“We’re taking a resolutely practical approach to a big problem,” Garret Melby says, regarding Climate Ventures 2.0 (CV2), his organization’s small business program aimed at developing solutions to combat climate change. “How can we profit from things getting worse?” Despite Melby’s provocative, tongue in cheek words, the answer is, big dollars and major league connections are in the pipeline for companies accepted into the initiative hosted by parent nonprofit GoodCompanyVentures. The White House and an impressive roster of global corporations, universities, and think tanks are on board and competition is fierce. Over 300 companies are vying for the 10 slots available in the first 12-week class.
Melby, a long-time proponent of business’s “transformative” role in solving social challenges, has helped dozens of companies launch and grow. A recent presentation summarized the organization’s approach in three components: reframe social problems as opportunities, design scalable models, and mobilize capital.
GoodCompanyVentures “takes the problem off the shoulders of governments and philanthropists,” Melby says. Previous programs resulted in attracting many millions of investment, with over 75 graduates representing a wide array of sectors, including education, media, technology, and health.
Food innovator Joshua Tettrick of Hampton Creek Foods is one such high-profile alumnus. Hampton Creek created Just Mayo, a vegan mayonnaise made with yellow field peas, now sold in outlets ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods. Another vegan product, Just Cookies, is sold nationally through Compass Group. Tettrick has managed to raise $120 million in multiple rounds of financing, and backers include Khosla Ventures and Li Ka-shing. In addition, the World Economic Forum recently named Hampton Creek Foods as a Technology Pioneer, one of 2015’s “most innovative” companies. Past Technology Pioneers include Google, Mozilla, and Dropbox.
Melby is hoping to spur similar trajectories for those selected to attend Climate Ventures 2.0. “We’re focused on water, agriculture, and urban resilience,” he says, mentioning the U.S. government’s call to action through the Climate Data Initiative. The Climate Data Initiative was launched in 2014 for the purpose of providing “data resources and other datasets to build tools that will make America’s communities more resilient to climate change.” Although this information is used to identify opportunities and key issues, Climate Ventures 2.0 has a global focus and is open to companies worldwide.
“The market is huge.” Melby cites the U.S. government’s $18 billion crop insurance program and the estimated $350 billion worldwide cost of “climate threat” to food and water systems. His goal is to entice traditional venture capital sources in agtech, a shift he hopes to see.
Melby and his associates have put together a wish list of technologies they find promising. While this list reads like a compilation of current agtech hot spots—drones, monitoring systems, indoor and vertical ag—it includes futuristic-sounding concepts like microbial electrolytic carbon capture, biotechnologies, and aquapods.
“It’s a very structured process,” Melby notes. Climate Ventures 2.0 will do a “deep dive” with participants, helping them figure out how to build a market model and scale up. Blind spots are exposed and assumptions challenged. “Who is going to pay?” Melby asks. “That’s a question prior participants sometimes wrestled with.”
The program isn’t designed for pre-start-ups; participants need to have proof of concept and initial revenue. In addition, the quality of the team is assessed. “We place tremendous value on the entrepreneurs themselves,” Melby says. “We select exemplary innovators.”
In addition to the high-profile nature of the initiative, the line-up of assisting resources is impressive. Climate Ventures 2.0’s schedule includes intellectual property workshops from Penn Law School, consulting services from Wharton and Stanford consultants, and advising from data and climate scientists. NASA and NOAA are key partners, as is the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative. Investment will be provided through CV2’s own fund and through a Demo Day.
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Elizabeth Penney