James Gray’s Post

We're super excited to support Dimitar Simeonov and the entire Pioneer team using #AI to help climate companies win grants, contracts, loans, and proposals all in service of helping save the planet. Read more about what they're up to in this article by Alan Neuhauser of Axios.

In just 3 days, 1K of the brightest minds in climate 🧠🌍 will gather at The Drop. With 450 top climate VCs and 300+ innovative climate tech startups in the mix, let's just say we have a REALLY good feeling about this year. 🚀🙌 #TheDrop2023 #ClimateTech #ClimateMindsUnite

Since June last year, Rainmaking Impact has been on a mission to move the needle on ClimateTech in Europe. Despite 2023 being the toughest fundraising year since the financial crisis, we've had a banner year! We close the year with our first AI co-investment, enabled by our new Raspberry brand. We're still part of the amazing Rainmaking family, but we’ve rebranded to Raspberry to symbolise our shift to a more inclusive and investor-friendly network with a broader investment thesis - continuing with ClimateTech, now including AI, and soon more. We've made seven co-investments this year, with more closing as we speak, including 2 follow on rounds (and two more planned in Q1). We deployed just under 1 million EUR with ca. 50 of our members, including an encouraging number of repeat investors. #syndicate #climatetech #ai #innovation #europe #investing #seedcapital We expect even bigger things next year, with ca. two deals per month covering ClimateTech and AI, and new topics we're already working on. We will stay laser focused on our two value propositions: lowering the pain of closing a first VC round for founders, and accessing VC-led deals in European startups for time-constrained private individuals who can't or won't join local angel networks. The team wishes our portfolio founders, our members and our supporters the very best for 2024. May it be a more peaceful, positive and innovative year! Everimpact, shipzero, VOLTARO, Lenz Labs, Odin, BettaFish, Swobbee, GlassPoint, Inc, RideTandem, viboo, Carbonade.

Since launching, Raspberry (formerly Rainmaking Impact) has evolved into a dynamic force within the #European #earlystage #investment landscape; completing 12 investments (plus two deals live right now), deploying €3m+ and expanding into a new vertical: #AI which is impacting everything including #ClimateTech. 

📆 2 days left until "Climate Tech Pitch Competition" #September. 🌍 Why should you join? → 10 Climate Tech startups pitching. → 5 Judges from leading VC/CVCs. → Connect with 500+ potential investors. 🔥 Want to pitch at our upcoming event? → Gain exposure for your startup in SEA. → Access $1.2 billion in available capital. 👉 Apply your startup: [Link in the comment]

#SFClimateWeek in full swing today. It is a unique opportunity to meet investors and founders willing to shape a more sustainable industry. Great discussions today explaining how SE Ventures is supporting founders from incorporation till growth stages. Our unique founders-led incubation model is very attractive. In return I received great insights during the Union Labs Ventures Congruent Ventures G2 Venture Partners Saul Griffith Rewiring America events and networking diners. Among the great opportunities surfaced: - driving more sustainable Datacenter with PUE<1 - decarbonising scope 3 and associated supply chain - new home electrification solutions Looking forward tomorrow !

💸 Want to connect with 200+ active climate tech investors writing checks from $50K to $500K? Within 1 hour? This is an opportunity to showcase your solution and connect with investors, VCs, CVCs, and family offices in our SEA Climate Tech Coalition. → 10 Selected Climate Tech Startups → 5 mins pitch + 5 mins Q&A → 5 Judges from leading VCs/CVCs  → 500 Audiences from our Coalition → $1.2 Billion Capital Available 📝 Learn more → https://lnkd.in/g55MZ2gB

🤝Dörte’s clear preference : Hard tech climate startups with a strong team dynamic Please read our latest blog post, an interview with our General Partner Doerte Hirschberg. Dörte emphasises that we need to embrace hardware and deep-tech solutions to really transform high-emitting industries and significantly reduce and even eliminate emissions, but they are hard to scale. “Few VCs bring together the knowledge and courage to support HardTech founders, so they remain underfunded. Malin, Morten, Stefan and I happen to have the expertise needed and so we chose to fill this gap and launched an Article 9 fund.” she remarks. According to her, the HardTech solutions in their portfolio are solving real industry problems and therefore will create value in almost all scenarios, while macro trends hold the promise of outsized returns, thereby making HardTech perfect for Climentum’s dual carry model. Dörte plays a pivotal role in selecting the teams that we back. She insists on meeting the core team in person and seeing it interact because it’s close to meaningless if the dynamics in the founding team don’t work. Years in HR  help her cut through the noise and identify the founders with potential. With her background in scaling startups at Rocket Internet and her grasp on the engineering side of things, she is always ready to go above and beyond for our portfolio, staying true to her Climentum DNA. Reach out to Dörte if you are solving a Climate Tech problem! #HardTech #ClimateTech #Article9 #FemaleGP Malin Carlstrom, Stefan Maard, Morten Halborg

I loved every minute of today's wide-ranging discussion on Climate Tech in Colorado at Denver Startup Week. Big thanks to Kirsten Suddath (Next Frontier Capital), Sally Hatcher (Buff Gold Ventures), and Danielle France (NREL) for sharing their insights with us! The panelists covered so much during the hour, but here are a few favorite takeaways: - Colorado seriously punches above its weight when it comes to the amount of climate tech startups and climate tech investment here. - It's important to understand the key data points that investors look for when they assess opportunities in software vs hardware for climate tech (hardware performance risks vs demand and retention for software customers). - The IRA has opened up a huge amount of funding via tax credits to many different types of climate tech solutions that previously didn't have access to tax credits. - The IRA has also spurred a boom in accelerators to support the growth of climate tech companies. There are several of these accelerators in the Denver/Boulder area. - There are so many opportunities for investors to make an impact with the exciting local climate tech startups here in Colorado. #denverstartupweek #climatetech

People often ask what I love about working at Octopus Investments and a huge factor is the freedom to try something and learn from your successes and failures! Octopus has now opened up one such initiative, which was historically only open to internal colleagues, to entrepreneurs across the UK and Europe! More details below… but bite the bullet and give that business idea a go!