Maxim W.’s Post

In the U.S., less than 3% of venture capital funding goes to Black and Latinx founders, and funding to Black founders has decreased year over year since 2020. This disparity is even more pronounced in climate tech investing, where diversity data is scarce, making it challenging to assess representation and distribution of capital. Read the full article to learn more about actions we can take together to harness the power of data for inclusion. #inclusion #impact #venturecapital #climatetech #investing #diversity

🌍 Diversity in Climate Tech Investing: Where is the Data?📊 We're excited to share the latest article, hosted on Impact Entrepreneur, in a series from Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) within the Autodesk Foundation’s Inclusive Climate Innovation Initiative (ICII). This series provides actionable insights to foster a more inclusive funding ecosystem. In the U.S., less than 3% of venture capital funding goes to Black and Latinx founders, and funding to Black founders has decreased year over year since 2020. This disparity is even more pronounced in climate tech investing, where diversity data is scarce, making it challenging to assess representation and distribution of capital. Hadas Webb, Deputy Director at Browning the Green Space, a nonprofit working to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, within clean energy, highlights how data has the power to pave the way for inclusive outcomes, ensuring that underrepresented entrepreneurs receive the support they need. 🔗 Read the full article to learn more about actions we can take together to harness the power of data for inclusion 🌱✨ Link in comments #InclusiveInnovation #ClimateTech #DiversityInTech #VentureCapital

Big news! We launched a playbook to help founders build and scale hardware solutions 🛠 Climate hardware is a topic close to our hearts and a key investment area at Planet A. It’s clear hardware solutions will to play a huge role in de-carbonising economies and our reaching climate goals. However, from talking to hundreds of founders in the space we know scaling hardware-heavy businesses is still incredibly tough. So, we teamed up with our friends at Norrsken VC and Speedinvest to help give ambitious early-stage hardware founders the best chances of success. This hardware playbook is packed with recommendations, expert insights and tools to help founders build and scale hardware solutions. Key topics include👇 👩🏼🔬 What a winning team looks like 📊 Picking the right metrics 💸 Hitting the right financing mix 🇪🇺 Understanding and leveraging EU policy Essentially, everything you need to succeed: 🔗 Dive in now www.climate-hardware.com Huge kudos to authors Jessica Burley, Florian Schabus, Kim D., Christian zu Jeddeloh, and Sophia Escheu!

🌍 Climate Change: The Race Against Time As we sprint towards a sustainable future, climate tech startups are blazing trails with revolutionary solutions. But there's a hurdle we can't ignore: the Series B funding gap. Why does this matter? 🤔 1️⃣ Climate tech startups often require significant capital to scale their technologies and make a real impact. 2️⃣ The gap between early-stage funding and later rounds can be a make-or-break moment for these companies. 3️⃣ Without proper funding, potentially game-changing climate solutions may never reach their full potential. So, how do we build this bridge? 💡 🌱  Encourage the creation of specialized climate tech growth funds. 🏦 Engage traditional financial institutions in the climate tech space. 📖 Master the art of climate impact storytelling. As investors and industry professionals, we have a unique opportunity to support these innovations and drive meaningful change. 🤔 What are your thoughts on this funding gap? Have you experienced or observed this challenge in the climate tech sector? Let's discuss in the comment section : 👉 How can we work together to unlock the full potential of climate tech solutions and accelerate our path to a sustainable future? 🌍💚 Your insights are invaluable as we push the boundaries of innovation. Speaking of which... 📣 While we've been forging powerful partnerships left and right, we are preparing our next announcement…. Stay tuned for our company's next big move. Join us today and don’t miss our next #announcement 👉 https://www.keenest.co/ #ClimateAction #TechForGood #SustainableInvesting #InnovationFunding

I’ve had the privilege of learning about Two-Eyed Seeing from my mentors and peers in Tech Circle, and it’s an ongoing journey for me to blend perspectives. As Elder Albert Marshall explains, "Two-Eyed Seeing is the gift of multiple perspectives—learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western ways of knowing. It encourages us to see with both eyes for the benefit of all." Our current systems often limit how we approach the challenges we face. But what if we allowed ourselves to see things differently? What if we integrated the wisdom of Indigenous traditions—rooted in holistic understanding and connection to the land—with the strengths of western approaches? It’s not about choosing one over the other, but about combining both to create solutions that are balanced, respectful, and truly innovative. Blending these perspectives isn’t easy, but it's essential. As I continue on this path, I’m grateful for the wisdom shared with me. Together, we can reshape the way we approach technology and Innovation to meet the needs of our planet and all our relations. #TwoEyedSeeing #IndigenousWisdom #TechCircle #Innovation #GrowingTogether #HolisticThinking #BlendPerspectives #SystemsChange

