Climate crisis brings high school friends together to back startups overlooked by other VCs

Childhood
friends
Jeremy
Brewer
and
Sam
Levac-Levey
started
their
first
clean
energy
startup
in
2018.
Six
years
later,
they’re
launching
a
new
venture
fund
to
invest
in
climate
tech
companies
overlooked
by
their
peers.

Brewer,
who’s
worked
at


Google
and


Facebook,
and
Levac-Levey,
who
did
mechanical
engineering
at
Tesla
and
SpaceX,
are
co-founders
of
Starshot
Capital.
The
firm
just
raised
$35
million
to
invest
in
early-stage
startups
that
the
two
friends
believe
have
the
potential
to
reduce
greenhouse
gas
emissions
in
polluting
industries
beyond
energy
and
transportation.

“What
really
catalyzed
us
into
starting
the
fund
was
seeing
a
lot
of
data
coming
out
about
the
climate
crisis
and
gaps
in
funding,”
Brewer
said
in
an
interview.

Starshot
intends
to
back
startups
working
in
food
and
agriculture,
industrials,
manufacturing
and
buildings.

According
to

PwC’s
2023
study
on
the
state
of
climate
tech,
more
than
70%
of
investment
went
into
energy
and
mobility.
Those
two
sectors
include
wind
and
solar
energy,
as
well
as
electric
cars,
planes
and
other
vehicles.

But
Brewer
said
these
sectors
account
for
only
about
27%
of
global
carbon
emissions.
Starshot
sees
opportunities
to
invest
in
industries
that
emit
massive
amounts
of
greenhouse
gases
and
consume
an
abundance
of
natural
resources.

Gaps
also
remain
within
certain
industries
that
have
attracted
funding.
For
example,
in
food
and
agriculture,
about
40%
of
climate
tech
funding
over
the
last
two
years
went
into “alternative
proteins,”
while
less
than
5%
went
into
solutions
to
reduce
or
replace
nitrogen-based
fertilizers,
Brewer
said.

Overuse
of
nitrogen-based
synthetic
fertilizers
in
agriculture
leads
to
emissions
of
nitrous
oxide
and
can
cause
water
pollution
at
both
surface
and
ground
levels.
It
can
also
spike
the
amount
of
algae
that
grows
on
the
surface
of
natural
water
resources.
That
may
lead
to
a
reduction
of
oxygen
in
the
water,
killing
fish
or
other
marine
life
and
organisms.

Brewer
said
Starshot
is
looking
to
invest
in
companies
that
offer “gigaton-scale
solutions,
that
can
increase
their
customers’
profitability
and
revenue.”

Brewer
and
Levac-Levey
attended
high
school
together
in
Montreal.
They
joined
forces
in
2018
to
begin
work
on
a
clean
energy
startup
called
H2Ohm,
which
aimed
to
capture
and
make
use
of
energy
generated
by
excess
pressure
from
water
moving
through
gravity-fed
pipes.

They
entered
a
climate
tech
accelerator
in
Canada
called
Creative
Destruction
Lab,
where
they
worked
for
months
to
perfect
their
plan.
As
they
got
deeper
into
market
and
product
research,
however,
they
realized
that
the
business
wasn’t
going
to
work.

The
duo
still
had
to
present
something
at
their
demo
day
in
front
of
prominent
early-stage
investors.

“We
ended
up
giving
a
presentation
to
more
than
100
investors
about
why
they
shouldn’t
invest
in
our
business,”
Levac-Levey
told
CNBC.
The
response
was
surprising.

Brewer
recalled
a
warm
reaction,
with
people
in
the
audience
coming
up
to
them
to
chat.
One
was
a
potential
investor.

“He
said, ‘Listen,
if
you
guys
are
going
to
shut
this
down,
can
I
hire
you
to
figure
out
why
all
my
other
investments
will
fail?'”
Brewer
said. “So
we
did
that.”

During
the
pandemic,
Brewer
and
Levac-Levey
also
began
building
an
online
network
for
former
employees
at
large
tech
and
industrial
companies
who
were
interested
in
pivoting
their
careers
to
work
on
solving
climate
issues.

They’re
two
of
the
eight
founders
of

Work
on
Climate,
which
has
now
grown
into
an
online
community
with
tens
of
thousands
of
members
on
Slack.
The
group
produces
a
climate
careers
newsletter
and
holds
dozens
of
online
and
in-person
events
annually
to
help
grow
the
green
workforce.
Brewer
is
chair
of
the
board
at
Work
on
Climate,
and
Levac-Levey
is
vice
chair.

Brewer
said
the
group
sees
an
influx
of
new
members
whenever
there
are
major
rounds
of
layoffs,
especially
in
tech
and
autos.
With
recent
cuts
at
Tesla
and
Google,
the
Starshot
partners
are
expecting
climate
tech
startups
to
find
talent
more
easily,
and
new
companies
will
soon
be
formed.

“People
increasingly
want
their
work
to
align
with
their
values,
and
at
the
same
time,
there’s
growing
awareness
about
the
challenge
we
face
with
the
climate
crisis,”
Brewer
said.

Levac-Levey
told
CNBC
that
Starshot
is
especially
interested
in
companies
working
to
reduce
the
negative
environmental
impacts
of
food
and
agriculture,
industrials
and
the “built
environment”
ranging
from
hospitals
and
homes
and
offices
to
airports
and
other
facilities.

The
firm
has
backed
entrepreneurs
in
green
hydrogen
production,
such
as
at
Ecolectro.
The
firm
also
backed
Mojave,
a
company
focused
on
air
conditioner
efficiency,
and
Harvest,
a
startup
making
heat
pumps
more
efficient
and
useful
in
homes
by
adding
thermal
energy
storage
alongside
them.

Brewer
and
Levac-Levey
are
based
in
the
Bay
Area. The
firm
has
also
hired
Zoe
Samuel,
who
was
a
co-creator
of
Alphabet’s
employee
climate
community,
and
Nicholas
Gould,
a
chemical
engineering
PhD
who
previously
worked
on
de-carbonizing
industrial
processes
at
Air
Products.