Announcing MCJ 2023
Announcing MCJ 2023
Targeting $125M for climate tech as MCJ Collective evolves
TL;DR, Today we are sharing plans for the evolution of our MCJ Collective capital stack and the strategy behind MCJ 2023, L.P. (“MCJ 2023”), a fund targeting $125M in limited partner commitments that will enable us to continue the strategy we’ve been pursuing, and to do so with a more formalized and durable capital structure.
MCJ Collective didn’t start as a grand plan to build a leading climate tech venture fund. It started as Jason’s learning journey with a simple question: in the face of continued growing evidence of the impacts of climate change, how can I best contribute my skills to help? This question turned into the My Climate Journey podcast, which begat the MCJ Member Community, which led to some angel investing and eventually the first MCJ Collective quarterly fund in Q4 2020.
Fast forward to today and the pod has 300+ episodes and more than 1M downloads; the member community connects 2800+ dedicated professionals; and our funds through Q3 2022 have backed 73 of what we believe to be the very best climate technology companies led by some of the most driven, mission-oriented, hard-charging founders any of us have met (publicly announced portfolio here).
And somewhere along the way, each of us and each of you found our respective ways into this story and this movement. Indeed the MCJ Collective team consists of 5 full time partners and 9 total team members and the collective movement is greater than we could have dreamed. MCJ Collective truly feels like something we are all building together. And the scale of the problem and the size of the opportunity demands it.
This big tent includes portfolio companies pursuing climate strategies as diverse as using stranded energy from methane flares to power data centers, to helping governments predict wildfire and flooding risk, to creating tunable enzymes to bio-recycle plastic waste into industrial chemicals. We all can see just how much it’s going to take to rewire every aspect of the global economy. And the scope of climate change is so huge and the problems are so entrenched that there is no one “silver bullet” solution; it’s going to take hundreds or thousands of solutions.
Many of us have come of age professionally as software has been “eating the world” and know how impactful technological change can be at scale. And yet in contrast, the size and scope of the systems-based change we see these climate tech founders tackling makes the last two decades of software-based innovation seem almost small by comparison.
It’s this scale and scope that has inspired us to launch MCJ 2023, a fund targeting $125M in limited partner commitments that we anticipate will enable us to continue the strategy we’ve been pursuing, and to do so with a more formalized and durable capital structure. MCJ 2023 intends to follow the same playbook as our rolling fund vehicles – a highly diversified approach to investing in the leading climate tech solutions – with roughly the same capital mix. We anticipate that approximately 65% of MCJ 2023’s capital will go into companies at early stages (Pre-Seed through Series A) and approximately 35% will be invested at venture stage (Series B and later). We intend to stick to the strategy we have been pursuing already and we will continue to engage the MCJ network and community – the flywheel that supports MCJ Collective – to try to accelerate the path to market for the companies we are fortunate to back.
The story of MCJ 2023 is available in our introductory MCJ 2023 presentation, and we hope you appreciate the transparency with which we’re sharing our plans. As with our rolling funds, MCJ 2023 intends to rely on SEC Rule 506(c) which permits us to share material information about our plans with you. It is important for us to maintain our ability to talk as openly and transparently as possible about MCJ and our investing activity, staying true to the learning journey ethos that has been with us since the start. After all, a big part of what drives us at MCJ is a belief that we all have a responsibility to step up and do something about the climate crisis, and the more we all know, the more effective we can all be in making a difference.
Today we’re also sharing a public version of our Q3 2022 MCJ Collective LP Report, which is the quarterly letter to the Limited Partner investors in our existing MCJ Collective funds. In it, you can read more about our plans for MCJ 2023 as well as see recent updates from the MCJ portfolio.
Lastly, we are pleased to share that we began conversations about MCJ 2023 with our existing Limited Partner investors at the beginning of October and as of this writing, we believe we are well over one third of the way toward our target of $125M. There are undoubtedly macroeconomic headwinds in the general economy at the moment, but we are heartened thus far by the reception we are receiving from investors who want to back technologies built by ambitious founders that can alleviate the climate crisis and rewire the global economy.
If you have interest in learning more about participating in MCJ 2023, we’d love to hear from you at fund@mcjcollective.com.
Sincerely,
Jason, Cody, David, Yin, and Thai
Disclaimers
These materials do not purport to be all-inclusive or to contain all the information that a prospective investor may desire in investigating the MCJ 2023, LP or any parallel fund thereto (collectively, the “Fund”). These materials are merely for preliminary discussion only and may not be relied upon for making any investment decision with respect to the Fund. Rather, prospective investors should rely upon the Fund’s definitive agreement of limited partnership and their own independent investigation of the Fund. In the event that any of the terms of this document are inconsistent with or contrary to the agreement of limited partnership, such agreement shall control. The limited partner interests in the Fund have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or under any applicable state securities laws, nor have such limited partner interests been approved or disapproved by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) or the securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction. Neither the SEC nor any commissioner of any such state authority or other jurisdiction has passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this document, and any representation to the contrary is unlawful.
This document does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of interest to purchase any securities or investment advisory services in any state or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is not authorized. The case studies and the companies (including sample investments) profiled or discussed in certain sections of this document represent a subset of the firm’s prior investments and may not be representative of the firm’s investment experience or performance as whole. Please refer to the materials in the data room for details regarding the full investment performance of the firm. While all the information prepared in this document is believed to be accurate, the Fund and its affiliates make no representation or warranty as to the completeness or accuracy of the information in this document and accepts no responsibility.
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Past performance is not indicative of future results. Prospective investors should carefully conduct their own investigation of the Fund before making an investment. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results, and there can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve comparable results or that the Fund will be able to implement its investment strategy or achieve its investment objectives.