Eindhoven-based LUMO Labs, the Dutch fund manager behind impact-driven investment funds in emerging technologies, on Tuesday announced the launch of a new fund — LUMO Rise Fund at €100M.

With this fund, the Dutch VC aims to invest in 30 to 35 impact-driven startups in Europe focused on the development and application of emerging digital technologies for a greener and stronger society. 

The LUMO Rise Fund expands LUMO Labs‘ investment strategy, focusing on integrating physical and digital realities in society.

It provides additional capital for regional diversification and follow-on financing to enhance financial, social, and environmental returns on investments.

Criteria for startup selection

In an exclusive interview with Silicon Canals, Andy Lürling, Founding Partner of LUMO Labs, explained the criteria for selecting startups. “First of all, we check if the startup complies with our Tech focus and SDG focus. We assess whether the startup uses digital technologies to address a major issue related to one of the 4 UN SDGs that we prioritise,” he says. 

“Furthermore, we look at the team, the stage of the technology, the potential market, and if the business model can be aligned with the positive impact. We also consider the coachability of the founders, as we provide a coaching program to support the startups. We do invest in European startups so the HQ should be in Europe,” he adds.

LUMO Rise Fund will invest capital into startups developing cutting-edge digital solutions to address pressing challenges in:

• Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3)
• Quality Education (SDG 4)
• Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11)
• Climate Action (SDG 13)
• Digital Security

Focus on emerging technology

The fund will also focus on emerging digital technologies essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations.

These technologies include the Internet of Things, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Blockchain, and deeptech Artificial Intelligence, enabling unprecedented processing and evaluation of information.

According to the Dutch VC, these technologies are crucial in addressing current societal, economic, and environmental challenges.

Dagmar van Ravenswaay Claasen, Senior Partner LUMO Labs, says, “Our investments must not only pay off financially, but they must also contribute to our specific sustainable development goals. From the very first contact and screening before investment, we pay a lot of attention to the impact proposition of the startup and provide continued support, to ensure that our investments align with our impact focus.”

Maximising economic value creation

Upon receiving investment from LUMO Labs, startup founders will enroll in the LUMO coaching program. This program includes third-party experts and experienced entrepreneurs to help maximise economic value creation in line with the fund’s impact goals.

Talking about measuring the social and environmental impact of its investment, Lürling says, “Pre-investment we ask the founders to share their impact statement with us. Based on the impact statement together with the founders we define quantifiable Key Value indicators (KVIs). These KVIs are monitored and we measure them over time,”

Expanding horizons

With the launch of the new fund, the investment team is now proactively seeking startups for investment from countries outside the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, including Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Spain, and Portugal.

Addressing the challenges of regional diversification, Lürling acknowledges, “The cultural differences and access to the best deals. We tackle this as we have been scanning these markets and have been actively going in those markets building networks and gaining insights for the last 4 years already. On top of that, we’ll have local representatives, Venture Partners, there. We plan to announce these new team members in September.”

Role of local experts play in regional diversification strategy

According to Lürling, over the past few years, LUMO Labs has been actively collecting pitch decks from various parts of Europe and researching to identify the best quality decks that align with their investment focus.

“The local experts help us with reaching out to the ecosystem players of the respective hubs to be present at events to secure the best dealflow. On the other hand, they know the culture and can support therefore certain aspects in ‘cultural translation,” explains Lürling.

According to him, LUMO Labs actively engages with regional development agencies, aiming to understand how they can offer support while clearly describing their requirements.

“We always love to build a strong relation with a good understanding of each other’s needs and desires. Over time this delivers the best results in collaboration, deal flow, and support of our portfolio companies,” he adds.

The fund has already secured capital from financial institutions, family offices, and High Net Worth Individuals from the Netherlands and other European countries, as well as Dutch regional development agencies.

In its first fund, LUMO Labs invested in 23 impact-driven technology and digital deeptech startups, such as Alphabeats, Aiosyn, Autoscriber, chunkx, Enliven, Healthpus.ai, and Hulo.

Emerging digital technology’s future trend

According to Lürling, AI can contribute to accelerating the identification of sustainable solutions to achieve the UN SDGs targets and thus can have a positive societal and environmental impact.

“I believe we should better investigate as a society what technologies can contribute to solving societal and environmental challenges within the given time frame (point of no return/recovery), and allocate at least our public funds accordingly,” Lürling concludes.

LUMO Labs: Focuses on impact-driven startups

Founded by Andy Lürling and Sven Bakkes, LUMO Labs focuses on impact-driven software and smart hardware startups. 

LUMO Labs funds startups that align with at least one of the three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Sustainable Cities & Communities, Good Health & Well-Being, and Quality Education. 

The fund’s investment focus includes Artificial Intelligence/Data, Blockchain, the Internet of Things, Robotics and Drones, and Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality.

Last December, Dagmar van Ravenswaay Claasen and Sabine Schoorl, experienced investors, were announced as Senior Partners at LUMO Labs in connection with the LUMO Rise Fund.

They will bring their expertise in climate action, sustainable cities, and communities to the fund’s portfolio and will also play a key role in the impact and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) strategies of the portfolio companies.

Thomas Hannes, currently an investment director at LUMO Labs, will also join as a Partner.