This Week in MCJ (2/6/21)
Our little climate tech fund is growing.
Hey Everyone,
We’ve been hard at work on the planning front at MCJ. As we mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we have a couple of new initiatives in the works, the Climate Careers Series on the podcast, and MCJ Live, a new podcast-like live, recurring, interactive weekly show on Clubhouse. Stay tuned on both fronts, we should have news on each in the next week or so. Really excited to ramp up our content initiatives and live events.
One the MCJ Collective side (our early stage climate tech fund), things have also been cranking. While we have only announced our Overstory and Planet Fwd investments publicly so far, we have backed 9 companies already (we launched the fund 10/1/20), and have several more in the process of closing (we’ll be announcing another one publicly this week!). We feel really good about the caliber and quantity of companies we are seeing, the caliber of the investor syndicates we are investing alongside of, our ability to earn access, and our ability to be helpful post-investment. As a result, we are selectively going to be adding a few additional LPs, so we can increase our pace of investing to keep up with the caliber of the opportunities. To that end, if you are an accredited investor and you are interested in learning more about the fund, let us know. We also want to shout out a few of the new LPs that we added this week. They are: Peter and Erika Reinhardt, Kirsti and Bryant Chou, Seksom Suriyapa, Peter Yolles, Jared Hecht, and Don Tappan. Welcome to the squad, and thank you for believing in us!
Jason
🎧 Episodes
Here’s this week’s episode, in case you missed it.
Episode 142: Aaron Ratner, President of Cross River Infrastructure Partners
Cross River Infrastructure Partners is a platform of development companies deploying climate technology and capital into sustainable infrastructure projects. It focuses on conversion projects in the climate, renewable energy, and sustainable food spaces.
We have a lively discussion about how Aaron got hooked on climate, infrastructure investment and how it works, and Cross River Infrastructure Partners' role. We also look at Cleantech 1.0's downfall, lessons learned, and how Climate Tech (or Cleantech 2.0) can succeed. Aaron was an awesome guest, and this episode is a must-listen for those interested in large-scale infrastructure investment and project development.
🗃Startup Series: From the Archives
As the MCJ team works through refreshing our longer-term content strategy, we will be releasing the audio from some of the prior Startup Series episodes on Thursdays, which have previously only been available via video to paying MCJ members.
Startup Series Episode 1: Living Carbon with Co-Founders, Maddie Hill and Patrick Mellor
Living Carbon is a San Francisco, CA startup using biotechnology to develop trees that better capture and store carbon. By using biochemistry to enhance a tree’s natural ability to drawdown atmospheric carbon, the company is not only devising a solution to address climate change, but also producing more durable wood for a multitude of building and manufacturing applications. Co-Founders Maddie Hall and Patrick Mellor walk me through a company overview deck, and share the story and mission behind Living Carbon.
💸Climate Tech Funding
Canadian carbon capture company Svante raised $75 million in its Series D equity financing round led by Singapore state investor Temasek. Check out more information here.
Energize co-led the latest $50M growth round into DroneDeploy, alongside AirTree Ventures. This is the first announced investment from Energize Growth. DroneDeploy’s press release can be found here. And Energize’s announcement covering the deal can be found here.
Electric bike startup RadPower raises $150 million growth round from Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, TPG, and more. Check out this article to learn more.
🎓Alumni News
MCJ Pod Alum and former Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University Energy, Varun Sivaram, announced he will be joining the Biden-Harris administration as a senior advisor to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry. Congratulations, Varun! If you want to learn more about his work at Columbia, check out MCJ Episode 105.
MCJ Pod Alum and CEO of Greentown Labs, Emily Reichert, was featured in the Houston Chronicle for their work creating a cleaner future for Houston! Check out her and Jason’s conversation on Episode 44.
📚Startup Resources
Through their DEI at CET program, Clean Energy Trust launched the second year of the U.S. Bank Foundation Cleantech Inclusion Award and the first year of the Nicor Gas Multicultural Innovator Award. In addition to these award opportunities, they also welcome applicants to apply for investment through their 501vc® Seed Fund. Click here for more information
X Genesis presents the Water & Climate program. A free four-week virtual program, where they surround experienced entrepreneurs with a network of talented professionals and leading voices in water and climate, and provide in-depth research and tools to fuel inspiration and support the creation of new ventures. To learn more: https://program.xgenesis.io/
👋 Welcome New MCJers!
Below are new members who joined the community and introduced themselves in the past week. You can learn more about them on #introductions, where you can welcome them to the community.
Ricardo Schiefer: Ricardo works in financial services specializing in pricing and data analytics around credit risk management. He is interested in getting involved in climate and can’t wait to learn more from the community.
Alex Hasha: A data scientist in financial services, Alex is looking forward to meeting more MCJ members and growing his climate knowledge.
