Planet A Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Planet A describes itself as an early-stage European tech VC backing deeply technical founders who are solving the world's greatest systemic challenges. The firm says it backs founders who shift systems rather than ship features. Its stated focus is sustainable production at scale, and its portfolio is organised under four themes: Neo Manufacturing (AI and robotics for complex manufacturing), Energy, Resource Mastery (new materials, bio-based and low-carbon alternatives, carbon removal) and Critical Infrastructure (supply chains, logistics, climate and nature data and finance). The firm is science-led. An in-house science team runs Impact Assessments and deep technical due diligence on every deal, stress-testing models against physics, material availability, energy demand and system-level dependencies, and maps impact against the nine planetary boundaries. The fund is classified as Article 9 under the EU SFDR, so every investment must contribute to a defined environmental objective and meet a do-no-significant-harm standard. Planet A publishes its impact assessment methodology and results, and offers them to founders as independent evidence for enterprise sales and fundraising.
Stage Focus
Pre-seed to Series A, per the firm's website. Initial investments are described as EUR 500k to EUR 4m. Third-party profiles (Dealroom, WaveUp, Wikipedia) give slightly different ranges (up to EUR 3m or EUR 5m) and an average ticket of roughly EUR 2.5m to 3m, so the website range is used here.
Check Size
EUR 500k to EUR 4m for the initial investment, per planet-a.com. Third-party profiles say the firm prefers to lead rounds.
Lead Tendency
Third-party fund profiles say the firm prefers to lead. The firm's own site does not state this, so confidence is moderate.
Recent Activity
Per Wikipedia, Planet A closed its first fund at EUR 160m on 8 February 2023, had invested in about 40 companies by 2026, and raised EUR 60m in 2025. The site lists 2026 press including a Financial Times letter (June 2026), a Bloomberg piece on European clean tech investors and geothermal (April 2026) and CNBC coverage of Europe's AI versus climate choice (December 2025). Several portfolio entries are labelled Coming Soon, including container-based robotic microfactories, space critical infrastructure, long-duration energy storage, bio-plastics, carbon-negative concrete and AI grid balancing. These are unannounced investments and are not named.
Portfolio Highlights
The startups page lists about 25 named companies. Examples by theme:
- Neo Manufacturing: Aris Machina, Gigaton, Stær, YAAK
- Energy: ECAIR, GA Drilling (super-critical geothermal), INERATEC (decentralised e-fuels), podero, PULSETRAIN
- Resource Mastery: AUAR (prefabricated housing), Arsenale (bioeconomy infrastructure), one.five, Paleo, PHLAIR, Project Eaden, Traceless Materials, 44.01 (CO2 mineralisation), WILDPLASTIC
- Critical Infrastructure: goodcarbon, HIVED, Makersite, Mondra, Optiml, The Upright Project, The Landbanking Group, unwritten
Team
- Nick de la Forge: Co-Founder and General Partner
- Fridtjof Detzner: Co-Founder and General Partner
- Lena Thiede: Co-Founder and General Partner
- Christoph Gras: General Partner
- Christian Schad and Tobias Seikel: Co-Founders and Venture Partners
- Stefan Mueller, Tassilo Wanner, Alexander Stevens: Venture Partners
- Benedikt Buchspies: Principal, Technology Research and Science
- Sam Baker, Aina Cabrero, Christian Gonzalez: Investors, with Cabrero also a scientist
- Supporting team: finance, impact analysis, data engineering, ecosystem, brand, HR and policy
The team describes itself as engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs who have built factories and scaled companies.
Decision Process
Not disclosed. The partnership model with a science-team gate (Impact Assessment plus technical diligence on every deal) suggests a partnership decision, but this is an inference.
Founder Preferences
Deeply technical founders shifting systems, with technology that holds at scale and gets stronger as resource and geopolitical pressure rises. Founders who can show physics-grounded evidence do better in the process.
Geographic Focus
Pan-European, from London to Zurich and beyond. The portfolio spans Germany, the UK, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe.
Gaps
The website does not state fund size, decision timeline, lead tendency, stage per company or investment dates. Portfolio entries carry no stage because no per-company round source was read.