Connie Bowen

Wondering about the Nebraska ecosystem resources. See the attached chart below…and more to come!

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Partnering with startups can help companies to "solve a product problem, create a new avenue for revenue, accelerate R&D, or accelerate time to market for a specific product," according to Otilia Barbuta, principal at HP Tech Ventures, the venture capital arm of HP. She was talking at a breakout session at Circularity 2024. "There are solutions in the market created by startups and in this circularity realm, I think it's more important than ever to partner with [them]." #climatetech #startups #climateVC

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At last week’s ClimateTech Coffee 🚲 Bryan White and I were joined by Kimberly Gilbert, PhD to hear about her work on Carbon Neutralization and Ocean Storage (CNOS) through her company pHathom. Here’s a recap: The ocean naturally absorbs CO2 over time, but we’ve added so much that the ocean has become increasingly acidic. Ocean pH has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 globally over the last hundred years, and as pH drops it becomes harder for coral-based organisms to form shells. To combat this, Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) is an intervention that both reverses ocean acidification and removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Challenges with traditional OAE: - When you add the alkalinity into the ocean, it spreads out. It’s hard to measure the change in pH. - You don’t know exactly when the extra CO2 will be absorbed. Modeling and measurement companies are trying to help with this problem. Advantages of CNOS: - Co2 is captured directly at a coastal power plant or refinery, and then the concentrated Co2 is pumped into water that has limestone (and/or other alkaline materials) in it.  - This means the Co2 is dissolved onsite and the pH can be equilibrated onsite, which makes accurate measurement more feasible. Factors that affect progress:  - We’ll start seeing more companies enter in this space as the chemistry and its impacts are better understood and seen as safe  - Local and national permitting are a huge bottleneck - On the international permitting level, the London Protocol has a blanket ban on ocean geoengineering for anything except for research. There were good reasons for doing that, but it’s unclear who decides when that can change and the circumstances under which the ban is lifted. (Note: pHathom is not doing geoengineering; it’s doing water treatment on-site and releasing it back as ocean water) Open questions for the category/technology: - Can they come up with enough low-cost alkalinity sources, and get them in a way that doesn’t cause additional environmental damage or Co2 emissions?  - This approach will require pumping a lot of water. How much will that cost and how can the cost be driven down?  - Putting 100 plants’ worth of bicarbonate into the ocean is likely fine for ocean health relative to the climate benefit, but what is the point where the tradeoffs cross over? Some groups doing good work in this space:  [C]Worthy Carbon to Sea Initiative  University Research: UC Santa Barbara, University of Tasmania, GEOMAR, Dalhousie University, Scripps Join us for the next one in May! Details coming soon, and you can get updates by subscribing to the series page here: https://lnkd.in/g7DTGm2V

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Climate tech startups raised $8.1 billion in the first quarter, near record amounts of money that suggest 2023’s quiet close might have been more of a blip than the sign of a protracted downturn. A deeper look into the $8.1 billion raised in the first quarter shows that investors focused their attention on materials, including green steel and battery materials and minerals. #climatetech #climateVC #climate

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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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Throw back Thursday! 😊Excited to look back at 2023 through the publication of our Catalyst Fund Impact Report! The report spotlights the hard work of our portfolio companies after a year of work with them, as they continue to build game-changing solutions from precision agriculture technologies to water access solutions or waste management tools. 👉 Dive into our portfolio companies' impact to date, our theory of change, and how we empower bold founders to build a climate-resilient future for millions of Africans. 👉 Learn about our gender lens investing approach, sustainability focus, and how our startups are driving green growth and positioning Africa as a leader in climate action. 👉 Explore spotlights on select portfolio companies and discover how Catalyst Fund's hands-on venture building accelerates the path to scale for early-stage climate tech in Africa 👉 See the recognition our fund has earned to date and join us in investing for a climate-resilient future on the continent. Sand to Green, Bekia inc, Visual and AI Solutions (VAIS), Assuraf | Insurance, Simply, Eight Medical | Techstars ‘23, Farmz2U, Farm to Feed, Octavia Carbon, PaddyCover, Agro Supply, NoorNation, Scrapays, THOLA, Earthbond, Zebra CropBank, Medikea, Keep IT Cool, Tolbi Link to download the report: https://lnkd.in/ejJjH6aD

