May 6, 2022
Übermorgen Ventures - The Climate Tech Evergreen Fund with Alex Langguth
Alexander Langguth is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Übermorgen Ventures, an early stage Zurich-based venture firm with early investments in climate innovators like Sunvigo, carbo culture and delicious data.
Alex has always shown a high level of transparency and collaboration with other Climate Tech investors. In this episode, I take you behind closed doors and give you maximum insights.
- We discuss Ubermorgen's evergreen fund model and why it actually helps to raise 1st-time funds.
- We hear Alex share how difficult it was to raise a first fund and how they run investment decisions
- And Alex and I rip on contrarian views, on what most people get wrong about being a fund manager and advice for job seekers and entrepreneurs
Listen and Learn
- The reasons why Ubermorgen picked an evergreen fund model
- The difficulty to sell this new model to LPs initially
- Alex’s expected ratio of institutional funds, evergreen funds, solo GPs in Europe in 10 years
- Alex most painful moment raising their 1st fund
- Whether LPs cared more about impact of financial returns
- Why having contrarian views and avoiding confirmation bias is so important in VC
- The area where Alex has completely changed his views over the last 2 years
- What most people have wrong about being a fund manager
- How Übermorgen handles investment decisions internally and votes on deals (with 1 to 10 scoring)
- The best advice to share with entrepreneurs on HOW to engage with VCs to maximize success of their fundraising
- How to land your first job in Climate Tech
Show Links
- Ubermorgen Ventures' Website
- Alex's Linkedin
- The Sequoia evergeen fund and more about Sequoia’s open ended fund model
- Climate Tech Slack communities: Voyagers and My Climate Journey
- The runing list of all Climate Tech VC funds (in Europe and worldwide)
- The Huge heat wave hitting India and Pakistan with 42C
- The Wet build 35 phenomenon when it’s too hot for humans to survive
- Ubermorgen Newsletter
- Impact assessment framework by Full Frame Initiative
- Climate Fiction book recommendation: The Ministry for the Future
Carveouts
- Climate Fiction book recommendation: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. A fantastic Climate Fiction which gives a lot of clues as to what geoengineering solutions might be most helpful and they will play out. It’s like reading into the future of Climate.
Alexander Langguth
Managing Partner at Übermorgen Ventures
Alexander Langguth is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Übermorgen Ventures, an early stage Zurich-based venture firm with early investments in climate innovators like Sunvigo, carbo culture and delicious data.
