Climate change is a problem of atoms, not just bits.

And within it rests the single largest investment opportunity, ever.

A changing climate is already affecting every country, company, and human. And it will only get worse.

"The climate is f’d. Even worse than it seems.” — Chris Sacca

But where there’s pain, there’s potential. Not only can we be a part of the solution as climate investors, but we can make a profit while doing the right thing.

“The world’s first trillionaire will come from climate tech.” — Chamath Palihapitiya

And change is happening fast.

• 1/3 of the Fortune 500 has climate goals for 2030 or sooner. [1]
• 19 US states and territories have adopted policies moving to all-renewable or zero-emission electricity. [2]
• 197 countries, nearly every nation on Earth, has signed the Paris Accord on climate. [3]
• $2 trillion — the amount the Biden administration aims to spend over 4 years on clean energy sources with a goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. [4]
• ClimateTech investing is growing 5X faster than overall VC ($60B from 2013-2019). [5]
• So far in 2021, more climate-focused funds were raised than during the previous 5 years combined. That’s led to VC-backed climate tech companies raising more than $14.2 billion worldwide—88% of the total for all of 2020. [6]

Climate businesses will be $1T in GDP within 10 years and corporate taxes on these new businesses will be $300B. That’s double California's annual tax revenues. — Chamath

All signs point to a major industrial and societal carbon transcendence.

There are already over 26 ClimateTech unicorns ($1B+ valuation) around the world who have collectively raised over $18B+ of total funding in the last decade and are now collectively valued at over $58B, including Rivian, Northvolt, and NotCo.

Then there are the climate decacorns ($10B+ valuation), including Nest, Beyond Meat, and Impossible Foods. There’s even a climate hectacorn in Tesla with its valuation nearing $1T.

We think there could be dozens of climate decacorns by the end of the decade.

As Chris Sacca, the Founder of Lowercarbon Capital, the largest climate fund in the space at $800M, says, ‘Fixing the planet is just good business. Shame and guilt won’t get us there, markets will.’

Our thesis is simple and backed by over a decade of building and investing in startups.

We will find and fund early-stage climate startups. These startups will reduce emissions, remove them, or help adapt to our changing planet. We will do this quickly in order to help bring all the best ideas to market ASAP.

*For a deeper read into our investment thesis, refer to Mehrad's original climate investing framework.

What is clear is that we need A LOT more startups to be born and reach scale, FAST.

“Even as we race to get to net zero, the climate math tells us that we must also accelerate the development and deployment of solutions that can be carbon negative.” — Elon Musk

We will often look to fill the last $100K-$200K of a founder’s funding round. We co-invest with smart people and we look for strong indicators of execution, especially within the team and traction. Then we support founders with our pool of experienced operators, The Collective.

And with that, we welcome you to The Cool Climate Collective. Let's save the planet with ClimateTech, together.

Sincerely, your friendly climate investors...

Mehrad & Tristan

🌲👐🌲

PS — Our LPs have built companies like Tesla, Stripe Climate, Google, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, DoorDash, Twitter, Slack, Square, and Airtable, as well as VCs like AngelList, Techstars, 500 Startups, Next Play Capital, and Lift Ventures. 

We build strong relationships with founders early on in their startup journey. Thus, we often get really good valuations before they blow up.

These are proven entrepreneurs that have business-building experience and are going after hugely impactful problems in growing trillion-dollar markets.

They also have a big vision and know-how to get people excited about it. Since we reach them early, we often get favorable valuations while also de-risking with accelerator partners, VCs, and climate experts.

Coming from both operator and investor backgrounds, we source our deals through various ClimateTech communities and startup networks that we are actively engaged in.

About us

Mehrad was the former Program Director of Terra's Climate Change for VCs program as well as a partner at Climate Foundry and has been involved in various programming at MENA-based accelerators, while also being a mentor to various Techstars programs.

He’s also built deep relationships in the academic and scientific communities, including at Yale, Berkeley, and other tech transfer offices.

Tristan has spent the last decade building, selling, and investing in startups and is bent on spending the next decade dedicated to fixing our climate problem.

He's been a VC at 500 Startups where he directed $30M in funding, an EIR at Google for Startups, listed at Forbes 30 Under 30, a Terra ClimateTech VC Fellow, and a mentor at hundreds of accelerator programs, including Techstars, Katapult Climate, and Norrsken Impact.

He’s also built and sold 2 startups at the intersection of impact and technology.