By Christoph Steitz

FRANKFURT, (Reuters) – Volkswagen (DE) expands its green strategy through an EU-backed Fund to support technology companies in the area of energy transformation.

On Wednesday, the automaker announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership to EIT InnoEnergy, and will be an investor in this EU-backed venture.

It is consistent with Volkswagen’s other initiatives, which revealed plans in September to establish a 300 million Euro ($348 Million) venture capital fund for investment in projects related to decarbonisation.

“The idea is simply … to use InnoEnergy as an additional way to find interesting enterprises and support them in scaling up their business models,” said Jens Wiese, Volkswagen’s head of group M&A, investment advisory and partnerships.

VW plans to make electric cars the most popular in the world within the next decade. The company has announced that it will build six factories for large batteries with Europe-based partners before the end of this decade.

EIT InnoEnergy invested 560M euros ($650 Million) in the past and has stakes held by about 300 organizations, including Northvolt, H2 Green Steel and Vulcan Energie Resources.

EIT InnoEnergy is supported by the EU’s European Institute of Innovation and Technology. It funds companies and start-ups that participate in energy transition to decarbonisation and from fossil fuels.

Volkswagen has not disclosed the total investment amount or size of EIT InnoEnergy’s stake. The owners of EIT InnoEnergy include TotalEnergies and Engie (PA:).

Volkswagen owns a fifth share of Northvolt. It has invested via Scania’s trucks unit in H2 Green Steel. This company is backed by Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Vargas Holding, Northvolt founder.

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