A few years back, when the world was still reeling from the pandemic, Raj Kapoor and Josh Felser decided to dip their toes into the world of climate tech startups. They named their venture Climactic and began with investing their personal funds. Both men have a wealth of experience as founders, operators, and investors, but this new focus on the climate tech industry was uncharted territory for them.
However, things seemed to be going well because they have now fully committed to this venture. The firm announced today that they have successfully closed a $65 million inaugural fund, which will be used to support founders who are creating software companies focused on climate technology.
Both Kapoor and Felser have an impressive background in the investment world – Felser was one of the co-founders of Freestyle Capital, while Kapoor spent 7 years as a managing director at Mayfield Fund. They have also successfully founded and sold their own software startups.
Interestingly, it took some time for these two accomplished individuals to combine forces; their resumes are remarkably alike. Felser launched Spinner in 1997 (which was later sold to AOL) and Crackle in 2004 (sold to Sony). He also founded a non-profit organization called #Climate in 2014 and a public-private COVID task force during the pandemic. Similarly, Kapoor was the chief strategy officer at Lyft before founding Snapfish (acquired by HP) and Fitmob (acquired by Classpass). He also created a climate-focused social app in 2007.
They have combined their experiences and shared concern for the state of Earth’s climate to create Climactic.
“If we could get the supply chains in the top 50 companies to hit their net zero goals, rather than just talk about it, we will have the biggest impact,” Kapoor shared with TechCrunch+. “To get there, we think the low hanging fruit is software, because there are a lot of efficiencies that can be gained.”
Their mission is to make a significant impact by focusing on large corporations and their supply chains. According to Kapoor, by targeting the top 50 companies and helping them achieve their net-zero goals, they can create the most significant impact. They believe that software is the key because it can unlock many efficiency improvements.
