Founded in 2009 by Johannes Weber and Florian Erber, Ananda Impact Ventures is Germany’s first impact investment fund with a pan-European scope. At that time, there were very few examples of companies successfully addressing social issues while achieving financial success. Driven by their strong conviction, Florian and Johannes traveled across Germany in search of investments that met their impact criteria. And the truth is: at the time they didn’t find many 😉

Fast forward to today, Ananda has recently celebrated its 15th anniversary and is now managing €200M across four core impact funds, generating measurable impact in areas such as biodiversity and climate solutions, healthcare, education, ageing populations, and biosecurity.

We specialise in early-stage technology companies in Europe and the UK. Our latest fund of €108M, an Article 9 fund, was backed by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the German State Development Bank KfW Capital, Investcorp Tages and many European entrepreneurs and families.

The Ananda team now consists of four partners (Florian Erber, Johannes Weber, Zoe Peden, Bernd Klosterkemper) and a blend of entrepreneurs, finance experts, scientists, and engineers spanning TechBio, Chemistry, and AI.

At Ananda, we invest in what we call “impact unicorns” — companies that hold the potential to improve the lives of billions and protect our planet. By doing so, we aim to generate outstanding financial returns for our investors, proving that doing good and doing well go hand in hand.

We are Impact-centric

We are in love with the problems we are trying to solve. This is our starting point. We then find entrepreneurs who want to tackle them on a grand scale. If they succeed, outstanding value creation will result from the huge impact they are creating. Not the other way around.

We believe in this so much that we link our carried interest directly to the measurable impact created by the companies we invest in.

So far, we have partnered with 43 pioneering companies to turn this vision into reality.

We are Research-driven

Our approach is to identify and invest in impactful, overlooked areas and bring them into the spotlight.

Our research-driven approach involves anticipating the world’s most pressing challenges and envisioning the landscape of the next 10–20 years. This enables us to develop distinct investment theses and build a portfolio capable of addressing interconnected systemic challenges at scale.

At Ananda, we recognize that the most significant global issues are interconnected. For example educational outcomes influence environmental ones, biodiversity impacts carbon emissions, and carbon levels affect healthcare. Health and well-being, in turn, correlate with education. Impact investing, therefore, requires building a portfolio designed for cross-pollination, where progress in one sector generates positive ripple effects across others.

Creating Impact in Action

For example in 2023, we invested in Resistomap, a biosecurity intelligence platform that helps organizations track and combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment. AMR is among the most critical global health threats, potentially claiming up to 10 million lives annually by 2050.

Our investment came as the EU prepared to adopt the Urban Wastewater Directive, approved in 2024, which mandates the monitoring of antibiotic resistance in wastewater. This directive has elevated AMR to a key area of focus, aligning with Resistomap’s mission to bring innovative solutions to one of humanity’s most urgent challenges.

We have also invested in AIRMO, a platform that leverages space technology to monitor greenhouse gas emissions, protecting both people and the planet. Methane (CH₄), the second-largest contributor to global warming after CO₂, accounts for about 30% of climate change. 

While 2023 saw most climate investments focused on CO₂, 2024 marked a turning point with the introduction of landmark methane legislation by the world’s largest producer (the U.S.) and buyer (the EU) of oil and gas. AIRMO’s cutting-edge monitoring technology positions it as a critical player in reducing methane emissions and accelerating global climate action.

Through investments like these, we aim to drive scalable impact, foster interconnected solutions, and demonstrate that addressing systemic challenges creates value for both society and investors.

Today, our portfolio companies address challenges across 7 out of the 9 Planetary Boundaries, with the potential to significantly influence and shift their trajectories. These boundaries represent critical thresholds for Earth’s systems, and our investments are directly contributing to safeguarding the planet’s future.

We remain committed to exploring what more our portfolio can achieve in tackling the world’s most pressing challenges. Guided by a holistic and systemic approach, we constantly seek innovative opportunities and solutions that drive transformative change while keeping an open mind to emerging possibilities.