🥳 Happy, Happy HOLIDAYS from the whole Impact team to you!
Many important events in 2021 may have got you feeling a bit blue…
So this last email of the year is to remind YOU of all the exciting things that might make you feel hopeful, too.
If conversations start to run dry at the table…
☀️ Bring up the ripe opportunity for community solar in Africa!
Instead of how your electrical power grid is unstable.
There’s so much doom and gloom, with emissions still on the rise…
🌳 But your knowledge on reforestation and the carbon cycle
Will be received by friends and relatives alike with delighted surprise!
Tornadoes, fires, and hurricanes — causing blackouts everywhere.
☁️ Bring to the bar a more positive spin on the subject with Climformatics…
While you drink away your cares
If you’re ready to debate your quarrelsome Uncle Mike…
📝 Bring the smackdown with your knowledge on the new EU green deal
To show him your climate might
If you find yourself isolated into the new year then check out our I’m Feeling Lucky Button to get filled with climate knowledge and cheer 🎉🎉
THE TL;DR 💨
🌱 An Alternative to Biochar for Carbon Sequestration • Exaquest Carbon
- How woody biomass could serve as the most scalable carbon sequestration “technology” available to us
💰 The Climate Fund that Welcomes Hardware Innovation
- Congruent is typically the first institutional capital into early-stage startups, even if there’s a high level of risk involved at that early stage
🚀 STARTUPS & TECH
An Alternative to Biochar for Carbon Sequestration • Exaquest Carbon
By Swarnav S Pujari • is the CEO at TouchLight and Appointed Chairman of the Yorktown Climate Smart Communities Task Force.
When we think of carbon capture solutions we tend to think of big fans pulling CO2 right out of the atmosphere or complex solutions to draw down carbon. The only low-tech alternative is planting trees to sequester carbon.
Exaquest Carbon’s founders – who were part of the same lab where Twelve (formerly Opus12) came out of – join Swarnav on The Green Room to dig into exactly how woody biomass is a largely uncovered solution that could scale our carbon sequestration efforts globally while – in theory – remaining more cost-effective than direct air carbon capture (like what Twelve does) and more scalable than planting trees.
Watch the entire interview by clicking the button below!
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🚀 STARTUPS & TECH
The Climate Fund that Welcomes Hardware Innovation
By Daniel Kriozere • is a Principal at C3, Tech Scout at For ClimateTech, and Venture Scout at Prithvi - and has an extensive network within the broader climate investment and startup community.
Congruent Ventures is a leading early stage venture firm focused on partnering with entrepreneurs to build companies addressing climate and sustainability challenges across four themes: Mobility and Urbanization, the Energy Transition, Food and Agriculture, and Sustainable Production and Consumption.
Congruent Ventures invests in startups that will positively impact climate change and environmental sustainability. Congruent is typically the first institutional capital into early-stage startups, even if there’s a high level of risk involved at that early stage. The key piece when it comes to risk is that there is a clear path to de-risk the technology.
Fund Snapshot
- Stage: Pre-Seed – Series A
- Check Size: $500K-4M
- Geography: US
- Lead/Follow: Lead or Follow
About the Fund
Why was the fund created?
Back in 2017, one of the reasons for starting Congruent was to fill the gap in pre-seed and seed stage climate tech funding. Congruent also wanted to get mainstream VCs to start investing in climate. The idea was for Congruent to do the early stage investing and pull in mainstream VCs for the larger follow-on fundraising.
What is a contrarian idea Congruent believes to be true?
Congruent welcomes hardware innovation, and the science and engineering risk that comes with it. The catch is that Congruent is very selective when investing in hardware companies. In order for them to make an investment in hardware, they look for founders and teams that have an extremely clear roadmap for de-risking the tech before they need to raise enormous amounts of capital.
What domains in climate tech does Congruent have the greatest expertise in?
As the team has been investing within the climate sector over a number of years, they collectively know a lot about many different sectors. That said, the four areas Congruent invest in are:
- Mobility and Urbanization
- Food and Agriculture
- Production and Consumption
- Energy Transition
What type of portfolio support does Congruent provide?
With 40+ companies in the portfolio, Congruent is amongst the most active investors in the climate ecosystem led by co-founders and managing partners Joshua Posamentier and Abe Yokell, along with an experienced senior team with diverse investor and entrepreneurial backgrounds.
Congruent spends time with founders both in and outside of the boardroom. Congruent likes to help portfolio companies out as much as possible, including:
- Business strategy
- Network (potential customers, investors, LPs, etc)
- Resources, subscriptions, and discounts
About Investments
What is your investment process and timeline?
Congruent starts their process with a couple of calls with startup founders. If Congruent is interested in the startup, they will then proceed with backchannel reference calls, as Congruent is really investing in a team at the pre-seed and seed stage. Additionally, Congruent likes to understand how a team talks through and thinks about unit economics, techno-economic analysis, and financial models. From the team’s years of investing experience, Congruent can make investment decisions as quickly as a startup needs.
What would make Congruent consider deviating from their typical criteria?
Congruent is investing in founders and teams. They will invest in riskier startups with great teams.
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Editors: Stephanie Zulman, Swarnav S Pujari Writers: Daniel Kriozere
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