EUVC #216 Agate Freimane, Norrsken VC

Today we're happy to welcome Agate Freimane, Founding Partner of Norrsken, one of Europe's leading impact venture capital funds born out of Norrsken Foundation, which hosts events, operates co-working spaces, and runs accelerator programmes across the Nordics, Iberia, and Eastern Africa.Their fund is dedicated to investing in early-stage startups focusing primarily in climate tech and they've led the investments into almost 50 companies, highlights including Northvolt, Einride, 1komma5 and Matsmart.Jump to the parts that matter to you 🎧00:00:00 - "Tear down this wall"00:01:04 - Disclaimer and Introduction00:03:10 - Journey into venture00:12:00 - Impact Investing in Europe00:15:24 - The Decline of Opportunity Funds and LP Appetite00:17:52 - Shifting Topics in the Impact Space00:18:27 - LP Appetite & The Challenging Environment 00:22:09 - The Drive for ESG Reporting in Europe00:24:49 - The Challenge of Impact as a Business Model00:28:19 - The Importance of Finding the Right Problems00:31:02 - Agate’s Core Learnings in Life 00:36:12 - Building Team and Culture as a VC Firm00:38:23 - Assumptions and Feedback in Team Building and Culture00:39:38 - Capital Deployment and Small Bad Bets00:40:31 - Ego in VC & Professional Development 00:45:19 - Regrets and Priorities00:45:35 - Top Tips for Fundraising In Europe