Robert Ferris, Ph.D., MBA

A SAFE and convertible note had a baby and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was the midwife- out popped the D-SAFE! 👶🏽🎉 A new #climatetech funding instrument was announced by Elemental Excelerator last week. One of the company’s main goals is to support smaller, up and coming companies during the awkward “Scale Gap” phase between #VC funding and natural growth. It’s called the #DSAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and it aims to aid the process by giving companies a small amount of cash to overcome initial risks and expenses during the developmental stages of a product launch or company. How does it work? D-SAFE has a redemption clause meaning companies can choose to have their payments offered as a loan or convert to equity at the investor’s discretion. Funders and companies will have clear communication and expectations about where the money is going and how it will be applied to either the company or the projects at hand. Financiers and companies will work together with more #transparency, and that’s a great boon for #startups and VC alike. As of this month, Elemental has already invested using D-SAFE in eight different companies, including Dimensional Energy and Origen — both companies investing in innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to environmental issues! Seems like a win-win on the surface. What do you all think about the D-SAFE? Alfredo Coppola Momoka Ueda Tim Wagner Stephen D. Torres Olya Irzak Natsuho Toyama Noriya Tarutani Shin Ogawa

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Check out my recent post on why President Trump is the forcing function for us to solve the “Missing Middle” and catch the industrial Tsunami of onshoring coming to the US!

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Can poop save the planet? 🤔 Well, in Silicon Valley, it's not just a punchline—it's a multimillion-dollar climate solution. Big players are teaming up with startup Vaulted Deep, paying $58.3 million, to pump organic waste underground. The deal was brokered by Frontier Climate, a coalition launched in 2022 by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability. But why are tech giants getting their hands dirty with sewage and manure? Vaulted Deep's technology, rooted in decades-old methods used for oil and gas fracking cleanup, gives them an edge. But instead of sludge, they're tackling carbon-rich waste, aiming to sequester CO2 underground. They plan to sequester 152,480 tons of carbon dioxide by 2027 as part of the deal (That equates to 36,000 gas cars off the road for a year). Is this greenwashing, or a silver bullet? Critics warn of cost, the need for rigorous carbon accounting, and potential environmental trade-offs - i.e. emission prevention versus carbon removal. #decarbonization

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We are living in a world that embodies our Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Technology investment thesis at REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund: Escalating Geopolitical Tensions & Great Power Competition; The Climate Crisis & Severe Weather; Consumer Behavior & Demographics. Join us. #IndustrialTransformation #SupplyChain #Innovation #Technology #Startups #VentureCapital 

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This is the beginning of big corporates in industrial and foundational industries solving the data availability problem to leverage the power of generative AI

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Had a great conversation with Dr. Sam Cooper about how AI is transforming energy storage and material science. His collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to designing next-generation battery materials shows how innovation truly thrives at the intersection of fields. Definitely worth a listen! #AI #EnergyStorage #Innovation

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Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) illustrates the current "readiness" of #ClimateTechs + their potential impact on carbon reduction. As shown, many techs are at an early stage of being able to have a material impact. Concerningly, some tech funds recently returned capital back to investors recently + closed their funds - citing inability to fund capital intensive techs, found in areas like ClimateTech. This in part may be contributing to the $2 trillion shortfall in ClimateTech, that Deloitte estimates. What this may mean for the future? - The migration of LPs to global, super VC funds within ClimateTech, given the large capital pools needed to fund tech development - Greater specialization from smaller funds, energizing more niche elements of the ClimateTech market - but also altering their / LP's risk profile - A greater role to be played by debt financing in funding growth entities at an earlier stage - impacting cashflow dynamics Will be an interesting space to watch moving forward. We at The Proptech Connection are constantly working with all parts of the Proptech ecosystem. From the leading LPs, funds, techs and adopters in market, providing an independent view. Reach out to us today to find out how we can help. #InvestorTrends #Strategy #Global Ivo van Breukelen Stuart Daun Kiki C. Ethan Ward

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For anyone interested in climate science, you'll want to watch this video! New tools are coming online every day that will help us understand how humanity impacts the global climate. https://lnkd.in/gTY76M38

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We are living in a world that embodies our Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Technology investment thesis at REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund: Escalating Geopolitical Tensions & Great Power Competition; The Climate Crisis & Severe Weather; Consumer Behavior & Demographics. Join us. #IndustrialTransformation #SupplyChain #Innovation #Technology #Startups #VentureCapital 

