Our Thesis
Our core observations on Environmental Technology investing:
Climate change is happening more quickly than we thought and the global response continues to fall a long way short of what is required. This will get far worse before it gets better.
We live in a world of finite resources which are geographically concentrated. The world is becoming more geopolitically unstable and we are living through a period of de-globalisation. Accelerating climate change will accelerate these trends.
We need technologies that use the resources we have in abundance, rather than technologies that are dependent on scarce materials sourced from geo-politically unstable areas.
The global population will continue to grow as will the middle classes. There will be a consequent need for more energy, more land, more water and more mined resources. New technologies must feed these needs whilst not damaging the planet and they must serve everybody, not those just living in the developed world.
The transition to a greener future will be hard-fought. We must be pragmatic and realistic. We must balance adaptation with mitigation and accept that we are entering a phase of damage limitation.
Environmental Technology funding has been massively skewed into a very small number of sectors. Valuations in these sectors are often overblown.
These observations have led us to some overarching conclusions:
Every investment we make must first and foremost make a radical difference in the world. Get this right and profits will follow.
This increasingly shifts our focus towards hardware or hybrid (hardware plus software) solutions.
The most revolutionary technologies with the greatest potential haven’t been invented yet. This is why our mission is to back early-stage ventures (typically at TRLs 4-7).
We steer away from some of those areas of environmental / climate tech which have so far benefited
from the largest capital inflows (batteries, EVs, solar etc.).
We have particular interests in: Energy, Water, Carbon Capture, Utilisation & Storage, Circularity, Sustainability & Pollution.
