Venture capital in the climate tech sector in Europe is strong, yet scaling these companies often proves to be the stumbling block. For founders like me, who have spent years perfecting science-based solutions and bootstrapping ideas into viable ventures, it’s frustrating to watch brilliant pilot projects struggle when moving to full-scale commercialization. The reason isn’t always the technology, it’s the capital architecture. Many startups lack a funding strategy matched to how climate tech businesses grow.
Here is why this happens and how you, as a female entrepreneur, can plan better to avoid it.
Hard Truth: Funding Climate Tech Is Not Like Funding Software
The biggest misconception early-stage climate tech founders face is treating their capital needs like a software startup. While SaaS companies can scale with relatively small investments after proof of concept, climate tech often involves heavy infrastructure, manufacturing, and industrial partners who move at a slower pace. Projects can take years to move from pilot to revenue-producing business. Investors expect founders to plan for this, but too often, we don’t.
Take energy or carbon capture companies as an example. Every step, research, pilot tests, industrial manufacturing, requires a different funding mechanism. Grants may cover R&D and early pilots, but scaling often demands a combination of equity and debt funding structures, paired with early customer commitments known as offtake agreements.
That last part, offtake agreements, is the sticking point for many first-time entrepreneurs. Without clear interest from industrial customers willing to commit, financing initiatives simply pause.
A How-To Guide for Female Founders to Fund Smartly
As a bootstrapper, I know what it means to stretch resources and nerves. To set yourself up for a successful scale-up, align your funding strategy from day one. Here's how:
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Start Small but Concrete
Pilot projects are not just about technical proofs. They should offer clear and measurable results for your future customers. Instead of polishing to perfection, focus on what resonates most with early adopters. -
Know Your Funding Milestones
Understand what investors expect at each stage:- Pre-revenue: Proof your solution works on a small scale and show demand through customer feedback or partnerships.
- Revenue stage: Secure offtake agreements or letters of intent. These signal industry interest and reduce perceived risks for funders.
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Diversify Your Funding Sources
Grants are not a runway plan. Pair them with seed-stage equity for early pilots, and shift toward debt or project finance as you scale. Platforms like the European Innovation Fund offer funding paths, but timing and paperwork can be hurdles, so stay proactive. -
Communicate Clearly with Possible Investors and Partners
Industrial buyers want to see reliability, manufacturability, and scalability. Strong storytelling from the founder is critical. Your ability to demonstrate a realistic commercialization path matters more than your theoretical market size.
Most Common Mistakes to Avoid
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Overestimating Speed to Market
Hardware and climate tech pilots take time. Don’t assume you’ll convert early results into production orders within months. Build time buffers into your strategy, this avoids surprises to both your team and investors. -
Failing to Validate Customer Interest
A working prototype or successful pilot doesn’t guarantee demand. If you don’t actively engage industrial buyers while developing your solution, you risk outpacing their interest. Start conversations as early as possible. -
Treating All Funding as the Same
If you combine equity and debt poorly, you’ll burn through both before the real scaling begins. Advisors who know climate tech financing can be lifesavers here.
Lessons Specifically for Female Entrepreneurs in Europe
Europe offers unique opportunities for female founders, especially in tech-led industries. But as women, we often carry additional scrutiny from both partners and investors. Though awareness of gender equity is growing, in practice, women must show stronger traction to gain the same level of investor trust. My advice:
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Leverage Europe’s Female Founder Networks
Platforms like The Next Woman, European Women in Tech, or my startup community initiative Fe/male Switch are places to connect, share knowledge, and even find like-minded co-founders or collaborators. -
Own Your Story as the Founder and Visionary
Your pitch is powerful when you can link your personal story as a female leader with the mission of your company. Communicate your technical expertise and unique perspective as strengths for solving today’s environmental challenges. -
Learn Early from One Another’s Mistakes
Women founders sometimes hesitate to admit failures, fearing it may reinforce biases. Build circles of trust and share these lessons openly. I have seen this habit lead to fundamental shifts in the way my peers secure funding for their startups.
