Underground Ventures

What Underground Ventures does

Underground Ventures (UGV) is a Copenhagen-based technology investment firm and the first venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to geothermal technology. Founded in 2024, UGV deploys a $40 million fund (anchored by Joachim Ante, co-founder of Unity Technologies) into early-stage geothermal startups across the full value chain — siting and characterisation, drilling and rock destruction, well design, reservoir engineering, and power production/surface systems. The firm targets pre-seed through Series A rounds with typical first-round tickets of $500k–$2m and reserves significant capital for follow-on, deliberately avoiding project-level developer or operator exposure in favor of 'picks and shovels' technologies. Its stated thesis is that geothermal currently represents only ~0.2% of European electricity due to geothermal-specific technology gaps (hard basement rock, equipment temperature limits, corrosive geochemistry, turbine shortages) that existing oil & gas tooling cannot solve, and that scaling these technologies could enable geothermal to provide 10% of global energy by 2050.

UGV's economic model is the standard venture capital structure: equity ownership in portfolio companies, generating returns through carried interest on exits via IPO, acquisition, or secondary sales, alongside any fund-level management economics. Deal sourcing is relationship-driven — direct founder outreach, industry conferences (including the GeoTech Summit co-hosted by MIT Energy Initiative and Clean Air Task Force), and a deep advisor bench spanning CATF, IEA, Shell, Unity Technologies, and JA Technologies. The portfolio to date includes GA Drilling (deep geothermal drilling technology, $44.1M round), Critical Energy Systems (modular geothermal turbines, $19M seed), and Borobotics (autonomous drilling robots for ground-source heat pumps). Notable observable portfolio companies and named investors include: GA Drilling ($44.1M round, March 2026, led by TomEnterprise with Nabors Industries), Critical Energy Systems ($19M seed, June 2026, co-led by Susa Ventures and Upfront Ventures, with MaC Venture Capital, Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, Humba Ventures, Scribble Ventures participating), and Borobotics (autonomous drilling robots for ground-source heat pumps). UGV has no geographic restrictions on deployment.

Name

Underground Ventures

Legal name

Underground Ventures

Website

https://ugv.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2024

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Underground Ventures is a Copenhagen-based venture capital firm that deploys a $40 million fund into early-stage geothermal technology startups across the value chain — drilling, power production, reservoir engineering, and surface systems — serving founders from pre-seed through Series A.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Early-Stage Venture Capital (Series A/B) (FSANAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

SDG / Thematic Sustainable Investment Funds (FSANAJAN)

Keywords

• Venture capital
• Geothermal technology
• Early-stage investing
• Clean energy investment
• Deep tech startups

Headquarters

HQ city

Copenhagen

HQ country

Denmark

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Fund returns / carry from portfolio exits: UGV generates returns through equity ownership in portfolio companies. As a technology investment firm deploying $40m into geothermal startups, the firm earns carried interest upon successful exits of portfolio companies via IPO, acquisition, or secondary sales.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Underground Ventures is the first venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to investing in geothermal technology companies. The firm deploys $40 million in equity capital into early-stage startups developing technologies across the geothermal value chain — including drilling, well design, reservoir engineering, power production, and surface systems. UGV invests from pre-seed through Series A, typically writing first-round tickets of $500k–$2m with reserves for follow-on, and targets industry-enabling 'picks and shovels' technologies rather than individual project developers.

Product overview

Underground Ventures (UGV) is a technology investment firm, not a product company. It is the first venture capital firm dedicated to investing in geothermal technologies that produce heat or electricity from within the Earth. UGV deploys $40 million into a portfolio of geothermal technology startups across the value chain, including drilling technologies, well design tools, and power production systems. The firm invests in the 'picks and shovels' of geothermal — technologies the industry needs to scale — rather than developing or operating geothermal projects directly.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Goal of geothermal providing 10% of global energy by 2050
• +1 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Breakthrough Energy Ventures: Bill Gates-backed climate-tech venture fund investing across the energy transition, including in geothermal and related deeptech categories. Most direct peer to UGV in thematic climate venture investing with comparable early-stage mandate and large LP base.
• Prelude Ventures: Early-stage venture firm dedicated to climate technology, backing founders across energy, mobility, and industrial decarbonization. Directly comparable to UGV as an early-stage thematic climate VC writing checks in the same range.
• Lowercarbon Capital: Venture fund focused exclusively on technologies that reduce CO2, including geothermal and other energy transition categories. Peer in thematic early-stage climate investing with comparable thesis-driven deal sourcing.
• Energy Impact Partners: Global venture platform investing across the energy transition, with utility and corporate LP base. Peer in energy-transition VC; comparable in deploying institutional capital into early-stage energy and climate companies.
• Clean Energy Ventures: Early-stage venture fund backing transformative climate-tech founders across energy, mobility, and carbon removal. Direct peer in the early-stage, founder-centric climate venture model that UGV also operates in.
• Congruent Ventures: Early-stage climate-tech venture firm investing across energy, mobility, and industrial decarbonization. Comparable to UGV in fund size, stage focus, and founder-centric climate investing approach.
• Powerhouse Ventures: Early-stage venture firm backing founders building the energy economy, including solar, storage, and grid software. Peer to UGV in thematic energy-transition venture investing at pre-seed/seed stages.

Broad incumbents

• DCVC (Data Collective Venture Capital): Deep-tech venture firm with significant energy, climate, and advanced compute investments. Broad incumbent peer to UGV in deeptech investing; overlaps in geothermal-adjacent categories but with much larger fund and broader mandate.
• Khosla Ventures: Large venture firm with a substantial clean-tech and energy portfolio across geothermal, biofuels, and advanced materials. Broad incumbent peer — overlaps with UGV's deeptech energy thesis but with much greater scale and stage range.
• Equinor Ventures: Corporate venture arm of Equinor with active investments in geothermal, carbon capture, and energy transition technologies. Broad incumbent peer as a strategic investor in geothermal technology startups, comparable to how Nabors co-invested with UGV in GA Drilling.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/undergv

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments6 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Underground Ventures