New Climate Tech Rolling Fund To Scale Solutions In Alt Protein, Materials & Clean Energy

A new rolling fund, Prithvi Ventures, has just launched on AngelList to help accelerate tech solutions to tackle the climate crisis. Aiming to open up the funding pool for the technologies that will have the greatest impact on combating our planet’s challenges, the rolling fund will be supporting startups working in two main spaces – clean energy solutions and sustainable alternatives to animal-based proteins and materials. 

Launched on Tuesday (October 13) on the AngelList platform, Prithvi Ventures – meaning Mother Earth in Sanskrit – will be focused on investing in climate technologies that tackle energy and animal production, two of the leading drivers of climate change. The rolling fund is founded by New York City-based impact investor Kunal Sethi, who is an active investor in the plant-based, clean tech and medical diagnostic industries and the current managing partner of S CAP, an ESG-focused growth stage fund. 

While the climate technologies sector has undergone an astonishing growth of 3,750% between 2013 and 2019, the scale and severity of our climate emergency and the adverse impacts that we are set to face means that many more players, solutions and funding is necessary. 

Unlike traditional funds, rolling funds, also known as subscription funds, represent a more democratic approach to venture funding and has been coined by AngelList as it allows investors the flexibility to invest smaller sizes of capital on a quarterly basis rather than a one-time commitment. The minimum subscription amount for Prithvi Ventures is US$5,000, and will be open to investors who are accredited on the AngelList platform. 

The basis of Prithvi Ventures is exactly that: to build a global community of like-minded investors and entrepreneurs working towards the same goal of eliminating the use of animals in the supply chain and using technology to battle climate change, be it in the food we eat, energy we generate or materials we use.

Kunal Sethi, Founder of Prithvi Ventures

Prithvi Ventures will invest US$100,000-200,000 cheques on average and three deals a quarter into early-stage startups that are on a mission to disrupt the way we currently produce and consume food, materials and energy. 

More specifically, startups targeted include those working on animal-free alternatives to protein, such as plant-based, fermentation and cell-based meat and seafood, as well as those developing materials that eliminate animals from production. Clean and renewable energy solutions within the transportation and electricity generation sectors will also be supported by the fund, in particular those using data analytics-driven tech to address mobility and grid efficiency obstacles. 

Speaking to Green Queen exclusively, Sethi said: “Human beings, like many other animals, are a social species: we rely on cooperation to survive and thrive. It’s time for humans to unite as a species and create a better life for all those who inhabit our Mother Earth, our Prithvi, including ourselves.”

“The basis of Prithvi Ventures is exactly that: to build a global community of like-minded investors and entrepreneurs working towards the same goal of eliminating the use of animals in the supply chain and using technology to battle climate change, be it in the food we eat, energy we generate or materials we use,” he added. 

Last month, veteran alternative protein investor Ryan Bethencourt and Mariliis Holm, the former food scientist at cell-based seafood pioneers Finless Foods, launched a rolling fund called Sustainable Food Ventures (SFV), also on AngelList. It marked the first rolling fund on the platform dedicated to backing only future foods companies. By contrast, Prithvi Ventures, while operating on the same democratised investment model, takes a broader approach to focus on early-stage startups across multiple categories. 

Lead image courtesy of Impossible Foods / Modern Meadow / designed by Sally Ho for Green Queen Media.