In climate, deadlines matter
We announced in June that we were going to raise our third fund targeting $120M. Shhh ... there will be a formal announcement in the coming weeks but we want our newsletter subscribers to be the first to hear. For now we can share that we exceeded our goal of 50% toward the final amount and have welcomed an absolutely incredible group of new institutional investors among many returning LPs.
Many of our peers and potential investors thought that we were nuts for attempting to raise money in this market. This is the worst time in 10 years to raise a fund—many allocators have stopped deploying funds or cut budgets significantly, and individuals/families are feeling the economic pinch. But our response was (and is) pretty simple:
What better time to have fresh, dry powder to invest than when other funds aren’t deploying? From our investors’ perspective it is beneficial for us to have access to more deals at better valuations, and from the founders perspective it makes a bleak environment more hospitable to growth.
The climate doesn’t care that markets are down! Climate change is accelerating faster than ever and funding solutions is both necessary and a huge opportunity. Shying away from a challenge is not in our DNA. Just because something is going to be hard doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. There are many key qualities we screen for in building our team—grit is near the top of the list.
Stay tuned for the public announcement and detail in an upcoming newsletter. For now, we’re immensely grateful to our community of investors, founders and supporters that have helped us reach this milestone.