Focus and Conviction: Two Decades of Building the Intelligence Layer of Sustainability
By Patrick Sheehan and Rob Genieser, Managing Partners at ETF Partners
When we launched ETF Partners twenty years ago, climate change was widely acknowledged, but the idea that solving it could be profitable was, at best, fringe. “Sustainability through innovation” felt like a personal conviction rather than a mainstream investment thesis.
Today, we’re ranked #19 in Sifted’s Top 20 European VC Firms of 2025, and notably, one of the only sustainability-focused firms in the top 50. While that’s a meaningful recognition, it’s not the destination. It’s a milestone in a journey we’re still committed to and very much excited about.
What matters most in the Sifted ranking isn’t our position. It’s the validation that focused capital, guided by a clear mission, delivers real results. Unlike peers who cast a wide net, we deliberately focused on fewer companies. This lets us go deeper, working alongside entrepreneurs who are reshaping energy, mobility, food, insurance, and industrial systems.
Six of those companies appear in the Sifted 250, including:
- Next Sense, uses data, simulations, AI, and expert guidance to help decarbonise real estate
- Normative, making carbon accounting practical at scale
- Hubcycle, turning food by-products into high-performance ingredients
- Tomorrow, powering climate-smart decisions and reshaping the future of sustainable finance
- Open Cosmos, putting planetary intelligence into orbit
- Hellas Direct, reinventing insurance for a climate-volatile world
As we approach COP30, the conversation around climate investment is evolving. It’s no longer just about clean energy. It’s about system-wide transformation, driven by intelligence and scalability. The recent UN Climate Technology Progress Report 2025 underscores this point. Climate and biobased technologies are now essential economic infrastructure. The bioeconomy is valued at $4 to $5 trillion, with projections to reach $30 trillion by 2050.
However, these technologies only work at scale when they’re connected, traceable, and intelligent. This is the “intelligence layer” we’ve spoken about consistently. It’s the layer that makes sustainability measurable and actionable. From emissions data and ESG platforms to supply chain optimisation and energy forecasting, this is where venture capital has the most leverage, and where we choose to operate.
Our recent white paper makes the case clearly: the greatest environmental returns, delivered fastest, lie in the knowledge-based systems that enable and optimise infrastructure. These solutions don’t just add functionality, they unlock entirely new forms of performance, resilience, and adaptation.
This is also why we’ve always approached hype with caution. We remember cleantech 1.0. The headlong rush into hardware-heavy, capital-intensive plays. The optimism that outpaced market readiness. And the hard lesson that venture capital succeeds where there is demand, not just need.
That’s why we focus on companies with strong market signals, often post-revenue and digitally enabled. It’s why we tie part of our carried interest to measurable environmental outcomes. And it’s why we keep returning to a few principles that haven’t changed in twenty years:
- Great customers make great companies.
- Intelligence is leverage.
- And the trend — if it’s real — is your friend.
Looking ahead, COP30 will no doubt bring fresh targets and frameworks. But it’s the builders, optimisers, and integrators who will carry the work forward. We’re proud to support them — and proud of what comes next.
