$40B for climate tech venture | $755B for low carbon infrastructure | Giving vs. earning trust
Plus, "my" Zen master dies at 95, top 20 agtech and foodtech deals last year, and oh, how I f*cking love science
Good morning, folks.
If you’re feeling anxious about the next Covid variant, climate change, a possible war in Ukraine, historic inflation, crypto’s turbulence, or a hundred other contributors to mental health challenges, then here’s my PSA for the day.
⛅ Try 5-5-5 breathing.
5 seconds on the in-breath
5 seconds on the out-breath
5 minutes per sitting
This is one of my takeaways from this New York Times Bestseller book — Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.
And if this doesn’t work, I find that cursing very loudly (alone) is helpful. The F-bomb can particularly nice.
Cheers,
Chris
💰 Climate tech startups — $40B across 600+ deals in 2021.
Thanks to Climate Tech VC for this incredible data.
Some highlights:
“Roughly 1,400 investment firms joined at least 1 climate tech deal, with ~70 new climate venture firms announced during 2021.
Compared to the same period in 2020, investment in 2H’21 doubled dollars deployed.
They’re tracking >900 deals and ~1,700 unique investors who have participated in venture capital climate tech deals.”
So where did the money go?
💸 Or was it $165B for climate tech last year?
If you include private equity, IPOs, and SPACs, then Bloomberg tells us the number is even bigger.
“$111 billion came from public market sources such as IPOs and SPACs, while the remaining $54 billion came from private sources such as venture capital and private equity.”
Where did all the money go?
“IPOs and secondary offerings raised $62.4 billion in 2021, across 316 deals.
SPAC reverse mergers raised $35 billion. [mostly transport startups]
22 VC/PE deals raised $500 million or more, comprising 35% of all private financing.
The energy sector raised the largest amount of capital – $68.5 billion. [mostly wind and solar power]
Transport and mobility raised the next largest amount – $67.4 billion.”
Read more here.
💲 But wait, $755B was invested in the broader low-carbon transition in 2021.
If we expand the scope to cover infrastructure (renewable energy, energy storage, electrified heat, nuclear, hydrogen), electrified transport, and sustainable materials, then Bloomberg NEF’s annual investment estimates grew 27% from 2020 to 2021, with 50%+ coming from Asia.
Read more here.
The top two sectors are renewable energy projects and electric vehicles.
But with 2021 growth rates at 6.5% and 77%, respectively, EVs could soon overtake solar and wind as the biggest clean energy spend globally.
—
So, is it time to break out the champagne?
Hell no.
The authors note that to remain in line with 1.75 degrees Celsius of global warming…
“Investment levels need to roughly triple, such that they average $2.1 trillion per annum between 2022-2025, in order to get on track for any of those three scenarios.
They then need to double again, to an average of $4.2 trillion between 2026 and 2030.”
Instead, fill those glasses with something super hippie* to recharge — you know, like organic yerba matte or Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee — and let’s double down.
—
* That’s an affectionate term, of course. Have you seen my hair length? “Your hair can’t touch your collar.” Oh yeah? Take that, 12 years of Catholic schooling. :) God bless you.
🌿 Top 20 agtech and foodtech deals of 2021
I’ll highlight some US deals as a teaser, but the full list of 20 is here.
Shout out to Singapore, China, Turkey, UAE, Columbia, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, and India, too.
Thanks to AgFunder News for these juicy curations.
“Lineage Logistics (US) – Michigan-based warehousing, cold chain, and distribution company Lineage banked a bumper $1.9 billion from private equity investors in March.
Impossible Foods (US) – Plant-based patty pioneer Impossible secured $500 million in a November funding round led by existing investor Mirae Asset Global Investments.
Pivot Bio (US) – The ag biotech startup, which offers an alternative to traditional fertilizers by ‘programming’ microbes in the soil to produce more nitrogen, raised $430 million in July in a Series D round led by DCVC and Temasek.
Nature’s Fynd (US) – The Chicago-headquartered company bagged $350 million for its Softbank-led Series C raise in July. It creates meat analogs through microbial fermentation.
Perfect Day (US) – Berkeley, California-based Perfect Day uses genetically modified microflora to produce proteins found in cow’s milk via fermentation. It raised $350 million for its Series D round in September, which was led by Temasek and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.”
🤝 Give trust to teammates. Don’t make them earn it.
Said differently — Trust is granted, not earned.
Depending on my state, this can be a pretty big shift in perspective for me.
But imagine the difference that team members feel when they know you trust them — the extra confidence, effort, enthusiasm, follow through.
And lest you believe that I only wear rose-colored glasses — those are only for certain days of the week — it’s true that trust can, of course, be broken.
And that’s when hard conversations lead to personal and professional growth…or an alternate employment path with some other company.
Thanks to Kentaro Kawamori — CEO of Persefoni, and one of our Climate CEO Mastermind members — for reminding me of this during our January meeting.
🧘🏿♀️ Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh dies at age 95.
After writing over 100 books on meditation, mindfulness, ancient Buddhist texts, and Engaged Buddhism, Thay (nickname) recently passed away at Plum Village — the monastery and meditation center he formed in the south of France after behind exiled from his home country of Vietnam.
I became fascinated with Thay over 25 years ago in college. So much so that I made cassette tape recordings of his audiobook for ten of my friends and family.
I’m not sure they knew what my gift meant — “Wait, are you saying that I need meditation because I’ve got sh*t to deal with? Or because you really like me?”
After studying in Spain during my last year of university, I was supposed to go to Austria to visit a friend. But war in the former Yugoslavia was close enough to change my plans.
And that sent me to Plum Village for a week to live like a monk with Thay.
Ok, it wasn’t exactly a Thay (master) + Chris (student) situation.
During the orientation, when I asked the friendly monk when I’d get to meet Thay, he just laughed — not with me, definitely at me. But given his monk-ness, it felt kind nonetheless.
With hundreds of monks and visitors, the best I could do was ask him questions during dharma talks, or leave him kind gestures of the architectural sketches I had made in pen and ink of his old farm converted to a French Zen monastery.
He was the real deal.
To learn more about his life — including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. and his social activism during the Vietnam War — click here.
That’s all, folks.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
— Chris
🧪 P.S. Do you f*cking love science?
I know I do. But for real, the polite way to say it is — IFLS. And so it is with this website - https://www.iflscience.com. If you need to ground yourself in the “biological experience” that we’re having on this planet (thanks to podcaster Tom Bilyeu for this), or inspire the kids in your life to love it, too, then check it out. This is assigned reading for my kids most days. Fun headlines include:
“What Do I Do With A Frozen Iguana?”
“Psst, Wanna See A Python Swallowing An Impala Whole?”
“Over 9,000 Tree Species Still Waiting To Be Discovered”
—
Dr. Chris Wedding
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Entrepreneurs for Impact
The Only Private Executive Mastermind Community for CEOs, Founders, and Investors Fighting Climate Change