Krisztina (Z) Holly

A SAFE and convertible note had a baby and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati was the midwife- out popped the D-SAFE! 👶🏽🎉 A new #climatetech funding instrument was announced by Elemental Excelerator last week. One of the company’s main goals is to support smaller, up and coming companies during the awkward “Scale Gap” phase between #VC funding and natural growth. It’s called the #DSAFE (Development Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and it aims to aid the process by giving companies a small amount of cash to overcome initial risks and expenses during the developmental stages of a product launch or company. How does it work? D-SAFE has a redemption clause meaning companies can choose to have their payments offered as a loan or convert to equity at the investor’s discretion. Funders and companies will have clear communication and expectations about where the money is going and how it will be applied to either the company or the projects at hand. Financiers and companies will work together with more #transparency, and that’s a great boon for #startups and VC alike. As of this month, Elemental has already invested using D-SAFE in eight different companies, including Dimensional Energy and Origen — both companies investing in innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to environmental issues! Seems like a win-win on the surface. What do you all think about the D-SAFE? Alfredo Coppola Momoka Ueda Tim Wagner Stephen D. Torres Olya Irzak Natsuho Toyama Noriya Tarutani Shin Ogawa

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Excited for DCVC portfolio co Alta Resource Technologies to emerge from stealth! The design space of biology is many orders of magnitude larger than inorganic chemistry, and Alta uses it to massively reduce the cost of extracting rare earth metals. https://lnkd.in/g_q5UwRF

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3D printing is having a breakout moment, turning its long held promise into a reality that is arriving at pace and at scale. Over the next 5 years: - Consumers will expect customized products at scale - Computers will surpass human creativity and skill in product design - New infrastructure is needed to protect IP if anything can be printed anywhere  - Global supply chains will be meaningfully dismantled as products get printed at their point of sale I sat down with Philip DeSimone, Co-founder of Carbon, the most advanced 3D printing company already operating at scale serving customers in 17 countries ranging from Adidas to Ford. With over 300 patents filed, Carbon has raised $680M from the likes of Sequoia, Temasek, and Google. Check out 5YF Episode #14: 3D printing breakthroughs, AI designed products, mass customization, spare body parts, dismantling global trade, IP piracy, and the future of production w/ Carbon Co-founder Philip DeSimone https://pod.fo/e/234185 #3Dprinting

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Excited to announce our investment in Alta Resource Technologies alongside Leonardo Banchik (Voyager Ventures) with participation from Orion Resource Partners, Overture Ventures, and WovenEarth Ventures. Rare earths are critical in products from magnets to ceramics and it's important for the US to develop its own supply chain. While the US has some of the best rare earth resources, separating them has historically proven expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Alta through it's computationally designed and optimized proteins allows the US to bring back rare earth production with a cleaner, lower capex, and lower opex solution - and that's just the beginning. Congrats to Nathan Ratledge and the entire Alta team. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gbGnAJn3

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Last week, I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion on navigating FOAK in climate tech at the Greentown Labs Summit in Boston (which had >600 people!!). Here’s a quick rundown of what was shared by Katherine St. James of Spring Lane Capital, Paris Smalls, PhD of Eden GeoPower, and Hannah Friedman of Planeteer Capital: 🌱 What is the definition of FOAK? We discussed how the term can be controversial - it's almost too general because it doesn't identify what kind of "First" FOAK refers to - first team project? First geography? First of a technology in a sector? First time for the integration of a system? It's also too specific because it has the word "first" in it, which can be anathema to later stage / project finance investors. 💰 Partnerships for Funding FOAK Projects We discussed how important it is to build a blended capital stack & use off-balance sheet capital for a project so you're not using the most expensive equity dollars to fund an infrastructure project with low-ish IRR. We also talked through being creative about using corporate partners to provide in-kind services or ink some agreement (at least an LOI) to attract this funding. 🏛 Role of Government We talked about how government capital is seen by investors & how it can be catalytic for FOAK. Government capital can provide validation that a startup has passed a rigorous diligence process by a third party - and incentives like grants or credits can help improve returns for the first project- but it's important to be doing this in conjunction with getting customer validation and to be able to present line of sight to competitive economics without concessionary capital. 👥 Advice for FOAK startups The panelists offered some very specific pieces of advice for startups going through FOAK: how to get creative with things like revenue sharing agreements or convertible notes, getting smart with project development early on (like with DeveloperU), being careful about using FOAK too liberally with certain investor groups, getting the right commercialization / FOAK talent in and around you early Huge thanks to the panelists and the team at Greentown Labs (Jill Kirkpatrick, Julia Travaglini, Aisling Carlson, etc you rocked it!!) for hosting this discussion on bridging the FOAK gap. Also immensely enjoyed the rest of the agenda. Check out the full recap & videos here: https://lnkd.in/d9ApYe9Y #ClimateTech #FOAK #ClimateFinance #ProjectDevelopment #GreenTech #CleanEnergy