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The 2024 NVCA Yearbook is out, and there are a few tidbits about the VC landscape 💴 ▪️More Places to Pitch: There's been a slight increase in investments made outside of Silicon Valley and other traditional tech hubs. Cities across the Midwest and South are seeing more VC activity, which could drive regional innovation. Not Seattle, though. Do better, PNW. ▪️Sluggish Fundraising, More Dry Powder: Although fundraising did not pick up steam in 2023, the amount of dry powder held by the industry ticked up slightly to $311 billion. It's out there, waiting to be deployed. ▪️The Old Normal: Corporate investors are still active-ish. CVC and family office investments were down but remain a significant minority of the deals and dollars committed in VC. ▪️Sustainable is Sizzling: ESG factors increasingly matter for deal-makers. More venture firms are making sustainability an investment focus area/criteria. Not-So-New Money: AI, biotech, and clean energy investing have been hot for a while. This isn’t breaking news, but it’s increasingly true. ▪️Risky and Safe: The current economic climate poses numerous challenges but also plenty of opportunities. Market volatility has made exiting more difficult but has also created attractive entry points for strong founders that could bear fruit later. All 91 pages of the 2024 NVCA Yearbook is below👇

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Fantastic event (and ecosystem) that Patrick Meier, PhD and his team at the Climate Robotics Network are creating. Highly recommend you check out the Climate Robotics Summit, done in partnership with EPFL, SOSV, Cybernetix Ventures, ETH Zürich, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. I just had the pleasure of moderating a panel just now on investing in climate robotics, alongside Urvi Nagrani, Malini Samtani, Sashi Jayatileke and Fady Saad. Here are some of the key insights: 1) Applications for robotics to climate challenges (adaptation AND mitigation) are enormous: support to farmers as conditions for humans become too hot to farm for long hours, drones that help capture data on forests and wildlife, supporting with installation of maintenance in large solar fields, wind turbines, circular economy applications - e.g. de-manufacturing - to just name a few. 2) Investing in robotics is simply different - it doesn't fit the standard SAAS VC strategies, often having a lot of engineering input and require non-dilutive funding upfront - e.g. similar barriers to investing in hardware writ large. Thus, it sits in a bit of its own asset class, so investors and entrepreneurs alike need to understand how these solutions behave, esp. in the early-stages of building/testing. That said, there is a growing pool of funds that have been specializing in this area. 3) So how do we move robotics solutions up the TRL ladder faster? It can take a LONG time for any robotics solution to be truly market ready. Even when there is theoretical product-market fit doesn't mean that it's ready in investors' eyes. Lots of testing as well as setting proper expectations with customers is critical, and part of this long process. Non-dilutive funding is rare to find in most countries, but in the US in particular there is a growing pool of grant funding that can help. 4) Development finance institutions and donors have a critical role here, especially in vulnerable countries/communities: Robotics could have bit impact in supporting climate solutions in vulnerable communities, but we need to ensure that there is an enabling environment for these solutions, which means that the policy, academic, and traditional finance space (e.g. local commercial banks)

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The latest data on the plastics pileup from Crunchbase: as plastic waste soars, so does investment in solutions. Over $300 million has been invested in the last year in companies developing greener consumer products, alternative materials, and improved waste management techniques. Notable solutions include CA based ZenWTR (creating water bottles from recycled ocean-bound plastic), and with Travis Kelce as a lead #investor, Tel Aviv startup UBQ Materials (straddling both waste & alt. material categories), and Hamburg based traceless materials (creating plant based, plastic-free and home compostable materials from leftovers of ag food production). #Sustainability #Startup #Green

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"There's plenty of capital available in multiple flavors for Climate Tech Companies..." 🌍💸 Did you know that in 2023, 50 VC deals for climate tech companies exceeded $150 million, with nine of those surpassing $500 million? Venture capitalists are increasingly turning their focus toward startups to tackle the climate crisis, marking a significant shift in investment priorities. Despite the challenging environment for venture capital in 2023, with overall investment in climate tech falling by 14.5% to $41.1 billion, the commitment to climate solutions remains robust. Key trends and insights are shaping the evolving landscape of climate tech investment. Are you an early-stage Climate Tech founder looking to fundraise? Curious about the main drivers for the industry? ⬇ Dive into my latest Forbes article to learn more. Special thanks to Hannah Sieber & Arun Gupta for sharing your invaluable insights! https://lnkd.in/gNhe8jew #ClimateTech #VentureCapital #Forbes Artyc Skyven Technologies