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We've just invested a significant Series B check into AIR COMPANY, who we believe have made a breakthrough with their 100% drop-in substitute for jet fuel that effortlessly cuts down emissions. AirCo has offtake agreements in place to sell 1B gallons of sustainable aviation fuel to airlines like Virgin Atlantic and government buyers like the United States Department of Defense. A billion gallons is a drop in the bucket for an industry that's on track to consume nearly 100B gallons of jet fuel just this year. Solving this problem will make this company a massive business. Alongside our co-investors Avfuel (one of the largest jet fuel distributors in the world), Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, and Toyota Ventures - we've just injected $69M to help them scale. AirCo's team is also in the best of hands with my partner Christina Chang, our resident industrial decarbonization expert here at Lowercarbon Capital. LFG. #tech #climate #SAF #aviation #fuel #airlines #entrepreneurship

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If you are in the VC space, you should know one of the early drivers of "Moneyball for VC". That's Gopinath Sundaramurthy, Ph.D Gopi partnered with the Kauffman Fellows Fund on implementing these concepts in their investment process. The results were staggering. 50% of the investments the fund made became unicorns. In Gopi's words 👇🏻 "We knew something was working, so we thought: Let's build this a little bigger." What did that look like in practice? 1️⃣ Gopi's firm uses a single ‘source of truth’ platform to centralize information, improving decision-making and consistency. 2️⃣ They maintain an even 50/50 split between data engineers and investors to ensure they leverage data to gain insights into teams, markets, and products. Want to learn more about what Gopi and the team at Ensemble VC has implemented at their firm? Check out the case study that our sponsor Harmonic published about the firm -->

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Who doesn't love a good top 50 list?! Very excited to launch Congruent Ventures and SVB's inaugural 50 by 2050, focused on identifying the companies with the highest potential to drive carbon reduction over the next 25 years. I'm 100% certain that we've missed some amazing companies. I'm also 100% certain the companies on the list are awesome. Sadly, by our own methodology many or our incredible companies at Congruent didn't make the list (but suppose that is as it should be). Check out the report below. Live / interactive list here: https://lnkd.in/dYgCfEv8 Tim De Chant TechCrunch coverage here: https://lnkd.in/dkUJm_Sn The Congruent/SVB team collaboration was awesome Dan Baldi Eliza Cushman Marianne Wu Joshua Posamentier!

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🌍 Exciting news! Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) has just announced the newest round of Climate Solutions Portfolio (CSP) grants, part of the $250 million Fashion Climate Fund aimed at unlocking $2 billion in blended capital for industry-wide decarbonization. These grants provide essential funding and support for scalable, science-based solutions that help the fashion industry reduce its environmental impact.🌱 This round of grantees – Pozzi, Grant Thornton, and Amphico – are tackling unique supply chain challenges with innovative technologies, offering measurable greenhouse gas reductions. Collectively, these projects have the potential to save over 24,000 tCO2e within their first year of implementation! 💡 Highlights include: * Pozzi's advanced heat recovery system for the textile wet processing sector * Grant Thornton's innovative approach to energy conservation in the lubricant industry * Amphico's cutting-edge color-mixing technology for textiles, creating vibrant fabrics with reduced environmental impact A huge congratulations to these trailblazers for their commitment to a sustainable future. Learn more about their projects and how Aii is driving decarbonization efforts across the industry #Sustainability #ClimateAction #Decarbonization #FashionIndustry #ApparelImpactInstitute #InnovationForImpact #CSPGrantees #SustainableFashion #Decarbonization

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Summary: Lacey Hunter, founder of TechAid, went through the Newchip accelerator in 2022 and was blindsided when the organization filed for bankruptcy in May 2023. The bankruptcy court is auctioning off the warrants held by Newchip in over 1,000 startups, causing outrage and forcing some companies to shut down. Newchip had a tumultuous history, facing criticism for its CEO's leadership style and ultimately filing for Chapter 11 and 7. Key takeaways: Many startups paid thousands of dollars to go through the Newchip accelerator, giving the organization the right to buy shares in their company at a future date. Now, the bankruptcy court is auctioning off these warrants, causing distress and in some cases, leading to the closure of startups. Newchip's founder and CEO, Andrew Ryan, faced criticism for his leadership style and reportedly fired a manager in front of the entire company as a "test" of loyalty. The bankruptcy revealed that Newchip had missed keeping track of some companies that had exited or raised money, potentially causing the organization to miss out on millions of dollars in potential upside. Counter arguments: Newchip may argue that their bankruptcy was due to unforeseen circumstances and was not a #vc #startups #accelerators