A Shift in Mindset Toward Strategic Scaling
From a founder’s perspective, it’s a huge relief when you make scaling part of your original blueprint. The transformation starts with a single step: change how you view the path to commercialization. Success isn’t just about perfect technology, it’s about making your company investable at every stage.
Many of these lessons came from mistakes I made during my first years as a bootstrapped founder. Early on, I thought R&D was the hardest part. Over time, the reality of building scaling strategies that industrial buyers trust became the real test.
Resources like the CFO Insights’ Cleantech Playbook can help any founder, even one balancing multiple roles like myself, create capital strategies directly linked to their solution’s trajectory. Always think one phase ahead: not just “what do we need now?” but “how will this set us up for the next stage?”
Behind every seemingly overnight success story, you’ll always find years of planning, learning, and overcoming underreported barriers. For any entrepreneur stepping into the exciting (yes, I’ll say it!) but structured path of climate tech in Europe, the tools, funding, and partnerships are out there. Just remember to design your capital strategy as intentionally as the solution you’re building because innovation alone is never enough.
To all the female entrepreneurs reading this: your story has impact, and your time is now to start writing it strategically. Let’s create something that not only works but scales. Let’s build the future we want, one ambitious pilot and one thoughtful funding round at a time.
FAQ
1. Why is scaling climate tech companies so challenging?
Scaling climate tech companies often fails due to the complexity of their capital architecture, which needs to support heavy infrastructure and prolonged commercialization cycles. Unlike software startups, climate tech requires multi-stage funding with grants, equity, and project finance tailored to specific growth phases. Read more about the scaling challenges in climate tech
2. Is funding climate tech the same as funding software startups?
No, climate tech and software startups differ significantly in funding needs. While software can scale rapidly with minimal physical assets, climate tech depends on infrastructure, manufacturing, and industrial scaling, which require specialized and sequential funding. Understand the differences in funding needs
3. What are offtake agreements, and why are they important?
Offtake agreements are early commitments from industrial buyers to purchase a company’s product or service, ensuring viability and reducing risk for investors. They are critical in securing funding for scaling climate tech solutions.
4. How can female entrepreneurs funding climate tech succeed in Europe?
Female entrepreneurs should leverage European networks like The Next Woman, European Women in Tech, and Fe/male Switch while presenting strong customer validations, funding strategies, and personal leadership narratives to build investor confidence. Learn more about supporting female leadership challenges through European Women in Tech
5. What funding sources are ideal for early-stage climate tech startups?
Grants are suitable for research and development phases, while equity funding propels growth in pilots. As startups scale, debt or infrastructure project financing becomes necessary to support manufacturing and commercialization efforts. Check examples at the European Innovation Fund
6. What are common pitfalls in scaling a climate tech startup?
Common mistakes include overestimating speed to market, underestimating capital needs, failing to engage and validate customer interest early, and treating all funding avenues (grants, equity, debt) as interchangeable. Learn more about avoiding scaling pitfalls
7. How can storytelling help in raising funds for climate tech?
Storytelling builds trust and communicates a clear commercialization path to investors. Highlighting founder expertise and alignment with the project's mission resonates strongly with partners and funders.
8. What are key milestones to achieve funding in the climate tech sector?
Key milestones include proving technical validity, securing customer or partner expressions of interest, building manufacturability at scale, and demonstrating a feasible path to consistent revenue. See milestone approaches in The Recursive
9. How can climate tech entrepreneurs validate customer interest?
Start pilot conversations with industrial buyers during R&D to understand their needs and secure intent or offtake agreements. This ensures aligned solutions for commercialization readiness.
10. Are there resources to help with climate tech scaling?
Yes, the CFO Insights’ Cleantech Playbook is a valuable resource offering strategies for aligning capital architecture with scaling needs. Explore the Cleantech CFO Playbook
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.
