At One Ventures

For over a decade Tom Chi has taught entrepreneurs that the formula for disempowerment is to have all your problems be large, abstract, and far... And the formula for empowerment is to explore your problems as small, concrete and near.  Our work is everything that is small, concrete, near, and important to us. Our work is to build as much of the world we wish to see with the communities we care about. If we know our hands to be hands that can help build a world, the tribulations ahead just become moments to build again. #climatetech #build #entrepreneurship #venturecapital

When you’re coming together to build out new manufacturing, solve problems on the production line, create jobs, and build something that improves the world, people get energized and optimistic.  They feel what they are doing matters, and they feel accomplished and hopeful for their future. These feelings are not political, they are universal. #letsbuild #engineering #jobs #createtogether #solveproblems #climatetech

What happens inside a factory... doesn't stay inside the factory. 🏭 If you're in an industry like chemical production, petroleum refining, paper manufacturing, etc. you spend a lot of energy on processes to separate mixtures into their individual components. This is called Industrial Separations, and it is a mass emitter of carbon dioxide – 4.9 gigatons annually, to be exact. In fact, up to 50% of the energy used in industrial operations (or 15% of total global energy consumption) is for separations. But what can we do about it? Read At One Analyst Alisha Jani's take on the problem and the four pathways she concludes are the best way to decarbonize this process – and prevent those factories from spewing more CO2 into our atmosphere. https://lnkd.in/ehJSvzim #decarbonization #climatetech #industrial #factory #energyuse

Our core investing approach still holds... We decided early on that winning unit economics would be central to our work and it means that our companies do not need government subsidies or regulation to enable commercial success. None of our portfolio companies will have their business models invalidated. That said, there could still be second order effects on how much capital decides to participate in the green economy because of changes in policy and tone, and there will be direct negative effects to projects that would have gotten government support. Thus, first-of-a-kind clean tech builds that had benefited from government grants/debt will become harder to accomplish as more of the risk will be shouldered by the private markets.   The free-market dream is that the private markets will step in to take these risks, or if they don’t do so immediately, the problems will get bad enough over time that the profit potential in solving them finally overcomes the capital intensity risk.  It’s a dangerous way to play with the future as many of the environmental issues we are facing get far more expensive to deal with the longer we wait – so reward and risk would both be moving up over time.  A more active strategy is to continue to push on approaches to lower capital intensity (where our team has been building an interesting playbook), and redirect portfolio company activities to more supportive geographies.

Thrilled to join Web Summit panel today on what makes a great deep tech investor! A top-tier deep tech investor brings more than just capital. They offer real technical or industry expertise that can make or break a venture. Scaling deep tech, especially physical solutions, is incredibly challenging. Founders need partners who understand scale-up and can get creative with funding in CAPEX-heavy environments. As a biotech engineer with a career in commercializing deep tech, from military tech to chemicals, I know the difference the right expertise can make. At At One Ventures, 2/3 of our team has a technical background or hands-on industry experience. So, what do you think defines a great deep tech investor? Share names if you have any favorites. I’m always on the lookout for strong co-investors! Great meeting you Mike Butcher ✍️ at TechCrunch, Ekaterina Almasque at OpenOcean, Jeff Crusey at 7percent Ventures and Lars Frølund at the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA). And thanks for the pic Zahlen Titcomb! #DeepTech #ClimateTech #VentureCapital

Vibrant color is one of the joys of fashion... 👗 Whether it's a brat-green sweater, a toasted-sesame skirt or a mulled-wine blazer, these colors don't just magically appear on textiles. They require an enormous amount of concentrated chemical dye, and as a result, produce an even bigger amount of wastewater. 💦 To dye one ton of polyester, factories create 30 tons of toxic wastewater. 😱 The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of the world’s industrial water pollution, while also using up vital resources like groundwater in some countries, explains the BBC. Read how Alchemie Technology Ltd avoids all of this senseless waste and pollution by using what is essentially inkjet technology to precisely and efficiently deliver color onto textiles: https://lnkd.in/gQPpvt9U

Join us Wednesday, November 13th at 12pm ET for the next installment in our Innovation Insights webinar series, featuring a conversation on the future of manufacturing and materials with At One Ventures founding partner Laurie Menoud and senior associate Danaé Robert. Ashok Reddy and Elizabeth Blankenship-Singh will also spotlight a recent co-investment in Simplifyber, a pioneer in plant-based, 3-D apparel manufacturing. Don't miss this opportunity to learn about the latest, cutting-edge advancements in manufacturing technology. Click the link below to register! https://lnkd.in/eJg4qpF2

“We do know how to be architects of abundance," said Tom Chi last week at the kickoff to the Climate Capital track at SOCAP Global. He referred to another panelist's comment that for generations, indigenous communities have lived in harmony with the land. Only in recent human history has the extraction mentality become dominant. But are "biodiversity credits," akin to carbon credits, the way to put a monetary value on nature vs. treating it like somethin that only has value once extracted? Nature may defy such monetization, Tom said. He called for “a new category called sacred” for natural ecosystems that drive the planet’s core metabolism. “I think every human being can understand that precisely,” reports Amy Cortese. “Trading [carbon] credits is way more complicated than understanding sacredness.” See the full summary article on ImpactAlpha: https://lnkd.in/eUPZhBzV

"Cement is so ubiquitous, you stop seeing it. It’s the glue that makes concrete, that makes sand and gravel stick together, in many shapes, for a long time," explains The Washington Post. Infrastructure is not just ubiquitous, it is voluminous. Each person on the planet is responsible, on average, for 2.2 pounds of cement per day for sewers, bridges, roads, ports, buildings. The problem is, making cement is dirty, requiring industrial heat that produce an insane amount of CO2. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of carbon, behind China and the United States. Read how Material Evolution is leading the way to decarbonize cement production and see pictures of their progress in Wrexham in the UK. (Yes, that Wrexham.) 🏟️ ⚽️ https://lnkd.in/e_aS7SAJ

November newsletter slowly wafting into your feed like 🍂 What's on gourd 🎃 this month: 🧋Makers Mixer photos from our VERGE (Trellis Group) side event 📆 Other upcoming recommended events for #climatetech companies 📺 CNBC feature of Modern Hydrogen capturing carbon and putting it back on the streets where it belongs ⚡️ Blue Energy raises $45M to build underwater nuclear reactors 🚙 Another addition to our portfolio, welcome Adden Energy with its breakthrough solid-state battery for EVs to charge faster and last longer 🏜️ Danaé Robert explains the most common mistake climate startups make that gets them stuck in the 'valley of death' ☠️