Pre-Seed Fund Backs Technical Founders Building Software for Biodiversity, Natural Capital, Nature-based Carbon, Renewable Energy and Sustainable Supply Chains
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Sept. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cerulean Ventures, a climate tech venture capital firm operating in the trillion dollar annual climate finance sector, closed a $10M pre-seed fund focused on software for hard problems in climate tech. The fund invests in highly-scalable software and technology focused on biodiversity, natural capital and climate-positive profitable business practices.
Cerulean Ventures was launched with the support of its anchor investor, One Small Planet, strategic investors, Regen Foundation and Regen Network, and several global family offices focused on scaling proven, profitable solutions to address climate change.
“As tech founders themselves, Jahed and Matthew have the unique experience of bridging complex technology to massive markets,” said Jack Wielebinski, Chief Investment Officer of One Small Planet. “We are proud to support Cerulean’s thesis to invest in software businesses that connect the global economy for nature-positive outcomes.”
As a team, the General Partners work directly with founders at the earliest stages to develop business operations, set go-to-market strategies and plan for financial success to reach critical funding and business milestones. Matthew Stotts was the founder of a top technology marketing consultancy in Silicon Valley and a co-founder of a financial technology business. Jahed Momand was the co-founder of a developer operations SaaS company and held product leadership roles at a number of top Silicon Valley enterprise software companies. Together they worked on sustainable finance, regenerative agriculture and indigenous land stewardship through the Regen Network. They began investing through Cerulean Ventures in 2022.
Matthew and Jahed’s work with the Cerulean Ventures portfolio of climate tech entrepreneurs deepens the general partners’ years of work on nature-based solutions, biodiversity, decarbonization, circular materials, waste-to-value, decentralized energy and global networks for coordinating climate finance and accounting. Cerulean’s portfolio of investments include highly-scalable software and data for sustainable supply chains, financial technology for carbon and energy markets, and several innovations in climate finance.
Four major focus areas for Cerulean Ventures Fund I include: Carbon, Energy, Sustainable Supply Chains and Climate FinTech
Earthbanc leads the carbon markets
Earthbanc has built the world’s first vertically integrated, full-stack, nature-based carbon removal company. Leading global multinationals, such as AstraZeneca, work with Earthbanc to scale carbon removal through native, biodiverse and regenerative agroforestry that delivers proven nature-based carbon removals through its proprietary, MRV software in the field, machine learning, and market linkages for agricultural and horticultural produce.
Earthbanc CEO Tom Duncan: “Our vision at Earthbanc is nothing less than enabling regenerative agriculture, forestry and carbon removal to scale up across 2.5 billion hectares of degraded lands. We make this achievable by building mobile and web software for projects and clients to leverage deep learning and MRV, and we structure capital to enable it to flow into land restoration. Cerulean helped us form capital with the right investors early, and that freed us up to focus on building a truly transformative nature-tech company.”
Jasmine Energy is opening a global renewable energy market
Jasmine Energy has digitized and synchronized the United States market for renewable energy credits, which has historically been disaggregated and difficult to access. With an ambitious view of a global tradeable market of credits that incentivize renewable energy investment, Jasmine Energy is critical to the energy transition.
“Cerulean was one of the first believers in our vision of a globally-coordinated renewable energy market,” said Nathalie Capati, co-founder and CEO of Jasmine Energy. “Few investors have the insight or commitment to support founders building a climate-positive software company that takes on massively complex markets. Cerulean has gone above and beyond in its support for Jasmine.”
CommonShare is driving sustainable supply chains
CommonShare is using AI to enable sustainable procurement across all supply chains, making them transparent and fair through a global network of brands, retailers, suppliers, verifiers, and standards owners that promotes clear communication and cross-company collaboration. In a landmark partnership with Bureau Veritas (BV), they will enable origin mapping and purchase order traceability across BV’s Fortune 500 clients, helping them comply with CSRD and EUDR compliance and radically reduce environmental impacts through sustainable procurement.
“We enjoyed working with the Cerulean team. They were one of the few VCs who understood what we’re doing, which gave them the ability to move fast on diligence and help us focus on building in an entirely new market. Their founder-focused perspective was exactly what we were looking for in a pre-seed partner.” – Martin Smith, Founder & CEO CommonShare.
Regen is building a global blockchain for good
Regen Network and its foundation seek to bring the use, regeneration and protection of land and natural resources into balance with indigenous peoples and local communities through an equitable distribution of value, knowledge and stewardship. The blockchain network and technology tools Regen has built enable finance to flow to biodiversity protection, old-growth forests, critical watersheds and irreplaceable natural resources.
“Jahed and Matthew were early contributors to the Regen Network, a community of hundreds that now spans every continent on Earth,” said Gregory Landua, CEO of Regen Network Development PBC. “We’re excited to see Ceruluean’s contributions to nature-positive technology for the benefit of people and the planet.”
About Cerulean Ventures
https://cerulean.vc/
Cerulean Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed stage Climate FinTech, SaaS and blockchain businesses tapping into the network effects of nature, renewable energy and climate-positive economies. Cerulean finds earth-scale (global) technology opportunities in areas like renewable energy, blue carbon, reforestation, biodiversity and regenerative agriculture, as well as decarbonization, circularity and sustainability across industry, manufacturing, transportation, construction, and supply chains.
CONTACT: Contact Matthew Stotts news@cerulean.vc
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