World Fund targets €300M second fund after IQM's quantum SPAC debut

Berlin-based World Fund is raising a second climate and deep tech fund targeting at least €300 million, after portfolio company IQM Quantum Computers became the first European quantum firm to list on a major exchange this summer via a SPAC. Partner Craig Douglas says the firm's €300 million debut fund, closed in 2024, should get matched or topped. "A first close could come by year end," Douglas tells ImpactAlpha.

World Fund led IQM's €128 million ($146 million) Series A in 2022 and joined its $300 million Series B in 2025. The SPAC listing — also traded on the Helsinki exchange — landed inside World Fund's investment period. "We managed to get a company through to public listing inside of our investment period," Douglas said. "That's amazing."

What's in the portfolio?

World Fund backs roughly two-dozen companies. The list includes:

• IQM (Finland), which shipped more quantum computers last year than any manufacturer globally, including IBM
• Planet A Foods, a German startup making cocoa-free chocolate; cocoa has roughly tripled in price since World Fund's investment
• Cylib, a German EV battery recycler that raised €8 million in seed extension funding in 2023 and €55 million in Series A in 2024, co-led with Porsche Ventures
• Lithosquare, an AI geology platform for critical minerals discovery
• QuantumDiamonds, a Munich quantum semiconductor tester that closed a €15 million World Fund-led round in early July, paired with €76 million in German federal and Bavarian state funding
• Hyperscale Power, a maker of compact solid-state transformers for data centers
• Barocal, a Cambridge University spin-out producing zero-carbon solid refrigerants

How does the IQM listing change fund-raising?

The public listing should lift World Fund's DPI, a measure of cash returned to investors — exactly what limited partners now want. "To have a decent chunk of the portfolio in a semi-liquid asset, in a time when every limited partner is looking for DPI, let's just say the conversations with potential investors post-summer have been a lot easier," Douglas said. The fund's stake remains in lockup.

Sentiment has flipped, Douglas added: "The sentiment now is, 'I'm interested, but I have to wait for some DPI,' which is a hell of a lot more positive."

Who's backing fund one?

First-fund backers included the European Investment Fund, KfW Capital, Wachstumsfonds, BPI France, PwC Germany, NRWbank, Ignitis Group, the UK Environment Agency Pension Fund, Wiltshire Pension Fund, and Croatia's Erste Plavi. German non-profit search engine Ecosia committed €10 million as the first money in and hosted World Fund's early team in its offices.

Partner Daria Saharova flagged one gap: "Not one German pension fund has invested with us, even though they could."

Why the urgency on a second fund?

The fund's four partners — Saharova, Tim Schumacher, Danijel Višević, and Douglas — report a 9.3x track record and 2.6x DPI across 80-plus prior deals. "We might be a first-time manager or a first-time fund, but this is not our first rodeo," Douglas said.

Douglas framed the sizing logic bluntly: "You need to be a fund that's €300 or €400 million to be able to put enough capital in the winners to be able to make them the market leaders of tomorrow. The idea of our fund was to make sure that you have enough capital to be able to take a company all the way through that journey."

Saharova went further on Europe's capital gap. "I am bullish on European founders and European technology," she said. "But to grasp the momentum, we really need to mobilize money. If you have enough capital, you know you can solve everything else."

What is "power capital"?

At World Fund's June investor gathering in Berlin — held at the Art-Deco Delphi Filmpalast am Zoo alongside the Super Return conference — partner Višević framed Europe's funding shortfall as one of political will. "Europe has chosen comfort over leadership in the last 20 years," Višević said. The continent, he added, "has the science and the talent, but it didn't have the courage to scale."

The firm pegs the deep tech opportunity at more than $35 trillion by 2030. European insurers and occupational pension funds held roughly €12 trillion in assets in 2024; Norway's sovereign wealth fund managed €1.89 trillion at year-end. World Fund argues that routing a fraction of that capital into deep tech would pull Europe out of what it calls "an existential crisis."

What's next?

The first close on World Fund's second fund is targeted for year-end 2025. A second IQM-style liquidity event would cement the firm's pitch to limited partners that European deep tech can deliver both DPI and decarbonization at scale — and would convert Europe's pension capital from a topic of speeches into an actual line item on cap tables.