Sustainability

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Founded in 2018, Oslo-based Katapult Ocean is the first investor focused entirely on oceantech and related startups. The VC also operates a three-month accelerator and has invested in 32 startups from 17 countries worldwide.The VC typically invests at the seed or pre-seed level but in July 2020 it completed its first Series A round of $8.5m investment in Chilean social enterprise Betterfly. Other recent investments include the pre-seed rounds of US foodtech GreenCover and Dutch offshore solar tech SolarDuck.

The Oil & Natural Gas Corporation, also known as Maharatna ONGC, is the largest crude oil and natural gas company in India, contributing around 75% of India’s domestic production. It has committed to carbon reduction initiatives and has 15 projects that can potentially reduce total emissions equivalent to 2.1m tons of CO2 annually. String Bio is its first tech startup investment, part of the Series A round in 2019.

Closed Loop Ventures is an early-stage investment fund focused on the development of the circular economy.

Founded in 1999, TLCOM Capital now has offices in Kenya, Nigeria and the UK. Originally a global VC investor, its key investment objective now is to tackle Africa’s greatest challenges via its TIDE Africa Fund that was established in 2017.Total funding to date stands at $300m and investments range from $500,000 to $10m.  It currently has 12 portfolio companies and has managed 13 exits. Recent investments include the $6m Series A round of Kenyan agro-focused insurtech PULA and the $7.5m Series A round of Nigerian edtech uLesson Education.

Led by billionaire investors includings Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, Michael Bloomberg and Richard Branson, US-based Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) is an energy tech innovation fund for highly-scalable tech with the potential to help cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero. Since its founding in 2016, it has launched several funds, including the $1bn Breakthrough Energy Ventures initial fund and a $100m European fund. The entity employs scientists and has a model available to startups to identify sustainability opportunities in the US grid. It currently has 30 startups in its portfolio across technologies and geographies. Among its most recent investments in early 2021 are the $11.5m Series A round of US low-emission hydrogen producer C-Zero and in the $50m Series B round of US sustainable metal producer Boston Metals. In January 2021, BEV also closed a new round of another $1 billion to invest in up to 50 startups. The round saw the addition participation of several new investors including Abigail Johnson, CEO of  Fidelity Investments, Shopify founder Tobias Lütke, property developer John Sobrato,  of CEO of hedge fund Baupost Group Seth Klarman,  founder of Tableau Software Chris Stolte and Walmart heir Sam Walton. 

Founded in 1904, Duke Energy is a North Carolina-based utilities company that has the objective of zero methane emissions by 2030. It occasianally invests in US tech startups looking to offset greenhouse gas emissions and has invested in four startups to date.   Its most recent investments were in the $50m 2020 Series C round of SOURCE Global (formerly Zero Mass Water), the premier off-grid drinking water production tech using solar-powered panels, and in the  2019 $5m round of energy management software producer Phoenix ET.

SEEDS Capital is the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore supporting locally based startups that have innovative technologies and global market potential. Sectors of focus include advanced manufacturing & engineering, health & biomedical sciences, urban sustainability & solutions, fintech, artificial intelligence and agritech. SEEDS currently works with more than 500 deep tech startups, and over 40 incubators, accelerators and venture capital firms. 

Founded in 2009, Septwolves Venture Capital is a subsidiary of Septwolves Holding Group Co Ltd. The VC firm currently manages assets worth RMB 1bn.Focusing on investment opportunities in the communications and other traditional industries like logistics, Septwolves also invests in diverse sectors including mobile internet, energy, food, pharmaceutical, textile and software.

Founded in 2016, Goldacre is a real-estate focused investor with a £2bn asset management business as part of the Noé Group, investing in British, EU and Israeli startups in that segment. It also operates the intensive proptech accelerator RElab with three editions to date, each time investing £100,000 in participating startups.  The company does not divulge its full portfolio details but its most recent investments include in the summer 2020 a $9m Series A round of Israeli sustainable concrete tech ECOncrete and in the $7.8m June 2020 Series A round of Spanish hyperloop engineer Zeleros. 

bp ventures is an investment arm of the energy group BP with an annual venture investment budget between $150m and $200m. The group invests in new energy solutions, with over 30 startups’ investments in its portfolio supporting BP’s core business in oil and gas.bp ventures has increasingly invested over the past years in carbon-management technologies, low-carbon products, and advanced mobility through EV charging companies like the Chinese Shanghai PowerShare Tech and the California-based FreeWire Technologies.

Enagás Emprende, part of the Spanish Transmission System Operator (TS)  Enagás, is an investment venture backing and accelerating technology-based startups in their scale-up phase. Its portfolio investment mainly includes companies providing renewable gases, green hydrogen, and biomethane, but also sustainable mobility and energy efficiency. With 50 years of experience in energy infrastructures across Spain, the US, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Albania, Greece and Italy, Enagás provides its portfolio startups with mentoring and expertise acting as investors, clients and industry partners.

The Gassó family is a Spanish entreprenurial family known for its GAES auditive solutions and centers for the hearing-impaired, in existence since 1949. Though the family has many charitable interests, it had not disclosed any investments in tech startups until leading the 2019 seed round of biotech startup VEnvirotech, which produces bioplastics from corporates’ organic waste.

Beyond Investing is a Geneva-based firm investing in early-stage venture capital and equity growth startups mainly in European developed markets. With average investments of €200,000, the firm’s core investment strategy focuses on sustainability with an investment period lasting 5–10 years.The impact investor targets innovative startups involved in vegan, cruelty-free and plant-based alternatives; biotechnologies, foodtech, new materials, clothing and lifestyle sectors. Successful portfolio foodtechs include Mosa Meat, BlueNalu and Shiok Meats.With a team of vegan finance professionals in the US and Europe, Beyond Investing listed the first US Vegan Climate ETF (VEGN) on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2019. The ETF tracks Beyond Investing’s US Vegan Climate Index which covers an index of 495 of the largest-capitalization companies in the US stock market. The ethical investment option aims to exclude stocks in companies with activities that are not aligned with its vegan-themed, cruelty-free and fossil-fuel-free investing ethos.

Since 2005, Demeter Partners has been one of the major VC and private equity funds supporting technology companies in developing solutions for ecological and energy transitions. The firm typically invests €1m–€30m in early and growth stages of startups. With assets worth over €1bn under management, its portfolio in 2019 was estimated to have cut 4.3m tons of CO2 with 575 GWh of clean energy produced. In 2021, Demeter was named the “Best Sustainable Equity investor” by a panel of former Fortune 500 individuals, global experts and industry leaders to recognize Demeter’s commitment to the UN’s SDG and ESG strategy.

Lever VC was founded in 2018 by Nick Cooney, an early investor of Beyond Meat and Memphis Meats. He is also the co-founder of Good Food Institute. Lever has currently invested in 14 startups from the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.Focused on investments in early-stage alternative protein companies, the firm announced the first close of its Lever VC Fund I in August 2020, with its fourth close at $46m in April 2021. The final close will be completed by June 2021. Investors in the fund include NFL and NBA athletes, British nobility, food businesses, alt-protein companies and family offices as limited partners.In June 2020, Lever launched a $28m joint investment fund and accelerator to invest in Chinese plant-based and cell-cultivated meat and dairy companies. The Lever China Alternative Protein Fund will invest RMB 40m in alt-protein companies in mainland China over the next four years.

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