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🚨 Breaking! 8090 Industries portfolio company Exowatt led by industrialist Hannan P. launches P3, fundamentally unleashing a new dawn for the energy industry! ☀️ Catch the story from Michelle Ma at Bloomberg below: https://lnkd.in/gkfHENST ⚡ Setting the stage: The power requirements to scale AI are astronomical. Within a decade AI will require 650TWh of new power generation – more than the electricity demand of South Korea. In the U.S. alone, data centers will require the equivalent amount of electricity to power 40 million households by 2030. Exowatt P3s can generate electricity at scale at just a $0.04 LCOE and with entirely baseload renewable tech. That’s lower than the cost of most fossil fuels and doesn’t account for subsidies. We have already amassed a 1.2 GW backlog, worth $Billions from the mega tech hyperscalers, energy and data center companies. 💡 How does it work? The system works by capturing the sun’s energy in the form of heat, storing it in a heat battery and converting it to electricity via a heat engine even when the sun is no longer out. This changes the economics of solar by solving a problem called the “Duck Curve” where all conventional solar producers are forced to sell their power at the same time while at maximum output, driving the electricity cost sometimes to zero or negative intraday and leaving no supply at night. Data centers need to operate 24/7 and typically have 60% of their OPEX from energy costs, so an inexpensive and ever available alternative is very important to them. Data centers are straining to bring capacity online and without solutions like Exowatt, are being forced to turn to fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Keep a close eye on this one, we have no doubt Hannan P. Jack Abraham and the Exowatt team will be pushing forward an exciting, abundant and carbon-free powered future!⚡️ cc Kerem Ozmen Wes Mendenhall Filip Vurdelja Haluk Sabanci Dincer Grant Brown Charles Oppenheimer Ishan Meswani Garuth A. Andrew Irwin

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Is SF Climate Week banter a good barometer of the macro climate tech investment mood? Key nuggets to ponder: 💰💰💰 Climate solutions (like most science/engineering and hardware based deep tech) are capital intensive. They require an "all of the above", creative financing approach to obtain the capital needed to scale (from CVCs, government, public-private partnerships, green banks, debt financing...). 🤖 AI - Everything, Everywhere (all at once). As in most sectors, AI is white hot. It can be a key component of climate solutions, but also a demand accelerant ⏩ More AI = ↗ compute and power demand ⚡= ↗ need for energy storage and grid enhancing solutions 🔋. 🏛 🤵 Political Angst. Real worry that a new administration will cut or impede climate tech catalyzing funding (e.g., DOE funding from IRA). #climatetech #climateweek

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Stepping into adjacent containers, digital, physical, magical to just, oh I don't know, keep it spicy. "Seira, a series of digital video artworks, is a synthesis of modern day technology and the yearning for profound human experiences. Utilizing TouchDesigner, AI software, code, and my original designs, I explore the intersection of the digital and the organic– drawing inspiration from technoromanticism, ancient Greek sirens, and synesthesia.   At its heart, this series is an exploration of the complex relationship between death and _l'appel du vide_—the call of the void. This psychological phenomenon, which tempts humans with the allure of self-destruction, is mirrored in the ancient myth of the sirens. The siren's song, like the void, is a lure that challenges us to confront our deepest impulses—the pull towards oblivion and the simultaneous yearning for transcendence. I intentionally draw a parallel between _l'appel du vide_ and the siren’s call, as both are manifestations of our intrinsic fascination with the unknown, with that which lies beyond the boundaries of safety and rationality." Seirá, Meditations on l'appel du vide (2024) by Neesh Chaudhary https://lnkd.in/gDm_3KTS

