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THE TL;DR 💨
📈 The Company Scaling Reforestation to One Trillion Trees
- Quantifying how we can actually hit the One Trillion Tree Goal to draw down ~200 Gigatons of CO2
- Exploring how Terraformation is using Silicon Valley Growth strategies to scaling reforestation efforts
- The opportunity to create bonds tied to reforestation projects
💰 This Fund Scales Climate Impact Beyond Their Capital
- Energize Ventures is investing in market-ready and growth-stage technology companies to make energy and industrial companies affordable, reliable, and secure.
- Energize is focused on the digital application layer of energy and industry.
- Energize partners with entrepreneurs to help them scale their companies from early commercialization to the public market.
🚀 STARTUPS & TECH
The Company Scaling Reforestation to One Trillion Trees
By Swarnav S Pujari • is the CEO at TouchLight and Appointed Chairman of the Yorktown Climate Smart Communities Task Force.
When we think about reforestation projects as an instrumental part of combating climate change and curbing our global emissions many tend to discount the priority we should put on scaling the most proven asset we have in carbon sequestration – trees.
For us to draw down the equivalent of ~200 Gigatons of CO2 through planting trees we would need the equivalent of 1 Trillion Trees to be planted. This paired with ongoing electrification efforts and carbon avoidance technologies popping up can help us begin to move the needle towards pre-industrial revolution era CO2 PPM (parts per million).
Quantifying the 1 Trillion Tree Goal...
It’s ambitious, but broken down 1 Trillion Trees is in fact possible. As demonstrated by Yishan – the CEO of Terraformation – in the above-linked blog post, reaching 1 Trillion Trees needs a mixture of growth strategies paired with technology to make the supply chain 10x more efficient.
Enter Terraformation:
Terraformation is working on fighting climate change through scaling reforestation efforts. Their team starts at the ground level for reforestation projects, where they come to assess the land, plan out what seeds and native trees are in the region, plan and monitor using their apps and sustain and scale projects through financing mechanisms such as carbon offsets.
Market Need:
Reforestation in general is critical if we’re to win the climate fight. However, the scale at which we’ll be able to plant trees is one of the limiting barriers to making reforestation a top priority among climate solutions that can draw down carbon. Terraformation helps address those concerns and with the capital backing that they have and from the capital coming from their ongoing crowdfunding campaign it seems they are on the proper path to enabling a global movement that inspires other organizations to leverage the processes they are laying out to scale reforestation efforts.
Future Outlook:
What makes Terraformation even more interesting to explore is the discussion around how to finance these massive projects. Carbon offsets actually seem to be only one angle to take here. Terraformation partnered up with Frontier Economics to produce a report that actually breaks down the business opportunity in trees.
As mentioned in the podcast episode – trees are good business and there may soon be a future where you can purchase bonds issued by reforestation projects.
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💸 VC DEEP DIVE
This Fund Scales Climate Impact Beyond Their Capital
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.
Energize Ventures is a leading global alternative investment manager focused on technology companies accelerating innovation in energy and sustainable industry. Energize provides financial, operational and commercial support to digital-first startups spanning renewable energy, critical infrastructure, climate resilience, cybersecurity and mobility. They partner with entrepreneurs to help them scale their companies from early commercialization to growth stage and into the public markets.
Fund Snapshot
- Stage: Series A – Series C (Growth Fund includes Series C and later)
- Check Size: $10-20M
- Geography: Global
- Lead/Follow: Prefer to lead round
- Revenue/Valuation Thresholds: Product is working and ready for commercialization at scale
About the Fund
Why was the fund created?
Energize was born from operators in the energy transition that realized there was a huge opportunity ahead for digital solutions. The energy landscape was changing very rapidly, with a trend to decarbonize. To accelerate that transition, operators needed to implement and use more digital tools within businesses to drive greater efficiencies and to drive better sustainability.
Energize sits at a unique time where new, enabling technologies are being utilized to improve the operations of existing physical assets. In addition, the growth in renewable energy has hit an inflection point and digital technologies can help deploy sustainable infrastructure more efficiently.
What is Energize Ventures’ core belief?
Energize believes that the renewable energy markets are now sizable enough to build big digital businesses within them. There has been a significant increase in the investment in and buildout of infrastructure in the energy and industrial markets over the past decade. For example, the cost to develop a wind farm, a solar farm, or battery array has dropped roughly 5-10% per year. Because of that decline in costs, there’s been a large layer of applications that can now be built on top of the infrastructure layer. That’s necessitated software solutions to come in, and to manage the scale of these new types of assets. And that’s where Energize steps in.
What domains in climate tech does your firm have the greatest expertise in?
The Energize Ventures team is unique because they are a group of individuals with very different yet complementary backgrounds. They have a unique team with specialties in several climate topics, including wind/solar, utilities, oil and gas, agriculture, carbon accounting, construction, manufacturing, and retail energy.
What type of portfolio support does your team provide (strategy guidance, network etc.)?
Energize supports its entrepreneurs throughout commercialization and growth, which includes:
- Hiring
- Strategic planning and decision-making
- Commercial introductions
- Sales and marketing material
- Product expansion
- Capital raising
What is Energize Ventures’ investment process and timeline?
Their process can move as quickly or as slowly as needed. Typically, Energize has a few calls with the CEO and senior management before requesting a data room with more detailed product and financial information.
They look for companies that have a few million in revenue, that are growing quickly, and where they can leverage their network to help startups grow.
What would make your fund consider deviating from your typical criteria?
Consistency is one of Energize’s strengths. Energize sticks closely to their investment thesis because it is proven, and it’s where they can add real value as investors. With their Growth Fund, they are writing larger checks for later-stage companies. Energize currently has investments in four different countries and is always exploring opportunities on a global scale.
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Editors: Swarnav S Pujari, Daniel Kriozere
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