By Sudip Kar-Gupta
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European venture capital firm World Fund, which invests in start-up firms producing technologies that tackle climate change and protect the environment, said it had raised 300 million euros ($328 million) for its first fund.
The Berlin-based firm World Fund said subscribers for this included the EU's European Investment Fund, BPI France, PWC Germany and the UK's Environment Agency Pension Fund.
Many financial firms have put money into sectors dealing with climate change, due to persistent concerns over global warming and the environment.
The first fundraising for World Fund comes amid a broader backdrop of lower investments in the global private equity sector as a whole, due to global economic uncertainty.
PWC said in a report last October that investment and grants in climate tech startups had fallen by roughly 40% over the last 12 months, although that decline was less than in the broader venture capital industry globally.
"We will work to ensure that our fund demonstrates to the world that successful investments and positive climate impact go hand-in-hand. In this way, we hope to provide a service to the entire climate investment sector," said World Fund managing partner Danijel Visevic in a statement.
($1 = 0.9145 euros)