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@HouseGOP: Since Joe Biden took office, #Bidenflation has caused the price for fast food favorites to skyrocket: 📈McDonald's Medium French Fries is UP 167.6% 📈McDonald's Big Mac Meal is UP 103.5% 📈McDonald's 10 Piece McNuggets Meal is UP 95.5% 📈McDonald's Hamburger Happy Meal is UP 140.6% 📈McDonald's 4 Piece McNuggets Happy Meal is UP 97.3% 📈Taco Bell’s Cheesy Gordita Crunch is UP 111.5% 📈Taco Bell’s Nachos Bellgrande Combo is UP 77.0% 📈Taco Bell’s Beefy 5-Layer Burrito is UP 153.8% 📈Chick-fil-A’s Chicken Sandwich Combo is UP 94.8% 📈Chick-fil-A’s 8 Piece Nuggets is UP 98.2%

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If you missed SEED CRUST: State of the Seed Venture Market event last week, you can download the report and watch the recording. Here's what I expect to see in the coming year as it relates to Seed *phase* venture capital: 🐖 The "pig in the pipe" (the exit backlog) will clear this year, which is great for late stage, but it won't be felt at Seed until next year. 🔁 Which means more of the same this year for Seed: more shut downs 😢, more extension rounds 🌉, more pressure on founders to stretch their existing capital 💸. It also means the bifurcation at Seed will continue through this year. 💫 3-Round Seed is the new normal. Pre-Seed, Seed, Seed 2, call it what you will, Series A isn't coming back down to $20-30m valuations. Mind your dilution to make that work. 📈 Seed 2 valuations will continue to go up over the next year, covering territory in the $20-30m post range that used to be a small Series A. 📉 But there will be less capital available in the Seed phase than in the last three years, and less of that will be deployed into first checks. How did we end up here? Here's the full story: https://lnkd.in/gwuGVSii What do you think? What would you add to this? Check out the recording to hear the full presentation and get Peter Walker's take on it, too. (Thanks for coming Peter!) #venturecapital #vc #fundraising #seed #startups

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Climate solutions are sometimes hiding in plain sight (or in your filing cabinet). If you're a business or non-profit executive, consider giving your employees an option for their 401k that is aligned with their values, divested of businesses they don't want to contribute to. You're essentially re-focusing investment dollars into climate solutions... helping to unlock trillions faster than you realize. I highly recommend talking to Breene Murphy He helped me see it's simpler than I thought it would be AND can help your own financial bottom line. It's a win-win-win. #innovation #climatesolutions #investment #401k #unlockingtrillions #vc #nonprofit #endowment #financier

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Landing back from #nyc and a great week at the Global AgInvesting conference, it’s clear that the weather has changed since last week and the presence of the winters #flooding has started to subside. When we ran a farming academy in Northumberland with the Understanding Ag, LLC - Experts in Regenerative Ag in October 2022, one of the profound comments was around the suitability for #agriculture and #regenerativeagriculture in the UK’s climate. Yesterday WIRED published an article on ‘the rise of the carbon farmer’ which provides a positive lens on the potential impact of agriculture to sequester carbon. If soil health beneficial practices are used to generate regenerative outcomes. Quoting UK #organic farmer Patrick Holden. “My farm’s been farmed organically for 51 years,” says Patrick Holden “I’ve built up soil carbon, my operation is now carbon-negative—if I was to switch to intensive methods then theoretically I could burn up that carbon stock. But if I was paid to be a carbon steward, I’m not going to do that.” Having experienced one of the wettest winters on record, let’s not forget the value of slowing down and filtering water with #healthysoils. Ryan Cameron Nicholas Burlington Addy Windsor-Clive Paul Benjamin Alvaro Aguirre Taimur Malik Jeremy Stroud Ananya Manna Jackson Baris Matt Jordon Regenerate Asset Management Regenerate Outcomes Rodale Institute https://lnkd.in/e8cP6AAu

