Azolla Ventures

In a tough market where climate venture capital has seen a sharp drop from $18.7 billion in 2022 to just $3.9 billion in 2023, one message stands out: find partners who are built for the long haul. Our very own Johanna Wolfson, General Partner at Azolla Ventures, shared some key advice for climate tech entrepreneurs navigating these turbulent times. Key insights from Johanna: - Look for funds with long-term durability and reserves that can weather market ups and downs. - Ask the Key question: How are your investment managers compensated? Make sure their incentives are tied to both returns and your impact goals. Learn more about Azolla's impact-first mission at azollaventures.com. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/g7nYJdc6 #ClimateTech #VentureCapital #Leadership #Sustainability #AzollaVentures

Azolla Ventures has been featured in The Wall Street Journal's latest article on the evolving landscape of climate tech investing. The article highlights the current challenges and shifts in climate-tech funding amidst a broader venture capital downturn. Johanna Wolfson, co-founder and general partner, shares her insights on the factors influencing this trend, including how new entrants to the field during the 2021/2022 climate-tech financial boom are now confronting the hard realities of climate-tech investing. Despite macroeconomic challenges, Azolla Ventures remains focused on identifying and nurturing pioneering technologies that can make a significant difference in the fight against climate change. 💫 By channeling catalytic capital, our fund is designed to weather market ebbs and flows and to support breakthrough climate solutions even when the industry takes a back seat. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dQf44-UA

🚀 We’re Looking for an Intern at Azolla Ventures! 🌱 This Fall 2024, work with us in Cambridge, MA on a thesis about the "frontiers of computing" — exploring fundamentally new approaches like reversible computing, quantum computing, and memristors. These innovations aim to drastically reduce the energy footprint of expanding data centers supporting AI. Primary Responsibilities Include: -- Supporting a General Partner with research and analysis for this groundbreaking thesis. Qualifications: -- Master’s or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related fields. -- Passion for climate tech and advanced computing. -- Commitment: 20 hours/week for 10-12 weeks. 📄 Job Description: https://shorturl.at/Bl7l8 📩 Apply Here: https://shorturl.at/VXokg

We’re excited to welcome Nolan English as our new Head of Platform at Azolla Ventures! Nolan joins us after nearly a decade at SOSV, where he most recently served as Director of Portfolio Services. In this role, he provided strategic guidance and essential resources to over 1,000 portfolio companies, helping them scale and succeed. With his deep expertise in operational management and a strong passion for empowering founders, Nolan is perfectly aligned with our mission to drive transformative climate solutions. Welcome aboard, Nolan! We’re eager to see the impact we’ll achieve together. #AzollaVentures #ClimateTech #Welcome

Some very exciting updates from Prime Impact Fund’s Portfolio! 🛢️Charm Industrial’s groundbreaking efforts to sequester carbon emissions via bio-oil were covered by The New Yorker. 🪴Clean Crop Technologies, Inc., which utilizes high-voltage plasma technology to increase yields and improve food safety while reducing food waste, was honored as the winner of the Agriculture Category in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas. The recognition comes after  launching the world’s first cold-plasma seed treatment facility and securing regulatory approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency, highlighted in their recent AgFunder feature. 🧊Gradient, a company building a climate-friendly hybrid heating and cooling unit to advance the building sector towards zero carbon, had a short documentary made about their All-Weather 120V window heat pump. The documentary, titled "Moonshot to Milestones" was created by Hollywood filmmaker Chung Nguyen. 🏗Sublime Systems announced the first commercial use of its low-carbon cement at One Boston Wharf. This news was reported by various media outlets, including Canary Media, Carbon Herald, The Cool Down, NBC Boston, and Boston Real Estate Times. Sublime's co-founders, Leah Ellis and Yet-Ming Chiang, were also included in the Boston Globe's Tech Power Players 50 list. 🌊Vesta, PBC, a company using the mineral olivine at sea to remove atmospheric CO2, initiated the first open ocean carbon removal project in the U.S. this May, as covered by HeatMap and the Wall Street Journal. Vesta will place olivine sand in the nearshore waters off Duck, N.C., to study the potential of Coastal Carbon Capture (CCC) in mitigating climate change by removing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 🌋Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals, Inc., a company using AI to discover and derisk new geothermal resources, announced the close of a $30MM funding round, as covered by Renewable Energy Magazine, ImpactAlpha, Think Geoenergy, and FinSMEs. Zanskar was also recently featured in a Forbes article and short video about unlocking geothermal energy's power with artificial intelligence.

