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Carbon Equity
The intensity of the climate crisis has been encapsulated by the slew of heatwaves and wildfires across Europe this summer.
Finding climate solutions and building resilience has never been more pressing. Amsterdam-headquartered Carbon Equity aims to do exactly this.
It touts itself as the world’s first impact investing platform that gives investors small ticket access to energy transition and climate funds.
“If you look at the capital stack, then only the top 1% has access to private markets, and everyone else is locked out,” Jacqueline van den Ende, cofounder and CEO of Carbon Equity, told European Women in VC. “So the starting thesis for Carbon Equity was: can we unlock billions of dollars in private and retail capital by enabling democratised access to private markets?”
A digital asset manager
Since its launch in 2021, Carbon Equity has leveraged digital platforms to widen access to energy transition and climate funds. Traditionally, private equity funds have high minimum commitments; to combat this, the firm allows individual investors to inject smaller sums of capital into funds, similarly to how a fund of funds would operate.
“By offering this fund-of-funds structure, which is the most important way to de-risk investing in private markets, we basically offer the inverse of angel investing,” van den Ende said. “As an angel investor, you’re perhaps not an expert and put all your eggs in one basket and handle all the paperwork. Carbon Equity does the opposite.”
The investment firm targets funds in the infrastructure, energy, and electrification sectors. It currently holds €450 million in assets under management, with over 300 portfolio companies. It’s backed the likes of Voyager Ventures, Lightrock, Energy Impact Partners and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
It’s also found its purple patch in not only carrying out traditional financial diligence, but also climate impact diligence. The team examines a company or fund’s ambition in terms of impact, as well as its governance, team, and incentives to ensure that it can actually deliver on its impact promise.
Carbon Equity’s platform and app give real-time updates on investment portfolios; the ambition is to “crowd in private capital at scale to fund the innovations needed to solve the world’s biggest challenges,” van den Ende added.
A bounce back for climate
2025 was a difficult year for climate tech globally. While VCs pumped around $39 billion into climate startups, the funding was largely concentrated in mega-deals, with deal count dipping compared to 2024. Last year, Trump’s overhaul of green energy tax credits also spooked some VCs, with cleantech stocks tumbling in May 2025 after the bill was passed.
The macropolitical mood hasn’t dulled Carbon Equity’s ambitions, however. Van den Ende noted how the Iran crisis has pushed up oil prices, highlighting the necessity of renewable technology and green energy solutions.
“It highlighted how incredibly dependent we are on a few choke points in the world which can be easily cut off, and that’s put energy autonomy at the top of the policy agenda, particularly within Europe,” she said.
Van den Ende sees a K-shaped impact following the climate downturn. Everything related to the energy transition is doing very well, but companies focused on a purely carbon gaze are struggling. It emphasises the importance of policy initiatives as well as funding in the life cycle of climate techs.
Pointing to portfolio company Fervo Energy’s IPO, she highlighted how alternatives such as geothermal energy are fast becoming attractive, commercial options for investors.
“So we’re seeing exit momentum around everything that is related to supplying energy, energy efficiency, grid connections, data centre cooling, and even around the whole AI ecosystem,” she said. “And in 2026, we’ve had a record first half after coming out of a difficult year, so the tables have definitely turned again for climate tech.”
Jacqueline van den Ende is the cofounder and CEO of Carbon Equity. She has spent her career oscillating between entrepreneurship and investing, with recent stints at HAL Investments, Peak Capital, and as the CEO of Lamudi Philippines & TrueMoney Philippines.
Carbon Equity is an investment platform for energy transition & climate funds, which manages a diversified pool of climate-related investments. It targets companies and funds backing the energy transition, electrification, resilience, and infrastructure.