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Sometimes I just become despondent with how people think about CO2. Although I welcome the good intentions of "leveling the playing field" for CO2 removal, IMO this VERY lucrative newly introduce Bennet & Murkowski bill would suck all the oxygen out of the room for many/most nature-based solutions which are the one class of options that have real affordably scalable potential. Unwittingly, my first reaction to this proposal is it will make the silly things so lucrative that the real things can never happen. Although it has several "issues" upon my first read, first and foremost is the 1000+ year "permanence" - a well-intended and seemingly obvious but misguided goal IMO. Those that follow me have heard it before, but at some point we must get it of our mind that the goal should be to lock up mean, evil carbon away forever in a deep dark vault like gold in Fort Knox, and replace it with the goal of accumulating more and more carbon as it is put to work in enabling all life on Earth. Let me state it clearly again - permanence of a molecule is actually the wrong goal. Not that it works this way (even in the inhaling and exhaling of life), but if all CO2 left its storage every night and returned each morning, it would be no different than if it stayed inside all night. Actually staying put doesn't matter. What matters right now is that we shift the total balance from the atmosphere to the lithosphere and biosphere - the latter meaning all life. I wish I could keep my attention on just helping real carbon removal happen instead of thinking about how I might game such a system, but here we are... I sometimes feel like Don Quixote, but I sleep well knowing that with physics and thermodynamics on my side, my cause is just. But IMO, we may all end up dead if we don't learn to understand this. My bigger near-term worry now is that it may just get harder for real solutions to compete with lucrative incentives for (many, but not all) fantasies. And some of these fantasies will even make the underlying problem worse (e.g. perverse incentives to remove biomass that could actually help life capture even more carbon). Ugh. h/t: David Lawrence for bringing my attention to this new bill.

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The Untold ⚡POWER of 🗣STORY-TELLING: From Cave Walls to Conference Rooms Long before spreadsheets and market reports, our ancestors wielded a far more potent tool: storytelling. From the flickering firelight illuminating cave paintings to the captivating sagas whispered through generations, storytelling has always played a crucial role in shaping our world. Lessons from History: 🌆 The Dawn of Human Connection: Imagine prehistoric humans huddled around a fire, captivated by stories etched on cave walls. These early narratives weren't just entertainment; they were survival guides, teaching hunting techniques, warning of dangers, and fostering a sense of shared identity within the tribe. Here, storytelling became the cornerstone of human connection and knowledge transfer. 🌏 The Rise of Empires: Move forward to ancient Egypt. Elaborate hieroglyphics adorned temple walls, not just with factual records, but with epic tales of gods and heroes. These stories solidified the power of the pharaohs and instilled cultural values in the population. Storytelling became a tool for social control and shaping belief systems. 📱 The Birth of Innovation: Fast forward to the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci, wasn't just a scientist and inventor; he was also a skilled storyteller. His notebooks brimmed with not only technical drawings but also fantastical creatures and imagined machines. Here, storytelling became the spark of imagination and invention. 🎥 Storytelling in the Modern Age: In today's world, where information overload reigns supreme, a well-crafted narrative cuts through the noise. Here's why it matters to you, the entrepreneur: 💸 Captivating Investors: Whether seeking funding for your startup or pitching a new product idea, a compelling story can be the difference between a "yes" and a "no." Investors back not just ideas, but the passion and vision behind them, and a great story brings that to life. 🎵 Inspiring Action: From social movements to environmental campaigns, powerful stories have the power to ignite change. Think Apple's "Think Different" campaign or Nike's "Just Do It." These stories connect with people on an emotional level, fostering empathy and prompting action. 🏛 Building Brands: In a crowded marketplace, Storytelling is the secret sauce that breathes life into your brand, connecting with customers on a deeper level and fostering loyalty. Think Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign or Patagonia's commitment to environmental activism. 🔑 The Takeaway: Storytelling is an inherent human ability, waiting to be harnessed. By understanding its power and learning from the masters of the past, you can unlock its potential in your own life. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a passionate advocate, or simply someone who wants to make an impact, remember: a well-told story can move mountains and help realize your dreams! Stay tuned for the next post. We'll delve deeper into crafting compelling narratives for you!  #storytelling #brands

