A pair years in the past, when the pandemic was nonetheless in full swing, Raj Kapoor and Josh Felser began making some investments in local weather tech startups. They referred to as their operation Climactic, and initially, they positioned bets utilizing their very own cash. Each are skilled founders, operators and buyers, however they have been new to specializing in this explicit sector and commenced by testing the waters.
Issues will need to have gone effectively, as a result of now they’re leaping in: The agency at this time mentioned it has closed a $65 million inaugural fund, utilizing it to again founders who’re beginning local weather tech software program corporations.
Each Kapoor and Felser have an extended historical past as buyers — Felser co-founded Freestyle Capital, and Kapoor spent 7 years as a managing director at Mayfield Fund. They’ve additionally based and offered their very own software program startups.
It’s a bit stunning it took the 2 so lengthy to work collectively; their resumés are strikingly comparable. Felser based Spinner in 1997 (offered to AOL) and Crackle in 2004 (offered to Sony). He additionally began the #Local weather nonprofit in 2014 and a public-private COVID job drive through the pandemic. Kapoor was beforehand chief technique officer at Lyft, and earlier than that, he based Snapfish (which HP purchased) and Fitmob (which Classpass purchased). He additionally began a nonprofit local weather social app in 2007.
These experiences, coupled with a rising concern for the state of the Earth’s local weather, led the 2 to type Climactic.
“If we could get the supply chains in the top 50 companies to hit their net zero goals, rather than just talk about it, we will have the biggest impact,” Kapoor informed TechCrunch+. “To get there, we think the low hanging fruit is software, because there are a lot of efficiencies that can be gained.”
