Business
Climactic launches first fund as its partners eye looming M&A boom in climate tech
A couple years ago, when the pandemic was still in full swing, Raj Kapoor and Josh Felser started making some investments in climate tech startups. They called their operation Climactic, and initially they placed bets using their own money. Both are experienced founders, operators and investors, but they were new to focusing on this particular sector and had began by testing the waters.
Things must have gone well, because now they’re jumping in: The firm today said it has closed a $65 million inaugural fund, using it to back founders who are starting climate tech software businesses.
Both Kapoor and Felser have a long history as investors — Felser co-founded Freestyle Capital, and Kapoor spent seven years as a managing director at Mayfield Fund. They’ve also founded and sold their own software startups.
It’s a bit surprising it took the two so long to work together; their résumés are strikingly similar. Felser founded Spinner in 1997 (sold to AOL) and Crackle in 2004 (sold to Sony). He also started the #Climate nonprofit in 2014 and a public-private COVID task force during the pandemic. Kapoor was previously chief strategy officer at Lyft, and before that, he founded Snapfish (which HP bought) and FitMob (which ClassPass bought). He also started a nonprofit climate social app in 2007.
Those experiences, coupled with a growing concern for the state of Earth’s climate, led the two to form Climactic.
“If we could get the supply chains in the top 50 businesses to hit their net-zero goals, rather than just discuss it, we will have the biggest impact,” Kapoor told TechCrunch+. “To get there, we think the low-hanging fruit is software, because there are a lot of efficiencies that can be gained.”
-
Business6 days ago
Google lays off workers, Tesla cans its Supercharger team and UnitedHealthcare reveals security lapses
-
Entertainment7 days ago
The greatest films on Prime Video right now
-
Entertainment3 days ago
iPad Pro 2024 now has OLED: 5 reasons this is a big deal
-
Entertainment6 days ago
Loneliness in kids: Screen time may play a role
-
Business5 days ago
The Rabbit r1 shipped half-baked, but that’s kind of the point
-
Business7 days ago
ICONIQ Growth raises $5.75B seventh flagship fund
-
Entertainment4 days ago
Why should we care what celebrities like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish say about Palestine?
-
Business3 days ago
Legion’s founder aims to close the gap between what employers and workers need