Why Toniic members invested in MCJ Collective’s Funds
The world is entering a critical period of climate and energy instability, failing to decarbonize quickly enough to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5° C warming limit by 2030. Moreover, as we shift toward electrification and anticipate a surge in data center demand fueled by AI, we are poised to experience a significant increase in global energy consumption for the first time in decades — just when we are endeavoring to make our systems less carbon-intensive. This conundrum will intensify the push for industrial decarbonization while in parallel increasing the desire for clean baseload power generation. On top of this, the world will need to significantly increase resiliency efforts to mitigate the economic and physical impacts of climate change. Innovation in these fields will shift from a nice-to-have to an essential worldwide need as we adjust to this new reality.
These dynamics are fostering tremendous entrepreneurial opportunities. There is a tidal wave of seasoned entrepreneurial talent pouring into this broad problem space. In many cases, the founders coming into this space have multiple wins under their belts in other startup areas, and they are rapidly building their networks and knowledge to apply their founder know-how to these very real world challenges.
The next 25 years will be incredibly transformative. Systems we take for granted will falter; we will experience increased energy access issues, increased patterns of human migration, and more extreme weather-induced disasters. We’ll see AI begin to redefine much of how we work, and the demand for compute power combined with clean energy, may usher in a new manufacturing renaissance in North America. Throughout this period, there will be winners and losers. Established businesses will aim to collaborate with emerging technology firms and, in some instances, new leaders will arise, overtaking current market dominants to become the iconic, industry-defining companies of the 21st century and beyond.
MCJ Collective
MCJ Collective is a venture capital firm with $100M+ AUM, which also supports its portfolio through the MCJ membership network, and uses their media platform — including the My Climate Journey podcast — to reach tens of thousands of listeners.
MCJ Collective is a venture capital firm with $100M+ AUM that backs founders driving the transition of energy and industry while solving the enormous challenge of climate change. The firm finds and supports leading entrepreneurs as they rewrite industries to be cleaner, cheaper and better. MCJ’s partnership has invested previously via some of the most iconic founder-centric networks of our generation, including Greylock, Techstars, and Flybridge.
They support their portfolio of over 80 investments through the MCJ membership network, which has successfully placed more than 50 individuals in portfolio companies and facilitated the career transitions of thousands of professionals. Additionally, MCJ’s media platform — including the My Climate Journey podcast — reaches tens of thousands of listeners multiple times per week, helping to grow the network exponentially.
Investment examples:
Heirloom Carbon
Company Description: Carbon Mineralization enabled Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology
Location: San Francisco, CA
Founder(s): Shashank Samala, Noah McQueen
MCJ Participation: Pre-Seed & Series A
About the company: Commercializing the research of Dr. Jennifer Wilcox (now of the Department of Energy), Heirloom has developed its direct air capture technology from the lab bench to larger scale demonstrations and, in February 2023, successfully showed that it could permanently store captured CO2 in concrete. Its unique mineralization technology leverages abundantly available limestone to capture ambient CO2 and cost-effectively remove it from the atmosphere and permanently store it. By commercializing mineralization as a natural carbon solution, Heirloom aims to provide direct air capture with lower operating expenses at scale. In August 2023, Heirloom’s DAC Hub was selected by the US Department of Energy for up to $600 million in matching funding. In September 2023, Microsoft signed a long term contract to purchase up to 315,000 metric tons of CO2 removal over a multi-year period from Heirloom.
Why MCJ invested: Shashank and Noah have built a company that strikes the critical notes for commercializing carbon removal: sequestering gigaton-scale quantities of CO2 at a diminishing cost over time and serving a carbon offset market for which demand is rapidly growing from sectors like materials and hyperscalers. Heirloom helps large energy consumers grow their consumption footprint knowing that they can do so while directly capturing the emissions rather than relying on crediting processes that are more disconnected from their operations.
