‘Recession Resilient’ Climate Start-Ups Shine in Tech Downturn

Our first physical climate innovation hub opened last week in San Francisco, and we are starting to bring the climate community together both in-person and digitally.

A group of seasoned founders, CEOs, operators and venture capitalists announced the launch of Climactic, a New York City and San Francisco, Calif.-based venture capital firm, with a $65M inaugural fund dedicated to accelerating the growth of software-first climate tech startups.

Climactic, a seed venture firm founded by Freestyle Capital's Josh Felser and ex-Lyft executive, Raj Kapoor, has raised $65 million for its first fund.

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.

Funding and deals fall as high interest rates and scale-up challenges weigh on sector.

In this episode of the Cretech Climate Cast podcast, host Michael Beckerman interviews Josh Felser, Co-founding partner of Climactic VC.

We sat down with Josh Felser, Co-founder and Managing Director of Climactic VC, to look at the importance of utilizing private companies in the existential crisis of climate change.

I just co-hosted a Scaling Climate Tech salon this week with the fantastic Meera Clark and was thrilled with the incredible interest from founders (leading to a massive waitlist).

When I jumped 2.5 years ago from Freestyle to Climactic with Raj Kapoor, I hoped my relationships with the founders I’d previously backed while at Freestyle would continue but it was truly the great unknown.

Climate tech founders often come from non-operator backgrounds– nonprofits, academia, or research, to name a few. While their engineering skills might be world-class, transitioning into a sales role, particularly with enterprise clients, can present a unique challenge.

Raj Kapoor talks about how a mindset of curiosity led him to where is today and how the team at Lyft are challenging our assumptions about transportation.

Raj Kapoor, CSO at Lyft, talks about the fundamental nture of transportation and logistics being reshaped by exponential technologies.