our
journey
Vargas builds impact companies from the ground up to become leaders within their field. By targeting the highest-emitting industry verticals, we will reach our vision to decarbonise one per cent of global emissions.
Our journey began in 2014, when Stefan Jansson and Harald Mix started to discuss the emerging need for smart, sustainable, and cost-effective reserve power solutions among telecom companies. In a digital age where everything is connected, telecom infrastructure cannot afford to fail. The business case for power backup built on lithium-ion battery technology was evaluated.
Shortly after, Harald and Carl-Erik Lagercrantz met. Carl-Erik's extensive experience in senior roles within the telecom industry proved to be a perfect match. That was the starting point of Vargas, with Carl-Erik as CEO and Harald as Chairman. We came together through a common interest and ability to identify areas in need for change, and then put innovation, technology and capital to develop solutions. It has been the foundation of our work ever since. Polarium became Vargas’ first venture.
Stefan Jansson served as Polarium's CEO from the start. And the philosophy of bold entrepreneurial leaders heading our ventures continues to be part of Polarium's DNA.
.webp)
As we scaled Polarium, it became evident that the need for a reliable and resilient flow of clean energy goes beyond the telecom industry. Today, the company provides energy storage solutions that enable its customers within telecom, industry and commercial buildings to become smarter and more sustainable by optimising how they use energy. Polarium has made more than 350,000 installations worldwide and is on track to become a leading sustainable and fully integrated energy storage provider.
The idea behind our next project was conceived in a Polarium meeting when we discussed the heavy European dependence on Asian-made battery cells with a large CO2 footprint. Given the electrification rate in virtually all sectors of the economy – not least within the automotive industry – it was obvious that Europe is on the threshold of a huge increase in demand for high-quality, green battery cells. Additionally, on the back of the Paris Agreement, the global climate agenda was gathering momentum, spurring greater awareness about the climate crisis and appetite for innovation.
Carl-Erik contacted Peter Carlsson, and together with him and Paulo Cerutti, we built and validated a business case for European production of lithium-ion battery cells. In 2016, we decided to co-found and launch Northvolt with the bold plan to develop the world’s greenest lithium-ion battery cell and establish a European supply of batteries.
The Northvolt case convinced us that we can address additional hard-to-abate industries to accelerate decarbonisation, combining our sector expertise and experience from working with large investment cases and industrial transformation. We saw an opportunity to scale Vargas and developed our greenfield model for building competitive impact companies from the ground up, based on large-scale projects, vertical integration, and close customer collaboration.
.webp)
We applied this model as we started working on our third strategic venture. During a Northvolt board meeting, we discussed that electrification alone cannot eliminate all emissions in the automotive industry. As steel accounts for around half of the CO2 emissions in a car, it was the logical next industry vertical for us to target. Together with Northvolt’s largest owner Volkswagen, we validated the business case for green steel.
In 2021, we launched H2 Green Steel, now named Stegra, with the aim to decarbonise the steel industry by taking a leadership position in global green hydrogen production. Under the leadership of Henrik Henriksson, Stegra will produce the greenest steel at the lowest cost, with production commencing in 2026 and an output of 5 million tonnes planned for no later than 2030. The company has already signed offtake supply agreements for over 10 million tonnes of green steel, which manifests the strong customer demand.
As a next step on our decarbonisation journey, we decided to target residential heating, a major but often overlooked source of global carbon emissions. Residential heating is the third largest contributor of CO2 emissions in Europe, and consumers spend thousands of euros on inefficient, dirty and expensive gas or oil boilers.
In June 2023, we launched our fourth venture, Aira, to help take Europe off gas. Aira makes it easy for consumers to decarbonise their homes through a complete home energy ecosystem with a highly efficient and intelligent heat pump at the heart. Instead of an expensive upfront cost, Aira offers an affordable monthly payment plan, with significant energy bill savings from day one, compared to gas and oil boilers.
Aira’s first markets are Italy, Germany and the UK. Within ten years, the company will serve 5 million European homes. To realise the company’s ambition, Aira has secured a world-class production facility in Wroclaw, Poland, where production of heat pumps started in 2024.
The story about our fifth venture, Syre, takes a slightly different path. It began with H&M Group realising they had invested in many innovators, but none that had scaled to become a global supplier or partner capable of significantly impacting their sustainability goals. H&M reached out to Susanna Campbell, one of our industry advisors, who brought this idea to us, aligning perfectly with our strategy.
The textile industry accounts for 7-10% of global CO2e emissions. Textile waste is a growing global challenge, with less than 1% of the global textile fibre market sourced from recycled textiles. Polyester is the largest emitter and the fastest-growing fibre. Both virgin polyester, made from crude oil, and bottle-to-fibre recycled polyester (rPET) are linear processes, meaning most end-of-life products end up in landfills or are incinerated.
We launched Syre in March 2024, together with H&M Group. Syre aims to decarbonise and dewaste the textile industry through textile-to-textile recycling at scale, starting with polyester. Syre will establish multiple production plants worldwide to produce circular polyester, reducing CO2e emissions by up to 85% compared to oil-based virgin polyester production. Its first production plant is being constructed in North Carolina, USA, and is expected to be operational by mid-2025. By 2032, Syre aims to have a production capacity of 3 million metric tons of circular polyester.
When we began our journey, our curiosity and entrepreneurial mindset were our driving forces. But as the severity of the climate crisis became more evident, we felt a greater responsibility to act. Not least with future generations in mind. By deploying our particular skillset – building businesses – we can make substantial impact.
Polarium, Northvolt, Stegra, Aira and Syre are all actively transforming their respective industry verticals. We are consistently seeking opportunities for decarbonisation, aiming to accelerate the green transition and inspire others through our incubator and initiatives. This effort brings us closer to our vision of directly and indirectly reducing global CO2 emissions by one percent.
