Planet A Venture funding green start-ups for more sustainability

"We query the impact of every investment, whether public or private on the planet and in terms of pollution, resources and waste. Scientific methods and sufficient data are available to gauge them. We just have to take them into account when deciding on an investment. We are working on an economy within planetary boundaries and in collaboration with exciting start-ups," said Fridtjof Detzner, joint founder of Planet A. Based in Hamburg, Detzner is also co-founder of the Jimdo website builder and a business angel. In 2017, a four-month tour of ten Asian countries on behalf of Germany's state-owned international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, confronted him with the actual repercussions of the global climate crisis and forced him to rethink. Eventually, he hit on the idea for Planet A.

Budding entrepreneurs must meet four main criteria to qualify for funding from Planet A. Apart from a sustainable carbon footprint and sparing use of resources, start-ups should aim to reduce plastic waste and increase biodiversity. Companies like Traceless, a spin-off from the Technical University of Hamburg, are proving real success stories. The founders, Dr Anne Lamp and Johanna Baare, have developed a versatile plastic that is fully compostable. The raw material stems from agricultural by-products and is used to make storage-stable films, solid materials and wafer-thin coatings. The invention saw Traceless place second in the Hamburg Future Award 2021. Another Hamburg-based start-up, Wildplastic, which collects wild plastic waste in emerging countries, recycles it into granules and a new packaging film, has received backing from Planet A.  

Planet A also assists companies elsewhere such as ineratec in Karlsruhe. The company is a key driver of sustainable, climate-neutral fuels consisting of biogenic CO2 and green hydrogen. Other innovative climate and environment-friendly ideas can be submitted to Planet A for consideration.
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