Welcome to the Impact Highlight series, powered by EUVC, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping European venture.
This week,
August Solliv is joined by
Fabian Heilemann, founding partner at
AENU, a climate-focused Article 9 fund reshaping what institutional-grade impact investing looks like in Europe.
A former serial entrepreneur turned VC heavyweight, Fabian spent nearly a decade at
Earlybird before launching AENU alongside his brother. Today, he leads a €170M early-stage climate tech fund with one clear mission: backing ventures that can decarbonize at gigaton scale.
In this episode, we dive into Fabian’s journey from angel investor missteps to system-level innovation, and what it takes to truly build an impact-native VC platform—beyond surface-level ESG.
We talk about why the old fund structures don’t cut it for deep tech and climate moonshots, what real accountability looks like for impact metrics, and why mission-aligned founders are starting to demand more than just capital.
🎯 This Episode’s Themes
- Why Fabian walked away from generalist VC to go all-in on climate
- The hard truths of raising an evergreen fund in a bear market
- What it takes to measure impact—beyond the marketing slide
- How AENU’s founders “walk the talk” in company operations
- Why biodiversity collapse may hit harder than climate
Here’s what’s covered:
- 00:00 | Meet Fabian: From founder to Earlybird GP to climate VC
- 03:30 | When the science became too loud to ignore
- 06:00 | Early mistakes in angel investing—and how it shaped AENU
- 08:45 | Building AENU: Clean slate, pure play, Article 9
- 12:00 | Impact metrics that matter: CO₂e saved or removed
- 15:30 | Walking the talk: Travel policy, green ops & founder integrity
- 18:45 | Challenging the 10-year VC fund model
- 22:30 | Why climate tech exits need more patient capital
- 26:00 | The failed evergreen experiment—and what it taught them
- 30:00 | Climate vs. biodiversity: The next systemic wave
- 33:30 | Why Sequoia won’t fix this—but emerging managers might
- 36:15 | Founder redemptions: Building for impact after fast commerce
- 40:00 | The reality of fundraising as an impact-first VC
- 43:00 | AENU’s three pillars: Energy, decarb & climate adaptation