At the EUVC Summit 2025, the “Impact Leader of the Year” award went to a voice that’s impossible to ignore—and equally impossible to copy.
Hampus Jakobsson, General Partner at Pale Blue Dot, was honored for his relentless push to bring urgency, clarity, and conviction to climate investing.
The award, presented by Google Cloud, recognized not just a fund or a firm, but a force in the ecosystem—someone who has helped reshape the narrative on impact itself.
Not Just Widgets. Not Just Warm Words.
As Google Cloud put it:
“Innovation isn’t just the next feature. It’s about who’s solving the world’s most pressing challenges.”
What Hampus and the Pale Blue Dot team have done is create a space—both intellectually and practically—that brings together VCs, LPs, founders, and operators who actually want to build things that matter.
From climate investing as a sector (not a virtue), to challenging LPs who see ESG as a checkbox, to advocating for clarity over carbon offsetting theatre—Hampus has never opted for the easy soundbite.
We Need Fewer Emperors
When he came back to the stage to accept the award, Hampus didn’t offer a speech. Just a sharp observation—about his T-shirt:
“Some smart people noticed my T-shirt today. It’s not the Zuckerberg one that says ‘We need more emperors.’ It’s the one that says—‘We need fewer emperors.’”
Because that’s the vibe:
Less ego.
Less bluster.
More building.
More impact.
Leadership That Leaves a Mark
Hampus leads not with scale, but with substance.
Not with "thought leadership", but with actual thought.
He reminds the ecosystem that climate investing is:
Urgent
Smart
Potentially enormous
And yes, a little uncomfortable—because it means changing how capital behaves
Congratulations to Hampus Jakobsson—Impact Leader of the Year.
Let’s keep turning clarity into action. And ambition into outcomes.
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