🥇 Wrap Up: Our Nano Fund I latest climate tech investments, and some news from Atlas portfolio!🌏

Announcing our latest 2 companies joining Nano Fund 1 portfolio. Close look at what we have done so far towards materializing this one vision since 2020.

First of all, I hope you are doing well, whether we met recently — at Climate Week in New York? —, a few years ago, whether we got connected at a conference, or through one of the dinners we organized: Thank you for reading us.

Now let me take you into my world.

A world where we only share positive news about climate technologies and people pushing humanity’s next frontiers further.

Happy birthday Atlas!

Credits: www.theatlascapital.com

Well, our venture associate just reminded us: it’s been 3 years since we made our first small investment with Atlas Capital!

And what a nice way to ease into the topic of today’s newsletter, sharing with you about the last 2 investments of Atlas Nano Fund 1!

Introducing Linium

Our first investment in 🥐 France!

Linium unlocks bio-based & circular chemistry by replacing petrochemicals in our daily lives with lignin-derived compounds.

Photochemistry at the service of sustainability: Transforming abundant wood waste
into everyday products.

Aromatic chemicals are an essential class of compounds: they amount to nearly half of all chemicals used and they are needed in most sectors, from plastics to cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, dyes, etc.

However, their production will cause 3% of global GHG emissions by 2050 in the best-case scenario. Providing a clean alternative to oil-based aromatics is thus key to ensuring sustainable chemistry at scale.

Valorization of lignin into both high-value monomers and oligomers. Credits: Linium.

Meanwhile, lignin, a major wood component, is the only natural and abundant source of aromatic molecules. No industrial process today is able to extract these compounds from the 50 million tons of lignin generated each year by the paper and bio-ethanol industries.
‍
Linium Biochemicals, is developing breakthrough technology to solve the century-old problem of lignin valorization. We harness the power of photochemistry to break down lignin and make the chemical industry green for good.

Based on patent-based photochemical technology, Linium Biochemicals' innovative process allows a cascade valorization of lignin into both high-value monomers and oligomers.

Introducing Aquatech

Our first investment in 🙏 Thailand!

Lots of people seem to want to eat insects based proteins. Really not my thing.

So here is our alternative…

Aquatech has made high-quality seafood protein access resilient to climate change & political instability by creating South East Asia’s first sustainable urban aquaculture solution.

A/B testing at the service of food resilience and urban seafood production.

Protein access is an often forgotten but truly central foundation to the existence of our cities: food rules civilizations and cutting this access has accelerated their demise on several occasions in the past.

During the Ukraine crisis, we have learned how the fall of such a small, supposedly ignored country could jeopardize our entire food — specifically oil and wheat—distribution infrastructure (examples here and here)… And we might soon observe the impact of a crisis in the Middle East, Taiwan, and not forgetting the upcoming hurricanes and floods, etc. So how do we prevent an unacceptable surge in food prices? How do we prevent our essential protein supply from being threatened in a less and less stable global environment due to extreme weather events and geopolitical instability?

Well, one of the solutions is to simplify our food cycle and its value chain, bringing it closer to our homes, and our cities. And that’s what Aquatech does by mass-producing proteins within the urban environment of our busy cities. And we are not talking about disgusting insects here but really good crabs, fish, and shrimp at very affordable prices!

That’s not all, the company’s triple bottom line is also:

1. Providing virtually unlimited, affordable proteins at all times — even during a potential new pandemic — or with geopolitical instability perturbating the global food supply chain in the decade to come (Taiwan? The Middle East? Russia).

2. Avoiding Co2 emission during transport, with a short cycle farm-to-table supply chain, gives the choice to consumers to finally eat protein that doesn’t have to systematically take the plane long frett.

3. Avoiding mass destruction of marine environments & advocating marine biodiversity protection — by supplying seafood that doesn’t come from overfishing and bottom trawling.

We haven’t seen such an early-stage hard tech company with 5 Ph.D.s in the team AND such a big factory already producing more than 5000 units of seafood per year anywhere in the USA or Europe, so we placed our first bet in Thailand with this one.

Avoiding mass destruction of marine environments by supplying seafood that doesn’t come from overfishing and bottom trawling. Credits: Aquatech Inc.

Atlas Nano 1 Portfolio Summary

• Posh Robotics — A San Francisco-based company backed by Ycombinator using robots to recycle and refurbish EV car batteries and give them a second life as commercial or residential buildings’ energy storage solutions.

• Tyfast Energy — A San Diego-based company funded by the US Department of Energy developing new types of lithium vanadium anodes enabling ultra-fast charging for home batteries and more.

• Avalanche Energy — A Seattle-based company backed by the renowned Lower Carbon Capital developing Small Modular Reactors (SMR) that achieved nuclear fusion in their micro-reactors.

• Zauben — A Chicago-based company backed by Footprint Coalition (Robert Downey Junior) that is developing solutions to retrofit existing buildings to become greener and net zero using biophilic design principles.

• Linium — A Paris-based company backed by the French government (BPI) that is decarbonizing the most used chemical elements of the textile and food value chain using wood waste.

• Aquatech — A Thailand-based company that has created South East Asia’s first sustainable urban aquaculture solution producing artificial seawater without chemicals, using seaweed for water recycling.

• Avalo AI — A North Carolina company backed by SOSV to help rice crops (and others) to adapt to survive in a +2 degree world without using GMOs.

• Carbonfarm — A Phuket-based company venture built with Oceans For All that is prototyping carbon capture solutions using seaweed as a carbon sink.

• Trash Warrior — A San Francisco-based company backed by Greylock and 500 startups to bring the waste management industry into the modern world through AI and waste fleet management.

• The Canvas — A New York-based company backed by Westfield & Google Accelerator to retrofit unused real estate spaces (shopping malls for example) and turn them into vibrant spaces showcasing sustainable brands for climate-aware consumers.

A first step, materializing the Atlas island?

And here is why we invested in these companies: Achieving the vision laid out in our book released in 2020, The Adaptive Economy.

Here are some more updates:

The portfolio updates. Q3 2023.

• Zauben just got invested by Robert Downey Junior, increasing our shareholder’s value a lot!

• The Canvas opened 2 new stores in the US (I was visiting them in New York a few months ago).

• We visited the new EV battery recycling factory of Posh Robotics. The company is now profitable & covered here by TechCrunch here.

• Avalo AI, doing crop adaptation to climate change got on the Time Magazine.

• Avalanche Energy made it to the first fusion-producing 200kV with their microreactor.

What after Nano Fund 1?

Well, Nano 2.

This update marks the closing of our first fund, Atlas Nano Fund One.

We won’t be accepting new limited partners (investors) in Nano I anymore.

Now discussing with several family offices, conglomerates, and potential anchor investors for our next fund closing, Nano Fund 2.

Something big is coming.

Here is a hint about what we are working on next.

We legally can’t share public information about our funds’ development. If you are interested in learning more, let’s have a phone call:

PS: If you like what we are doing: let us know! We strive for excellence, and it’s not always easy. So, for any encouraging words or feedback, reply to this email. I might be hard to reach via Linkedin or WhatsApp, but I personally read every comment made via this newsletter.