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How does a venture capitalist pick winning startups? Ben Hemani of Bison Ventures joined us on the podcast this week to discuss the intersection of deep tech, biotechnology, and climate sustainability. Key insights: 1️⃣ Evaluating founders and teams in early-stage ventures is an art and a science. 2️⃣ How Ben and his team are navigating the current funding climate. 3️⃣ The powerful potential of cross-disciplinary approaches in tech and biotech. (Plus, why Ben and I both love a good platform company) This episode is packed with actionable advice for entrepreneurs and investors alike. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did! https://cstu.io/0be786 #VentureCapital #BiotechFunding #Biotechnology #StartupFunding #Podcast

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One thing that has really changed about seed investing in the last three or four years is what it means to have coverage on seed opportunities. A few years ago, good seed firms saw the vast majority of interesting companies raising seed rounds. The persistent presence of multi-stage firms at seed had changed the game (again). There are many categories where seed firms see great companies raising $2-4 million seed rounds and multi-stage funds see most (but not all) of those companies *and* see teams raising $5-7 million (or more) seed rounds from scratch. I have seen many seed companies surprised to learn that there are stealthy companies in their categories who have raised a lot more money to pursue the same ideas and their investors never saw the company. Doesn’t mean the better-funded company will win, but it does change the calculus around perceived competition.

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Fundraising decks are important but only within the context of a well-orchestrated fundraising process. A deck itself is unlikely to directly lead to a term sheet. Rather, it is important to understand how you want to use the deck (or any collateral for that matter) as part of your fundraise process. For example: - Is it to secure the first meeting with a VC? A teaser deck is important. But so is the email snippet and warm referral! - Is it part of a deeper-dive session about your business? Excellent. Is it a deeper dive on product or GTM? And, is the next step a track to a partnership meeting? - Is it a diligence deck? Excellent. Is it more about showcasing the financial plan and key levers? ... what is the ONE thing you want this deck to help you achieve? More tips on fundraising your early-stage round here: https://lnkd.in/gvWYaCwk #startups #venture #fundraising

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What I learned this week... A week of pondering the systems and market forces around Food is Health. Over the last months it is clear there is a momentum of innovators moving to a Food is Health realm. While sadly, venture investing is at an all time low and getting worse. The election and geo-politics are forcing attention elsewhere. Declining economics of medicare advantage forces insurance companies to rethink their business model (CVS Health/Aetna). BioFuels, specifically Sustainable Aviation Fuels, tease farmers with price premiums. Delays in regulatory approval for grid infrastructure and refineries are barriers to growth decades into the future. Student loan bailouts fuel demand while the market questions the economic value of a college degree. OpenAI released GPT-4o, and its safety team resigned. Is AGI almost here? We all eventually realize that playing TicTacToe is not worth it. If Putin had access to GPT-4o before invading Ukraine, would he have concluded it was futile? Yes, this week was a jumble. 1) 85% of US healthcare spending stems from diet-related chronic diseases. 2) How do we retrain 320 million Americans that Food is Health? Three-quarters of fast food and 18% of fine dining are taken home. Would it be better if we just all ordered out? DoorDash could send data to our electronic medical records and gamify quality nutrition. 3) The value of a crop needs to come from its nutritional density, not the farmer’s adoption of a specific regenerative practice (i.e. cover crops). The nutritional density comes from adopting the proper regenerative practice that applies to that farm at that time. 4) Is polarization good for innovation because it forces the underdog to be bolder to overcome incumbents? 5) Says law: If automation grows too much, there will not be enough humans making money to buy the product of automation. 6) Will AI reduce white-collar jobs? 43% of master’s degrees have negative ROI. 40% of college graduates land a job that does not require a college degree. See Baumol cost disease. 7) We do not have enough housing right now, but we thought we built too much housing going into 2008. Is the boom/bust in housing really a negative externality from policy? Could AI help uncover unintended policy consequences ex-ante? 8) You can't source more Biofuels and solar/wind energy from rural areas unless you build transmission lines and refineries. 9) You can’t source more nutrient-dense food without reshaping the processing and ingredients business model. 10) AI may improve the quality of parenting. An “AI teddy bear” as an extension of a child’s parents - omnipresent, watching, teaching, and supporting and accelerating development. What could go wrong? (Tyler Cowen) 11) You do not get what you do not ask for (Michael Kime) 12) “I also collect US Air Force Nuclear missile bases” (Palmer Luckey) PS: Erin Martin, MASM Dariush Mozaffarian, and I testify to the Senate Tuesday moving forward on #foodismedicine #foodishealth

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