Voyager Ventures

We're hiring a Director of Finance + Operations! If you'd like to join us to build and lead a world-class back office, we'd love to hear from you. https://lnkd.in/gqv2HRqU

What a terrific welcome for the Voyager Ventures launch party in London! Thank you to everyone who joined us on a wintry night at the Barbican Conservatory. Such fun to see friends new and old, and to share our excitement regarding this extraordinary ecosystem and the investment opportunity in European climate tech. Full party pictures here: https://lnkd.in/gKVkb8yr Matthew Blain Sarah Sclarsic Jake Kent Leonardo Banchik Sierra Peterson Nare Janvelyan, PhD

Our portfolio company Lydian just hit an extraordinary milestone: it's built a pilot plant producing 25 gallons of carbon-neutral sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) daily from CO2 and electricity - all in under three years with just a fraction of the capital typically required for SAF demonstrations. Lydian has engineered a breakthrough process that slashes SAF production costs by cleverly harnessing low-cost renewable power. With the SAF market set to grow to $25B+ by 2030, Lydian is pioneering the technology needed to decarbonize aviation. The company's modular reactors are designed to operate flexibly with renewable power availability, reducing both costs and grid strain. The potential impact is massive - from decarbonizing commercial aviation to revolutionizing fuel logistics for the military, with its technology promising up to 95% lower emissions than conventional jet fuel. Well done Joe Rodden, Branko Zugic and the incredible team that Lydian has built from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Anduril Industries, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and National Renewable Energy Laboratory - the sky's the limit. And thanks to Tim De Chant and TechCrunch for breaking the news! https://lnkd.in/gtbJ2KCg

Public EV charging is overdue for universal connectivity and ENAPI is the team to create it. It’s obvious: EVs are taking over passenger and light-duty transportation. Powered by better technology than outmoded and inefficient internal combustion engines, EVs last year accounted for 20% of all new car sales globally - up more than 50x in the past decade. While EVs may be the future, the public EV charging experience has been stuck in the past. Marked by endless app downloads across multiple platforms, failed transactions, faulty chargers and incomplete fueling, the consumer experience of public charging is frequently frustrating - to the point that 70% of EV drivers report dissatisfaction with public charging infrastructure. As tens of millions of people join the ranks of EV drivers each year, so grows this problem - and the scale of its potential solution. ENAPI is building the back-end infrastructure to facilitate the seamless flow of financial, operational and technical data between all market participants in the public charging ecosystem. This connectivity unlocks a delightful user experience alongside and accurate transactions end-to-end, enabling rapid and automatic authentication and payment across every charge point. Voyager Ventures is proud to lead ENAPI’s €7.5M Seed round, with participation from existing investors Project A, Seedcamp and helloworld. ENAPI founders Jakob Kleihues, Dennis Laumen and Leo Lerach are an experienced team moving fast to create the data foundation for public charging and universal EV adoption. We’re delighted to be joining their journey.

Addis Energy emerges from stealth! This terrific team is poised to transform production of ammonia, a $70B+ market that’s projected to grow to nearly $100B in the next two decades. Combining eminent materials science research and real-world experience in oil and gas, the Addis Energy team has pioneered an ingenious production approach that harnesses subsurface chemistry to produce clean ammonia at one-third the cost of conventional methods while virtually eliminating emissions. This isn't just another incremental improvement - it's a fundamental reimagining of how we make one of the world's most essential and carbon-intensive chemicals. ARPA-E has already backed the Addis team with a $4.5M award through its Vision OPEN program. Alongside The Engine and Pillar VC, we’re proud to have invested early in Addis Energy as the team launched out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School. Led by Iwnetim (Tim) Abate, PhD, Michael Alexander, Charlie Mitchell, P.E., and Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, Addis Energy has developed a revolutionary process that uses abundant iron-rich rocks, water, and nitrogen to produce clean ammonia underground. Their approach could transform one of the world's largest chemical industries, which currently accounts for 2% of global energy consumption. This is exactly the kind of transformative technology Voyager Ventures seeks to back - solutions with superior unit economics that can fundamentally disrupt massive markets. 

Voyager is hiring our first Chief of Staff! This is a firm-wide leadership role, with responsibilities spanning strategy, operations, project management and communications, all with an eye to efficiency and accelerating Voyager’s growth as firm and as a community. If you’re scrappy, entrepreneurial and keen to help us build, we would love to hear from you.

Markets, not politics, drive durable demand. As a new administration takes office today in Washington, the fundamental value of climate tech is stronger than ever. As Voyager's Leonardo Banchik told TechCrunch: "A lot of the climate tech wave started during the Trump administration. Regardless of which administration is in power, these technologies are going to continue coming down the cost curve." Examples abound. Among others, low-carbon energy technologies are scaling fast as AI drives unprecedented demand for cheap and reliable electricity. Hyperscalers like Google and Amazon are partnering with emerging energy companies to power their data centers - deals that signal where the market is headed regardless of policy shifts. https://lnkd.in/ddVM-jfM

EV batteries reach the end of their *first* life with 70-80% of their capacity intact. Voyager's portfolio company Moment Energy is transforming these retired batteries into power-dense storage systems, cutting battery costs by 30% for commercial, industrial, and utility customers in an energy storage market projected to reach $150B+ within the next five years. Moment Energy leads the second-life battery space as North America's only UL-certified provider, powered by their proprietary battery management technology. Voyager Ventures is excited to co-lead their $15M Series A, joined by our friends at the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund with participation from IQT (In-Q-Tel) and insiders. With an additional $20.3M grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Moment Energy is building the continent's first facility to give EV batteries a second life at gigafactory scale. Thanks to Katie Fehrenbacher at Axios for breaking the news! https://lnkd.in/gZ-nebBi

Is this the holy grail of induction cooking? Our portfolio company Copper has cracked the code with their proprietary Charlie stove, recently dubbed the "Tesla of induction stoves" by The New York Times + wirecutter. Copper's design seamlessly integrates a 5 kWh battery and standard 120V outlet connectivity, eliminating indoor gas combustion and carbon monoxide risks for cleaner, safer and faster cooking. Charlie's induction technology heats food significantly faster than gas cooktops and ovens or traditional electric cooktops. Its unique battery system also enables high-power cooking without electrical upgrades and can provide backup power during outages. We're proud backers of Copper's vision to transform how we cook and use energy, creating better technology for our homes. Charlie started shipping last autumn, upgrading kitchens across the country. Well done Sam Calisch and the entire Copper team! https://lnkd.in/gydrF6qF

We're looking forward to seeing everyone at Hello Tomorrow this March 13 - 14 in Paris! Voyager's Matthew Blain will be speaking on energy security and decarbonizing transportation to outperform the fossil-fueled tech of the past.