Azolla Ventures Catalytic Cycle Fund

Date: 2021

Asset Class: Venture Capital - patient, catalytic

Description:  Azolla Ventures is an investment initiative by Prime Coalition, a 501(c)(3) public charity that partners with philanthropists to place catalytic capital into market-based solutions to climate change. Azolla invests in neglected start-up companies that each have the potential for gigaton-scale climate impact. Azolla focuses on clean-tech hardware companies, investing in early-stage, high-risk rounds that pass an additionality test, demonstrating that the investment would not have come together but for Azolla. Prime is addressing the critical financing gap in early-stage climate innovation—a gap that has been preventing breakthrough technology companies from combating climate change in a sustainable and scalable way.

Why We Invest: Human ingenuity in the form of technology innovation will be a key factor in dampening the effects of climate change. Very few seed-stage, cleantech hardware funds exist. Azolla is focused on clean tech hardware breakthroughs, as opposed to software solutions. Cleantech hardware innovations and breakthroughs can be more resource intensive and time consuming, but they are imperative to addressing climate change at scale. Azolla being founded by the non-profit Prime Coalition, a nonprofit organization, and their emphasis on additionality makes their offering unique in the investment landscape.