Jordy Klaassen, investment manager at Eneco Ventures, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2025.
Jordy Klaassen says that when it comes to finding alignment between the corporate and the venture departments, boldness and adaptability is what matters.
“You need to work out a solution that benefits both sides, and sometimes that’s really difficult. But if you’re creative and flexible and you’re trying to manage both sides well, you can create an outcome that benefits both.”
He joined the CVC arm of Eneco, a Dutch utilities company owned by Mitsubishi Corporation, in 2022, following five years with a boutique Amsterdam M&A firm. He wanted a role involved with the green transition, and a family member told him there was a vacancy going at Eneco on the venturing team.
Since entering CVC, he has discovered that he thrives off the interactions with founders.
“In corporate finance you’re [dealing with] more mature companies. They want to grow, but they don’t usually have these big ambitions that these young entrepreneurs have. I think that’s the key difference and why I enjoy working in venture capital so much,” he says.
“Talking to them and talking to the network of investors around you as well, all with the ambition to change the world by driving the energy transition with their technology. That’s what lightens me as a person.”
Eneco Ventures targets European cleantech startups where the parent company can add value. It typically backs companies at the series A and B stages, with cumulative funding going as high as €20m.
“The challenge in [climate tech investing in Europe] is regulation,” he explains. A startup formed in one European country won’t necessarily scale easily across Europe because different countries will have different regulations, market setups and ways of working, commercially.
He says this is especially true for vehicle-to-everything technology, a trend he is excited about the potential of. It enables EVs to interact with energy markets by feeding power back into the grid, homes, buildings or other vehicles.
“While the technology is still maturing and navigating regulatory complexities in different countries, I’m highly confident it will become investable in the near future.”
See the full list of Rising Stars 2025 here.
