2050 Research
Investment Thesis
2050 is a Paris-based "science-based regenerative fund" founded by Marie Ekeland (co-founder of France Digitale and former Daphni GP) in November 2020. The firm rejects the standard 10-year VC fund model in favor of an evergreen, perpetuity-focused structure explicitly designed to "shape a fertile future." Its thesis holds that investing is a performative act that decides which future gets built, so 2050 only backs "Aligned Companies" whose core economics are aligned with the interests of people, society, and the planet, assessed on financial, environmental, and social ("triple") performance. The firm organizes its search for founders around five "Essentials": eating enough and healthfully, taking care of body and mind, empowering learning and creativity, living and producing sustainably, and putting trust at the heart of the economy.
Sector Focus
2050 is not a single-sector fund. It deliberately spans climate and sustainability software, regenerative agriculture and food systems, digital and preventive health, sustainable mobility, and trust/fintech infrastructure, unified by its alignment framework rather than a single vertical. Recent activity skews heavily toward climate and nature-based solutions (coral reef restoration, seaweed farming, carbon accounting, carbon-negative construction materials) and healthtech.
Stage Focus
The firm invests across the full lifecycle, from seed through growth and pre-IPO ("from seed to IPO thanks to an Article 9 evergreen fund"), rather than concentrating on a single stage. Its evergreen structure removes the fund-life pressure that typically forces an early exit, letting it hold positions from seed rounds (Sweep, Bene Bono) through growth rounds (Fifteen's EUR 40M raise) and platform acquisitions (Future Positive Capital's Fund I).
Check Size
2050 does not publish a fixed check-size range. Observed rounds span an $8.2M Series A (Coral Vita, where 2050 was one of several participants alongside lead Builders Vision) up to a EUR 40M growth round (Fifteen, co-led with Eiffel Essentiel). The firm also runs a dedicated co-investment vehicle, 2050.coinvest (with compartments for Withings and Fifteen), to write larger tickets alongside 2050.ventures when a portfolio company's needs exceed the main fund's allocation.
Lead Tendency
Mixed. 2050 has led or co-led growth-stage rounds (Fifteen, alongside Eiffel Essentiel) and was an early investor in some of its earliest deals (Sweep is described as "2050's second investment"), but it also plays a syndicate/participant role in larger rounds led by specialist investors (Coral Vita's Series A, led by Builders Vision).
Recent Activity
2050 has been actively expanding. In July 2026 it took over management of Future Positive Capital's EUR 63M Fund I (founded by Sofia Hmich), bringing its combined platform to roughly EUR 210M across about 30 companies and stating a public target of a EUR 1B investment platform. As of October 2025, the firm's own reporting put AUM at approximately EUR 135M ahead of the Future Positive Capital transfer. Its most recent direct venture investment is Coral Vita's $8.2M Series A (June 2025), a coral-reef-restoration company.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable active portfolio companies include Withings (health devices, 2050's first "aligned" investment), Sweep (carbon accounting SaaS), ClimateView (municipal climate-transition planning software), Paebbl (carbon-negative construction materials), Kickstarter (crowdfunding platform, now mission-governed), Fifteen (European bike-share leader formed from the Smoove/Zoov merger), Coral Vita, Ocean Rainforest (regenerative seaweed farming), Optimal (AI-driven greenhouse optimization), Settly (relocation platform), and Omie (agroecological food supply chain). Exits and wind-downs in the portfolio history include Bene Bono, Tilli, and Fleurs d'Ici-WeTradeLocal.
Team
- Marie Ekeland - Founder & CEO. Previously co-founded Daphni and France Digitale; a pioneer of French and European venture capital.
- Olivier Mathiot - General Manager.
- Guillaume Bregeras - Chief Knowledge Officer & General Manager.
- Aude Duprat - General Secretary.
- Matthieu Scetbun - Chief Financial Officer.
- Diana Krantz - Investor, authored the Coral Vita investment memo.
- Sindre Østgård - Chief Aligner, owns the firm's Alignment and KAI methodology.
- Meyha Camara - Communication Manager.
The firm supplements this core team with a wide "Augmented Team" of venture partners and founder-advisors (including portfolio founders like Rachel Delacour of Sweep and Marta Sjögren of Paebbl), plus 15 external Stewards who govern the perpetual purpose trust that owns 2050's management company, the mechanism that keeps 2050 free of traditional GP/LP shareholding pressure.
Decision Process
2050.do is 100% owned by a perpetual-purpose trust (2050.stewards) rather than by shareholders or a traditional GP. Fifteen Stewards representing key stakeholders vote on budget, fees, and structural decisions, but day-to-day investment decisions sit with the core partnership team (Ekeland, Mathiot, Bregeras, Krantz, and others), making this closer to a small-partnership decision process than a solo-GP or large-committee model.
Founder Preferences
2050 explicitly seeks "systematic problem solvers" and mission-driven founders willing to have their business model, governance, and risk profile assessed against the firm's Key Alignment Indicators (KAI), a proprietary framework blending SFDR Article 9, EU Taxonomy, ESG/PRI, and Earth-system-impact methodologies. It favors founders building in deep, structurally important markets (food systems, health, climate, education, trust infrastructure) over pure consumer-tech plays, and it explicitly courts founders who want an evergreen time horizon rather than a forced seven-to-ten year exit clock.
Geographic Focus
Primarily Europe. The team operates out of Paris (HQ), London, Stockholm, and Oslo, and the portfolio is concentrated in France (Sweep, Omie, Tilli, Bene Bono) and the wider EU (Paebbl, ClimateView in Sweden, Ocean Rainforest in the Faroe Islands, Optimal in the UK), with occasional transatlantic exposure via legacy positions like Kickstarter (US) and the newly absorbed Future Positive Capital portfolio.