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Check out my recent post on why President Trump is the forcing function for us to solve the “Missing Middle” and catch the industrial Tsunami of onshoring coming to the US!

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Thought provoking podcast on AI.....def recommend a listen. Has challenged me to think about company building over the next decade. At Everlum Bio we are not only building for the future but are also making real progress in the rare disease space right now. As we continue along this exponential curve I am incredibly optimistic that we will see personalized medicine as the only way therapeutics are ultimately created and delivered. #ai #agi #startups #personalizedmedicine #raredisease https://lnkd.in/gQBmKx4F

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🚀 Excited to announce our investment in Satellites on Fire. Their cutting-edge technology is making a significant impact in preventing fires and addressing climate change. What excites me: 🌟 Product: I'm particularly impressed by how they use various technologies to solve a very specific problem – wildfire detection and prevention. Their use of satellites and #AI allows for real-time wildfire detection, outperforming traditional methods and providing early alerts to protect communities and ecosystems. 🔥 Traction: already monitoring 34M hectares across 11 countries in Latin America, helping over 400 organizations with real-time alerts. Their rapid adoption by large-scale public and private institutions speaks volumes about their impact. 💪 Amazing Team: Franco Rodriguez Viau, Joaquin Chamo and Ulises L. have shown incredible passion, grit, and growth mindsets. Exactly what you look for in founders. Can't wait to see how they grow the business. Forests are crucial for climate stability, water regulation, biodiversity, and livelihoods. We need to protect them! Satellites on Fire is here to help us protect our forests and neighboring communities. 🌎 Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/eMRai9UA #ClimateTech #WildfirePrevention #SustainableFuture #Innovation #SatellitesOnFire #MCV

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🚨 🚘 An exciting day here at 8090 Industries as we ‘roll out’ our latest investment in ENSO - 2023 Earthshot Prize Finalist, to revolutionize a stagnant industry undergoing the largest shift since its inception, with no solution in place, an aging workforce, lacking ingenuity and a business model out of touch with the dynamic needs of its customers - TIRES. World, meet Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, the industrialist pioneering a new dawn for the tire industry. But first, a quick history lesson: __________________________ In 1898, Franklin "Frank" Seiberling, jobless, with a wife and three children, borrowed $3,500 for a down payment from his brother-in-law, to purchase an old strawboard factory in Ohio, to open a rubber company. A science and history nut, he named it after Charles Goodyear, the pioneer of vulcanization, the main method of how rubber was produced. Over the next decade, they brought mechanization and technology to the cumbersome and time-consuming process of hand building tires — enabling one man to produce 60 tires in ten hours as opposed to five tires built by hand in a day. His Seiberling State machine revolutionized tire building and led to an explosion in tire production output. By 1907 - it caught the attention of Henry Ford who purchased 1,200 sets of tires for the Model T. And as they say, the rest is history. By 1913 - Over half the tires made in the U.S. were manufactured on Seiberling’s machines. By 1916 - The The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company became the largest tire producer in the world. _____________________ Today much has changed. @Goodyear is no longer the largest tire producer and tire manufacturers no longer own the direct relationship to fleets. That capitalistic, swashbuckling energy and entrepreneurial spirit that built Goodyear and pioneered the tire industry is in short supply, just when it needs it most as a global transition towards EVs compels the greatest growth opportunity for the tire industry in over a century. Led by Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, Enso produces tires perfectly fit for a world increasing run on EVs - that are tailored to endure the heavy weight and torque, last longer, cheaper and increase range by more than 10% today while bringing circularity to the supply chain and data through owning the direct relationship with fleets.  Don’t just take our word for it, some of the largest fleets in the world from Amazon to city cab fleets in Europe are already running on Enso tires and this is just the beginning. 👀 Stay tuned. Much to come! cc Kerem Ozmen Wes Mendenhall Filip Vurdelja Haluk Sabanci Dincer Grant Brown Ishan Meswani Garuth A. Andrew Irwin #climatetech #decarbonization

