Feeling guilty about all the plastic that has seeped into every aspect of your life? You try to refuse, reduce and reuse (don’t get me started on recycling), but it’s ever present. Unfortunately, the system of making and consuming products isn’t designed to keep plastic out of your life, and it’s only accelerating (plastic production is set to quadruple by 2050). At this rate, greenhouse gas emissions from plastics will reach 15% of the global carbon budget by 2050 (remember...plastic is made from oil that REALLY needs to stay in the ground!). Oh, and the pollution problem will continue to impact wildlife, biodiversity and the ocean's ability to sequester carbon.
Plastic is a must-solve climate change issue, but it is going to require investment alongside political will. THE GOOD NEWS IS brilliant entrepreneurs are busy tackling these problems, but their ideas are dying on the vine without access to capital to build, test and scale. We're on a mission to help.
Read our summary of the plastic crisis investment opportunity (2 min read). We believe plastic is the biggest missed opportunity in climate tech that many investors are ignoring. Startups addressing the plastic crisis are poised for outsized returns and impact.
Our focus
1. Next generation consumer products that minimize or eliminate single-use plastics
2. Compostable, bio-based materials to replace petroleum-based packaging
3. Refillable, reusable, and returnable packaging platforms, including smart packaging
4. Tracking and measurement technology that will help producers meet Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) requirements
- We tap into local startup ecosystems and our partner accelerators + venture studios (Shane's networks) to uncover unique deals paired with an outbound process focused on areas that are exciting to us (Carie's CPG, design and climate geek networks)
- We write early checks at the pre-seed/seed stage
- We help our portfolio companies raise future rounds and land key enterprise customers
Personal profiles
Carie has spent her 20+ year career with large CPG's in R&D, design and innovation, designing structural packaging and equipment as well as building incubators and accelerators for large multinationals. She’s focused on using her domain expertise and combined experiences and network to sort out the plastic and climate crisis. She’s squarely focused on applying her experiences and network to address the climate crisis. She’s a Terra ClimateTech VC Fellow, mentor for the Sustainable Oceans Alliance, and a member of On Deck Angels.
Shane is an operator and startup community builder. As an early hire and COO at Startup Weekend (acquired by Techstars), he built a community of startup ecosystem leaders around the world. With funding from the Kauffman Foundation, he founded Startup Genome to help communities track and support their startup ecosystems. He ran marketing for Dwolla (fintech) and Kohort (social). He currently supports founders as a Founder Group Moderator for Startups.com and helps startups spin-out of the University of Arizona’s tech transfer office (Tech Launch Arizona). He has his Masters in Sustainability Leadership with a concentration in Industrial Ecology, is a certified Climate Reality Leader, and a member of Hustle Fund’s Angel Squad.