Verse
Company Description: AI enabled software to understand, plan, and manage clean power
Location: San Francisco, CA
Founder(s): Seyed Madaeni and Matt Penfold
MCJ Participation: Seed & Series A
About the company: Verse has built the first end-to-end enterprise software platform for buying and managing clean power. Their Aria platform uses algorithms and generative AI models to enable customers to reduce their power costs and scope 2 emissions at the same time.
Why MCJ invested: Electricity generation contributes to approximately 25% of global carbon emissions, underscoring the urgent need to transition to clean energy sources. The swift expansion of data centers, along with industrial sectors such as green fuels, is intensifying the demand for clean power procurement even more.
However, directly buying clean power or implementing a diversified clean energy procurement strategy is difficult for most companies, especially for those without dedicated teams and resources. Even further, most organizations are still using manual processes to manage and report on their energy portfolios.
Verse’s Aria platform simplifies this process by offering granular control over clean energy procurement, making it faster, easier, and more cost-effective for companies to adopt a diversified clean energy mix.
Investments from Toniic members
Through Toniic’s fund program, investors of the Toniic community have been able to join a call with the MCJ team as well as an LP reference call with one of MCJ’s institutional investors.
Toniic continuously encourages investors within the Toniic community to refer funds that they have invested for Toniic’s fund program. Through Toniic’s fund program, investors of the Toniic community have been able to review the opportunity via Toniic’s platform, a curated executive summary, an internal investor webinar and a call with the MCJ team as well as an LP reference call with one of MCJ’s institutional investors.
A total of 3 Toniic members are LPs in MCJ’s funds.
With my impact investment thesis, I identify ‘indicator companies’ that could lead me to funds. MCJ is the best fund I have found.
Toniic member Ruchir Punjabi shared:
“I was introduced to MCJ by fellow climate-focused investors in the U.S. Many in that circle of climate action enthusiasts suggested I explore MCJ, leading me to explore their community, including their podcast. I quickly realized the extent of MCJ’s influence: a vast majority of U.S. climate entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs are actively engaged with MCJ, leveraging their network to propel their climate initiatives.
Though venture capital isn’t typically my investment focus, MCJ’s decision to raise a fund immediately caught my attention, prompting me to invest. My interactions with partners like David [Aronoff] and Cody [Simms] have been nothing short of inspiring. David’s extensive experience, including tenures at Flybridge and Greylock, coupled with the rest of the team’s experience, speaks volumes. Their existing portfolio, featuring prominent names in the climate startup arena, is a testament to their deal flow. I am confident that both the MCJ fund and their community will continue to drive significant impact in the climate action sphere.”
Toniic member Jim Fournier also added:
“I have an impact investment thesis based on insights from fundamental chemistry and materials science. I used that to identify a number of “indicator companies” that could lead me to funds. MCJ is the best fund I have found.”
Ernie Chow, who invested in multiple MCJ funds, shared:
”I first came across MCJ by listening to the podcasts and became aware of their community and the strong reach that they have. I invested in their rolling funds, and I like their diversified approach. They are very impact-focused, mission-driven people, are supportive investors and are often invited to rounds. The podcast helps them add value as they’re talking to a wide range of people in the climate space across climate tech, policy and nonprofits. As they raise a larger institutional fund, they are building out their team, and adding more structure. LPs coming into this fund also benefit from the fact that MCJ already has 80+ investments in the rolling funds. While the rolling funds may not be able to participate in follow-on rounds, this MCJ 2023 fund can.”
[Note: The article was updated on July 3rd, 2024 to add a quote from a third Toniic member]
About Toniic:
Toniic is a global community of private asset owners seeking to steward wealth and use influence to enable a thriving world. Our members — more than 500 high net-wealth individuals, family offices and foundations from more than 25 countries — are active impact investors and philanthropists, for whom Toniic provides education, investment opportunities, impact support, events, and community. Toniic also seeks to build the field of deep impact investing, moving money and mindsets and leading by example.
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Contact Julien Gafarou, Director of Investment Research if you’d like to learn more about the Toniic membership or to share an investment opportunity.