Tom Gilmore: Tom is passionate about building more sustainable and resilient food and ag systems. A finance professional turned designer and entrepreneur, he is excited to learn from fellow MCJers.
Tilmann Böhme: Tilmann has a computer science background and founded 2 startups in the last few years. He is looking to transition into climate and interested in virtual coffees with other members.
Josh Kaufman: Josh recently launched Nexus Dev to fund the development of renewable and circular economy projects. He is excited to be part of MCJ and meet more folks.
Jennifer McFarlane: Currently working in carbon sequestration and usage as a board member of Blue Planet Systems, Jennifer is looking forward to learning and connecting with the community.
Annalisa Ranaboldo: Annalisa works at AlphaSights, an expert network firm. She is looking to transition into climate eventually with a focus on finance and renewables. She is excited to connect with everyone!
Jason Chow: A private equity investor and former investment banker, Jason is looking to transition into a role at a cleantech startup. He is excited to be part of a passionate and growing community in the climate space.
Kim Goughnour: Kim is a product manager for an NYC-based Ag Tech company. She wants to transition into climate in product management or consulting. She is excited to learn more and connect with members of the community.
Kai Gray: Kai started Motive, a consumer-oriented brand impact ratings company, this summer. He is interested in ESG and looking forward to meeting more like-minded members.
Adam Greenberg: Adam has been working in the tech startup world, but he is looking to transition into climatetech. Adam is excited to dig into climate with members of the community.
Sylvain Carle: In 2020, Sylvain transitioned into climate investing full time by joining Second Muse Capital. He is interested in impact measurements, frameworks, models, and data as it applies to climate. He is looking forward to being part of MCJ.
💼Climate Jobs
Here are some jobs shared by members of the MCJ community that we think might be of interest to you. Many of these opportunities and the MCJers who shared them can be found in #climatejobs in the MCJ Slack. Check out this google doc for the jobs from this week!
📰🎧Recommended Reading/Listening
Below are recently published articles and content that we find interesting and/or that were shared by fellow MCJers.
In Environmental Groups’ Greatest Obstacle May Not Be Republican Opposition, Politico outlines how big environmental groups have an ambitious agenda, but success requires satisfying their Black, Latino and Indigenous critics.
In Sea Levels Are Rising Faster Than Most Pessimistic Forecasts, Bloomberg announces new research indicates economies have to emit even less carbon than budgeted to keep oceans from rising.
A great primer from the The New York Times: Two Biden Priorities, Climate and Inequality, Meet on Black-Owned Farms outlines how the administration has pledged to make agriculture a cornerstone of its plan to fight warming, but also to tackle a legacy of discrimination that has pushed Black farmers off the land.
Robinson Meyer breaks down ESG funds which often seem built more to make investors feel good than to decarbonize the economy and a new climate-focused portfolio from Betterment in this week’s The Weekly Planet from The Atlantic.
Net Zero commitments have never been hotter, but how do you determine if the company is serious about its goals? Check out How to tell if a company’s ‘net zero’ goals are serious—or just greenwashing from Fast Company.
Public Radio International unpacks carbon-offset projects and how a popular but controversial solution is evolving in Global demand for carbon offsets to combat emissions is growing — but the supply is unreliable.
Goldman Sachs has joined OS-Climate, a cross-industry initiative hosted by the Linux Foundation that is seeking to shift global investment toward zero-carbon emissions through the development of comprehensive Open Source data sets and evaluation tools.
📌Community Board
News from members of the MCJ Community. MCJers mentioned can be DMed in the MCJ Slack.
Bayou NRG is building a product that simplifies clean energy procurement & management for enterprise. If you work at or can help connect them with sustainability or climate professionals in the tech, food & beverage, consumer packaged goods, retail, manufacturing sector or (similar), fill out the form on their website or contact James Gordey (Email / DM on MCJ slack).
On March 4th, Terra.do starts their next cohort of our flagship fellowship, Climate Change: Learning for Action. It’s a 12-week intensive that goes in-depth on the entire problem and solutions landscape. More information here!
On March 5th, Terra.do is hosting their second Climate Jobs Fair - a live, Slack-based “hiring drive” for jobs in the space. The focus this time is on tech (engineering, data, design, etc.) jobs in the US, EU, and India.
🎟Climate Events
As a reminder, we have a MCJ Events Calendar, where you can view and post events for the rest of the MCJ community to attend. When posting an event, please refer to this checklist.
*We’re highlighting a few upcoming events below; please refer to the events calendar for a complete list.*
Upcoming
Women in Climate Monthly Meetup (Thursday, February 25th at 10 am MT)
This is meant to be a safe space for women to discuss, collaborate, celebrate, share knowledge about their climate journey and support each other. We follow a Lean Coffee format and always get through a variety of topics. Email hannah.davis@techstars.com for a calendar invite.
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