that are bold enough to work hard and accomplish the audacious goals they set for their company,” he told TNW.