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Ignore those who say a successful carbon market would be "an excuse to pollute". That is nonsense, as it would only cover a fraction of emmissions (much less than those we cannot avoid). We can (and should) do both: reduce AND offset emmissions. This is particularly true of those offsets which help protect the planet's most important ecosystems, the biodiversity within, and the livelihoods of the people who inhabit them. Don't forget, if deforestation was a country, it would be the third largest emitter. 📊A $100bn carbon market would reduce and avoid 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2e/year annually. About 3% of current global emissions (a paper in Nature found substantial levels of residual emissions -defined as those planned to remain after implementing net-zero- to be on average 18% of current emissions for Annex I countries) 📉It would support 12.4 million jobs in forestry, nearly 3 million in sustainable agriculture, 310,000 in renewables, and 50,000 in adjacent industries. 🌳 It would support 150 million hectares (1.5m km2), equivalent to 30% of global forest loss since 2000 and larger than Peru, or approximately 3x France or Spain. Those who criticise are letting their anti market ideology prevent their brains from doing basic math, or have more sinister motives.

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Absolutely thrilled to welcome Eliot Brooks, Freddie Scott, William Knapp, and the entire Cocoon team to the Wireframe portfolio, and lead their pre-seed round! Steel and concrete are widely considered some of the toughest industries to decarbonize; responsible for 14%+ of GHG emissions today. The scale of these sectors -- with concrete being the second most used substance in the world after water -- makes it extremely difficult for any new technology to make a dent on operations or emissions. But with demand for building materials growing rapidly as we invest in modern cities and infrastructure, solutions that can deliver cost-effective carbon impacts in the short-term is exactly what we need. Enter Cocoon. The company's novel approach leverages existing feedstocks, flow sheets, and supply chains to produce low-carbon cement from slag, all while increasing the profitability of sustainable steel operations. More on why we're convinced that their scalable, shipping container sized system can be the winning solution for these historically hard-to-abate sectors + the progress they've made in just 15 months here: https://lnkd.in/ezzTWtaw

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Ariyan Kabir at EON sharing a great origin story and how he and his cofounder Brual Shah created GrayMatter Robotics and the impact they have had in this trillion dollar industry of surface treatments. Some great insights. - customers love the RaaS model because they are not tied to one solution for years to come but can access the latest and greatest technology - in selecting customers to sign, make sure to get commitment and alignment across the organization rather than just with the management. One takeaway for me, there is a lot of value robots can add in trillion dollars industries which are way more specialized than humanoid robots.

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Summary: Energy Revolution Ventures, a venture capitalist firm founded by a former chemical engineer, has closed an $18 million fund to invest in deeptech, particularly in energy storage, carbon capture, and hydrogen technologies. Their strategy is focused on the potential for innovation in chemistry and electrification to drive decarbonization and energy revolution. Key takeaways: The VC firm is led by a former chemical engineer who recognizes the potential for growth and innovation in the energy sector. The fund will invest in both independent startups and new ventures utilizing the firm's in-house technical expertise and network of advisors. The firm's thesis is centered around the importance of both decarbonization and electrification in driving an energy revolution. Counter arguments: Some investors may be more focused on decarbonization rather than the potential for growth through electrification. There may be challenges in bringing new and innovative technologies to market, particularly in the energy sector. #venturecapital #energy #startups

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Healthcare is a really hard industry to disrupt for fundamental reasons that aren't changing anytime soon: 1) Price rigidity -- Price rigidity is the bane of creative destruction, because it slows down or completely stops natural market movements and motions. Industries with high price rigidity typically are the last to innovate... and unfortunately healthcare's price rigidity is enforced at the highest level (Government). 2) Monopoly dynamics with none of the benefits -- Regional healthcare typically has a monopoly on its' geographic area. In most industries, monopolies create surpluses which can be reinvested for innovation, or create savings passed on to consumers to entrench the monopoly. This is not true of healthcare, where regional clinical monopolies are often struggling to stay afloat because of aforementioned price rigidity. 3) The regulatory hand is everywhere -- By necessity, healthcare is a heavily regulated industry. Unfortunately, these regulations require specialized knowledge and are different region to region... all of which tip the scales significantly towards keeping status quo. Pessimism aside, the glass half-full approach to the above is that healthcare is a field with high barriers to entry, high TAM, and high fragmentation. It could be ripe for the right business. At the very least, it requires a very different approach than other industries. I love this piece--The Singh Twins' All That I Am, 1993/94 

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