The Ljungberg family's climate initiative Longrun Capital makes its largest investment to date in the BuildTech company Ekolution. Longrun Capital is one of the leading investors in Ekolution's capital round of a total of SEK 150 million, aiming to revolutionize the market for insulation with a carbon negative material. With Ekolution's hemp-based insulation, construction and real estate companies can reduce their carbon footprint by over 5%, as the insulation acts as a carbon sink.
For us, it is important to be at the forefront of the green transition. We do this not only as a customer in our construction and real estate business, but also by financing companies with great climate benefits and thereby ensuring the supply of new innovative solutions, says Johan Ljungberg, CEO of Tagehus and Chairman of the Board of Atrium Ljungberg.
Longrun was founded in 2021 by Cristina Ljungberg and Johan Frenckner with the vision of creating maximum climate benefit per invested krona. The company has since made five investments, where the latest investment in Ekolution is both the largest and the one with the clearest real estate connection. However, Longrun's investment focus is broader than just the construction sector and includes key enabling technologies mainly in the energy sector and new materials.
Although Longrun has a holistic perspective on the climate crisis, it feels extra exciting to be involved in enabling the commercialization of a product with a direct link to the family's other operations, says Cristina Ljungberg, board member of Longrun Capital.
Of the technologies required to reach net zero by 2050 in Europe, only 25% have reached the commercial phase, but a full 45% are close to commercialization. Ekolution's capital round, which is a combination of private capital of SEK 61.5 million and investment support from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Klimatklivet) of up to SEK 94.5 million, allows the company to develop a high-tech machine park. The production facility will process about 37,000 tons of hemp per year and bind an impressive 72,000 tons of CO2 eq per year.
Many investors are moving towards more sustainable investments, but I still feel that we stand out in the climate analysis as we primarily seek maximum climate benefit per invested krona. We make the assessment that these companies generally have lower market risk and higher potential, which also means better financial returns, says Johan Frenckner, CEO of Longrun.
With Longrun as investor we show that Ekolution has both potential to create significant climate impact and build a scalable commercial business, says Remi Loren, CEO at Ekolution.
Links:
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/accelerating-toward-net-zero-the-green-business-building-opportunity
https://www.ekolution.se/
About Longrun Capital:
Longrun Capital was founded in 2021 and is a venture capital company that invests in startups with maximum climate benefit. We particularly focus on key enabling technologies in energy and advanced materials and often related to the construction and real estate sector.
Contact:
Johan Frenckner
+46 733 710 209
Johan.frenckner@longruncapital.com
www.longruncapital.com
