A new climate tech investor is set to team up with leading marine research institutions and invest in ocean technology to help resolve the climate crisis.
The $100 million venture capital fund Propeller will incubate and back startups in areas such as decarbonizing shipping, removing carbon dioxide from the ocean, desalination, and algae packaging, among other innovative operations. The Boston-based VC firm will also provide investment in companies who wants to manufacture pharmaceuticals, energy, and other products from ocean microbes.
The propeller, founder, and partner Brian Halligan said the ocean is taking the lead in mitigating climate change. 50 % of the planet’s oxygen is attributed to the ocean alone, which absorbs one-third of the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels. However, despite billions of dollars spent on climate technologies, little has been invested in technologies related to ocean solutions.
Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, director Mark Schrope said with very little profit potential in this sector; it is difficult to get the VC firms interested.
Based out of San Francisco, Schmidt issues grants for ocean tech development in the early stage and is not an investor in Propeller.
Commercialize Scientists’ Discoveries
Halligan, also the co-founder of HubSpot, a software company, said that instead of chasing billion-dollar startups, Propeller is pursuing companies that are into ocean technology developments.
The fund’s key strategy is to partner with and fund the scientists of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for developing ocean climate technology which can be commercialized later. WHOI has a 4% stake in the VC fund, while Propeller will have a right to access WHOI’s intellectual property.
Risk Capital for Ocean Technology
According to Peter de Menocal, a paleo oceanography and marine geologist and WHOI’s president, the investment in ocean climate projects is complicated and requires risk capital to fund the engineers and scientists to work on them.
Mark Sharpe said partnerships of this nature allow a road map for scientists to commercialize their research and inventions similar to the lines of discoveries in other fields such as biotech.
According to Halligan, Propeller has high-net-worth individuals and institutions as their investors, and so far, they have made three investments. However, he did not reveal the recipient’s identity of the fund. Still, he disclosed that one was working on technology for reducing ship emissions while another was developing ways to extract lithium from seawater for use in electric batteries. The third was in the process of making a suite of ocean sensors.
Julie Pullen, oceanographer, climate scientist, and partner of Propeller, said they were looking closely at producing a viable path for removing carbon dioxide.
Previous methods of removing carbon dioxide, such as adding iron sulfate to the ocean, have been criticized by scientists. The idea to stimulate the growth of carbon dioxide-absorbing plankton could have resulted in catastrophe from geoengineering.
