The stockholm-based Norrsken Foundation today announced that it will commit €300 million to investing in European startups using ‘AI for good’ to solve challenges in climate, health, food, education, and society.
The funds will be drawn from the collective liquidity pool of Norrsken VC, Accelerator, and Launcher. The funds’ criteria are linked to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), that assess impact and sustainability across the entire investment process, from deal screening, and due diligence to deal structuring and exit.
In an open letter undersigned by all funds (which you can read in full here), the Norrsken Partners said: “We’re living through the most profound shift since the Industrial Revolution. But this time, the engine of change isn’t steam. It’s godlike intelligence. Artificial intelligence is the most powerful tool humanity has ever created. Yet, so far we are mainly using it to optimise clicks and automate emails. Helpful, yes. But we’ve barely scratched the surface of what this technology can do. AI is not just another productivity boost, it’s a real chance to fix what truly matters.”
Founded in 2017 by by Klarna Co-founder Niklas Adalberth, Norrsken VC is a VC firm and part of the broader Norrsken Foundation. Its core mission is to fund and support purpose-driven entrepreneurs who are building businesses with outsized positive impact, particularly across tech sectors like climate, health, and education.
They offer early-stage funding, mentoring, and access to a global network of experts, in a bid to match financial returns with measurable social or environmental outcomes.
This belief underpins Norrsken’s latest initiative: a €300 million investment commitment to AI-for-good startups across its VC, Launcher, and Accelerator funds. The aim is to support European startups using AI to tackle challenges in climate, health, food, education, and society – issues once deemed too complex or costly to address.
“We can’t afford to make the same mistake twice,” Norrsken states, referencing the environmental fallout of past industrial growth. “Let’s not move fast and break things this time. Let’s move fast and fix things.” With the right support, Norrsken believes the next wave of trillion-euro companies won’t just be technologically advanced – they’ll be the ones solving humanity’s most urgent problems.
According to Norrsken VC, in 2024 AI startups secured over €94.8 billion in venture capital – representing nearly one-third of all global VC investment. It’s one of the most aggressive inflows of capital into any technological wave to date. The message from the investment world is clear: AI is set to reshape the world.
However, much of that capital is still funnelling into the familiar: productivity hacks and convenience-driven tools. Norrsken’s team believes the real opportunity lies elsewhere – “using AI to solve the world’s most urgent challenges.”
Having witnessed multiple waves of technological revolutions – from the internet boom and mobile apps to SaaS and ClimateTech – the Norrsken team sees a familiar pattern repeating: an overestimation of short-term hype and underestimation of long-term impact.
They warn that “if history repeats itself, 80% of today’s AI startups will disappear.” The lasting 20% will be those tackling real-world problems, reshaping entire systems, and generating deep, long-term value.
At the heart of this view is a simple idea: “The biggest returns come from fixing the biggest problems.”
AI can now optimise energy grids, accelerate drug development, detect illnesses earlier, and decode biology with remarkable speed. It enables precision agriculture, slashes food waste, and could even scale virtual healthcare workers to support overburdened health systems.
Startups from the Norrsken portfolio such as Juna.ai, Quadrivia, Submer, and Evroc are demonstrating what’s possible. From making heavy industry more efficient to transforming clinical workflows and reducing the carbon footprint of AI infrastructure, these ventures represent the early wave of a broader movement.
As Norrsken sees it, these are not fringe cases – they are “edge markets ready to explode.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/06/swedish-norrsken-foundation-commits-e300-million-to-back-the-future-of-ai-for-good-in-climate-health-food-education-and-society/