Our portfolio company, Lilac Solutions, launched their latest generation ion exchange (IX) technology for lithium extraction, marking a significant breakthrough in the industry. Lilac's Gen 4 IX technology offers exceptional lithium recoveries, impurity rejection, long cycle life, and high throughput, enabling producers to dramatically increase lithium supply while maintaining the highest environmental standards. This innovative technology redefines viable brine resources and unlocks large-scale resources in the US and Europe for the first time. Congratulations to the Lilac team on this remarkable achievement! Read more about this innovative technology here: https://lnkd.in/eWGJx2c4 #Innovation #LithiumExtraction #Sustainability #TechBreakthrough #PortfolioCompanySuccess

We are thrilled to congratulate our portfolio company, Carbon Reform, on the successful unveiling of their pilot Carbon Capsule unit. This innovative retrofit system captures CO₂ while filtering VOCs, pathogens, and particulates, delivering cleaner air, lower emissions, and reduced energy costs. This milestone reflects the hard work, research, and dedication of the Carbon Reform team, led by Jo Norris and Nick M. Their collaboration with BGE is a testament to the power of innovative technology in achieving sustainability goals. Congratulations to the entire team on this significant achievement! Read more about this groundbreaking pilot: https://lnkd.in/eHdcS9aq #ClimateAction #CarbonNeutral #NetZero #Innovation #GreenTech #CleanEnergy 

The public sector procures more than half of all cement in the United States, giving it enormous influence in accelerating adoption of the building technologies needed for our post-carbon future. The federal GSA owns or manages most of the civilian federal government’s real estate, so Sublime is extremely proud to be included in the agency’s Green Proving Ground (GPG)! This program, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), has selected sustainable technologies that will be used in federal buildings, evaluated for their effectiveness, and reported on for broad buyer education across the public and private sector. This initiative not only helps the agency reach its own goals toward net zero by 2045 but provides critical insight to the broader market as a massive buyer of sustainable building technologies and materials allowing companies like Sublime to reach the needed customers more quickly and effectively. We are in great company alongside technologies spanning sustainable building envelopes, HVAC, energy management, and renewables, and we are excited to see the program addressing both operational and embodied carbon! Stay tuned to hear more about the projects we’ll deploy in and in the meantime learn more about the program here: https://lnkd.in/eTAe6yFN #KeepBuilding #lowcarboncement #greenprovingground #sustainablebuilding

Exciting News! Clean Crop Technologies, Inc. has been awarded $1.2 million from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) to scale the deployment of their groundbreaking Clean Current technology! Clean Current replaces traditional, harmful seed treatments with a cold plasma process that decontaminates seeds without affecting their quality or requiring chemicals. This grant will allow them to: - Engage with additional contract manufacturing partners across MA - Scale their team, capacity, and revenue - Increase impact at their seed tolling facility in Holyoke, MA With M2I2's support, Clean Crop can overcome capacity constraints and meet the growing demand for its Clean Current systems. Read the full article here:  https://lnkd.in/eUP-JQ34 #Innovation #Agriculture #Sustainability #Manufacturing #GreenTech #CleanCrop #M2I2

🎙️ Podcast Alert! 🚀 Listen to the newest episode of The Zynergy Podcast (ZNRG) to learn more about how Azolla Ventures came to be and how we use catalytic capital to drive climate innovation, featuring insights from our co-founder Amy Duffuor! In this episode, Amy dives deep into: - The origins of Azolla Ventures - Our mission to avert catastrophic climate change through early-stage investments - How we prioritize impact and support bold entrepreneurs - The unique role of catalytic capital in our strategy Don't miss this inspiring and informative discussion on the future of climate tech and the critical role of innovation. 🌍💡 #PodcastAlert #ClimateInnovation #AzollaVentures #CatalyticCapital #ImpactInvesting #Sustainability #GreenTech #ClimateAction