Porter Wong is hosting an event for Clean Tech Startups who are looking for investors! This event, hosted by CleanLeap, is designed to catalyze the transformation of the climate tech landscape by accelerating the journey from innovative concepts to market success. Segments: 1st Segment: ClimateLaunchpad US pitch competition finals - one of the world’s largest green business ideas competition 2nd Segment: Fireside Chat with Investors Delve into the heart of climate tech investments during our fireside chat with esteemed investors and specialists. These influential panelists will share their perspectives on the current opportunities and challenges in climate tech investments tech. Partial Panelists List: Stacey King, Advisor, California Innovation Fund Matthew Stotts, General Partner, Cerulean Ventures Terry Kelly, Partner, Dorsey & Whitney About Clean Leap: At Clean Leap, our mission is clear: to transform the climate tech landscape. Beyond mere support, we catalyze change by partnering with entrepreneurs who are crafting our future. Join us as we take strides towards a sustainable tomorrow. #cleantech #investors #pitchevent

Our friends at Contrarian Ventures - alongside EQT Ventures - are today unveiling The Climate Brick, the missing manual for the climate journey. 90% of CO2 emissions are estimated to be abatable by technology over the next 25 years. However, most innovations that shape modern life were built on common frameworks. Climate innovation doesn’t have one, yet. Today marks a call to change that. Since decarbonization is the greatest economic transition in a century, the 50 signatories of our open letter – representing many of Europe's leading climate tech companies and financial institutions – have pledged to create The Climate Brick, the missing manual for scaling climate technologies. We use today's leading European climate tech companies as bricks to build a greener future, enabling a large-scale technology shift. After analyzing 3,000+ companies and interviewing 100+ pioneers and experts, The Climate Brick is today publishing a comprehensive study with guidance on how to scale climate tech companies. It recognizes seven distinct company profiles, or bricks as we call them: Gigascaling; Green Deployment; Asset-as-a-Service; Product Disruption; New Technology; Moonshot; Companion Software. We’re only getting started. The Climate Brick is an open community being co-built by members together. Are you also on a mission to create impact at scale? Read our open letter via the link in the comments below, and join the movement!

At byFounders, we share our impact report every year, and hopefully raise the bar at each iteration. This year we added some new things, one of them being about AI governance following the EU AI Act (Magnus Hambleton 👏 ), and another being doubling down on solving the climate urgency, walking the talk to decarbonise ALL industries, even the ones that are the hardest to talk about. MEINE ERDE is one of them. They are decarbonising death care. Composting human bodies instead of burning them. Gloomy? Yes, and not really. For the first time, we have countries legalising new ways of saying farewells, in a more wholesome and sustainable way. Unusual? Yes. Hard to build? Yes. Needing heavy front loaded initial capital? Yes. Impactful? #FOAK Yes, both socially and ecologically, and that’s why we stepped in. As some of you are walking out of Hello Tomorrow, you are aware of the climate FOAK funding gap, meaning the lack of capital available for companies building hardware with massive impact potential, yet requiring large capital to build a first-of-a-kind production plant. There isn’t a playbook for FOAKs. So it takes creativity to structure a sustainable funding path for these ventures. Yet we need these innovations to come fast, and honestly the investment case for VCs is there. We as Venture Capitalists need to be curious about it, work on some financial engineering, and step in to unlock some unprecedented investment cases. Ones that also move the needle for impact. So this year, byFounders did. See the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dCWNmrCK PS: Hats off in particular to Line Ettrich, Sara Rywe, and rest of the team for pulling up the report.

Too often we see brilliant technologies that are unable to attract funding due to messy captables. To help avoid this, sharing a couple of mistakes we often see & ideas for solutions from our Climate Hardware Playbook (Part 5.1 on Capital Stack): 🚧 Mistake 1: Dead equity. Too high equity stakes for non-operating founders leave the team without enough incentivization to see the company through the long journey. According to our research, most VCs see 5% as a max shareholding benchmark for inactive founders. ✅ Fix: Set clear agreements and vesting schedules early on to match each founder’s level of involvement. For non-operating founders, consider options like buy-back clauses, gradual equity dilution, or transitioning to advisory roles with adjusted equity terms. 🚧 Mistake 2: Too fragmented or concentrated decision-making power. Fragmentation in the cap table occurs when numerous small investors make consensus challenging due to lack of clear leadership. On the other hand, over-concentration is when one investor holds a large stake, potentially dominating decision-making. ✅ Fix: Whenever feasible, consolidate the decision-making power of smaller investors, and limit any single investor to no more than 20% equity, particularly in early stages. Also be careful with special rights like vetoes or super-voting powers to avoid complicating future investments and decision-making. Hope this was helpful! Keep an eye out for further updates or read more at climate-hardware.com

Liliana Bermudes Chief Strategy Officer & Chief of Staff from CYF, delivered a talk about What #Engineers and #Companies Can Do to Increase #SocialImpact during the DEVWorld Conference. Please watch her talk and share it with your #newtwork as we want to connect with more #organisations and individuals who resonate with our values and want to act to increase social impact! https://lnkd.in/g_iw5pY4