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Everyone loves the 'picks and shovels' thesis—but the real untapped goldmine? Vertical agents and applications. 💡 As the underlying foundation models continue to advance, there won't be much space to build unicorn businesses that sit between the models on one hand and agentic applications on the other. (Don’t be surprised if GPT-5 is natively agentic in its architecture and capabilities.) The real opportunity lies in massive end markets ripe for "agentization": industries centered on structured, repeatable activities. Industries • Data Management • Customer Support • E-commerce Operations • Finance and Accounting • Marketing • Human Resources • Healthcare Administration • Supply Chain and Logistics • IT and Software Support • Legal and Compliance Digital Jobs • Virtual Assistants • Content Moderation • Market Research • Quality Assurance • Online Tutoring • Social Media Management • Transcription Services • Digital Advertising • Graphic Design • Software Development Support At Mucker Capital, we've built over a hundred companies in vertical SaaS. We see vertical agents as it's next generation.

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Meeting ambitious reforestation and restoration targets requires quadrupling the supply of tree seeds. And even though legislation like the U.S. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law earmarked $200 million to tackle seed supply chain shortages, the U.S. still lacks ~2 billion tree seedlings annually. Check out Foray Bioscience's recent feature in Forbes to learn how they combine biomanufacturing and AI to solve the global seed deficit and augment reforestation efforts. 

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🚀Exciting News! AGS LABS / ALES GREY™ has been invited to pitch at FoundersBoost LA’s spring cohort and the Alliance for Southern California Innovation SoCal Venture Pipeline program at Google! If you’re an investor, please join us on June 4th for an exclusive joint Demo Day by FoundersBoost LA & the Alliance for SoCal Innovation! 🌟 The Alliance and FoundersBoost are joining forces to showcase some of the top young companies in LA! In addition to hearing the amazing pitches, you’ll be able to network with other investors, incredible mentors, supporting partners, program leaders, and the startup founders. Refreshments will be served. 🍹 📌 IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a private invite event due to capacity constraints and to maintain a value-add atmosphere. Sign Up Link Below. https://lu.ma/lademoday Don’t miss this opportunity to discover and support the next big thing in innovation! 🌐 #FoundersBoost #DemoDay #Innovation #Startups #Investors #Networking #PitchEvent #AGSLABS #ALESGREY #SoCalInnovation #GoogleEvents

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🌍 Exciting news! Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) has just announced the newest round of Climate Solutions Portfolio (CSP) grants, part of the $250 million Fashion Climate Fund aimed at unlocking $2 billion in blended capital for industry-wide decarbonization. These grants provide essential funding and support for scalable, science-based solutions that help the fashion industry reduce its environmental impact.🌱 This round of grantees – Pozzi, Grant Thornton, and Amphico – are tackling unique supply chain challenges with innovative technologies, offering measurable greenhouse gas reductions. Collectively, these projects have the potential to save over 24,000 tCO2e within their first year of implementation! 💡 Highlights include: * Pozzi's advanced heat recovery system for the textile wet processing sector * Grant Thornton's innovative approach to energy conservation in the lubricant industry * Amphico's cutting-edge color-mixing technology for textiles, creating vibrant fabrics with reduced environmental impact A huge congratulations to these trailblazers for their commitment to a sustainable future. Learn more about their projects and how Aii is driving decarbonization efforts across the industry #Sustainability #ClimateAction #Decarbonization #FashionIndustry #ApparelImpactInstitute #InnovationForImpact #CSPGrantees #SustainableFashion #Decarbonization

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