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Sustainable investing, once considered an afterthought in business, has come a long way with billion-dollar potential. At present, many investors want their capital to align with a greater good beyond profits. 

According to GSIA (Global Sustainable Investment Alliance), Europe and the US are the biggest players in sustainable investing. 

Unknown Group’s sustainable investment

In this regard, Unknown Group, a Dutch early-stage VC, has invested in Oneplanetcrowd, a sustainable crowdfunding platform. 

Along with the investment, the company also partners with Oneplanetcrowd to increase the offering of funding possibilities to promising impactful ventures. Notably, Unknown Group has invested in Oneplanetcrowd through VenturesOne Investments B.V. a joint venture between Unknown Group and European Angels Fund (EAF).

Coenraad de Vries, co-founder of Oneplanetcrowd says: “Straight from the first meeting with Unknown, it feels we have so much common ground in supporting the growth of impact entrepreneurs. With the investment of Unknown, as well as their network and expertise, we will be able to further fuel our growth to financing innovative SMEs as well as renewable energy companies. ”

Recognises needs through competition

Unknown says it recognises the need for global capital among ventures through its global startup competition, ‘Get in the Ring’, which has a presence in 220 cities and receives 25,000 startup applications yearly. This competition offers a global platform for thousands of founders every year to test, validate and scale their solutions.

According to the competition, previous competition winners include Indonesia’s IoT fishfeeding machine maker eFishery, Israel’s grasshopper producer for the food industry Hargol FoodTech and South Korea’s braille smartwatch maker Dot Incorporate each of which has subsequently secured significant investments. It claims that the winner of the competition in 2013, EyeVerify, was acquired by Ant Financial three years later for $100M (approx €83M).

Partnered with 200 corporate and governmental organisations

Unknown supports founders and industry leaders to successfully bring innovations to the market. A couple of months back, VenturesOne Group and Unknown Group, announced the completion of their merger – Unknown Group

The company has partnered with over 200 corporate and governmental organisations for open innovation and corporate venturing activities, such as DSM, Fujitsu, and NATO.

The investment in Oneplanetcrowd is synergistic with and adds to the value proposition that Unknown delivers to these ventures, says the company. 

“Both Unknown and OnePlanetCrowd share the belief that founders and their game changing solutions are the key to turning the world’s problems into opportunities. We were very impressed by the success rate of their projects over the years and of course, by the community of engaged angel investors they have fostered. We’re thrilled to welcome Oneplanetcrowd to the Unknown portfolio ”. says Hans Peddemors, Chief Investment at Unknown.

OnePlanetcrowd funded 250 projects

Founded in 2012 by Coenraad de Vries, Laura Rooseboom, and Maarten de Jong in Amsterdam, Oneplanetcrowd was one of the first pioneers in the Netherlands with a crowdfunding platform. 

The Dutch platform connects innovative entrepreneurs to future-oriented investors to jointly accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy. As per the company’s claims, it has raised over €70M in funding for more than 250 projects with a community of 30,000 investors, including VanMoof, Fairphone, Ampyx Power, and Saltrex. 

Oneplanetcrowd was initiated by StartGreen Capital, one of the largest impact fund managers that have financed over 300 sustainable entrepreneurs and energy projects.