Philippe Noël

Last week was huge for our Shared Future Fund partners given Y Combinator Demo Day and NYC Climate Week! We saw a marked uptick in YC companies working on climate with this recent YC S24 batch. Collaborative Fund is excited to support companies working at the intersection of AI and decarbonization / climate adaptation. Here's a snapshot of a few companies we're investing in: 🏢 RetroFix AI (YC S24): building software to help buildings become more energy efficient by maximizing rebates for builders and contractors 🎈 Sorcerer (YC S24): building the best weather balloons that collect 1000x more data 🔋 Ionworks: helping battery companies digitize their R&D by building and running battery simulations at scale 🏗️ Offstream: simplifies and streamlines compliance for carbon projects 🪫 Rewbi: uses AI to optimize grid-connected battery storage

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Highly recommended for pre-seed /early stage founders who are working on innovative solutions to advance economic mobility Apply by May 22 to Techstars Economic Mobility Powered by Samvid Ventures #startups #accelerator

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Summary: The article discusses the challenges faced by climate tech startups as they transition from the lab to commercial outfit. These companies, which work on hardware and infrastructure projects for climate solutions, struggle to raise necessary funds and often face difficulties in scaling up production. Key takeaways: The transition from early-stage startup to commercial operation is difficult, especially for hardware and infrastructure projects in the climate tech industry. The lack of financing options and specialized expertise for these types of projects creates a "commercial valley of death" that many companies struggle to overcome. Startups often fall into the trap of trying to expand their business too quickly, losing sight of their core value proposition and failing to ensure proper execution. Counter arguments: Some may argue that this "first of a kind" problem is not unique to the climate tech industry and can be seen in other industries as well. Others may argue that with the increasing focus on climate change and need for sustainable solutions, more funding and support will become available for these startups. #venturecapital #vc #startups

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It’s time to share what Luis Costa Laveron and I have been up to -- too many exciting things happening not too. The last three months have been a roller coaster ride going through Techstars NYC. We’ve gotten the chance to meet and work alongside some incredible founders and mentors of the Techstars network. To our MD, KJ Singh, thanks for taking a chance on us and always challenging us to do more. To Christine Lu Hong, thanks for always being there to support us. And to the team (Samuel Navon Vera Benkoil Jonathan David Grace Jolas) thanks for your hard work in making these last 3 months possible. Some highlights: - We got to meet and work with a group of 24 highly driven and inspiring people in the heart of New York City - We went through a big pivot, from serving Latin American businesses to serving e-commerce merchants in the US - We launched our new product and landing page - We’re live with design partners generating a combined monthly GMV of $2,122,330. We are in a very interesting point in time where we are at the edge of a change in how people interact with the internet. Up until now, websites have been static. In contrast, social media feeds are hyper-personalized – no two are the same. At the same time, we are witnessing a dramatic shift towards mobile commerce. On average, 65% of shoppers visiting our design partners’ stores are on mobile. This trend makes sense when you realize that most e-commerce traffic is driven by paid media (Meta and TikTok), where users are primarily on their phones. Combining the shift to mobile commerce and advancements in AI, we see the exciting opportunity to enable e-commerce sites to create a mobile first personalized shopping experience for each shopper that visits their site. Why should every shopper’s e-commerce experience be the same when no two Instagram / TikTok feeds are? If you want to see a demo, grab coffee or catch up, feel free to reach out, always down to connect. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to build. A shoutout to the best mentors/advisors: Dane Atkinson Manoj Jonna Lalit Kapoor Erica Ruzhinsky Rafael Barroso Bobby Lincoln Albara H. And the best group of founders: Ahmed El Naggar Mai El Naggar Jason Kulatunga Jeewan Singh Juan Areces AadilMehdi Sanchawala Ayman Talkani Isha Sharma Tej Lunani Matt Sink Sydney Bennett Nael Cavazos Sadiq E. Arum-Jugu Galadima Mimi Gendreau Kigawa Varun Annadi Hector Terrero Silas Adedoyin

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Next week is NY Tech Week, and on Wednesday, I'll be co-hosting TechWalk at 2 PM in Central Park. More details here: https://lnkd.in/eFey-aBd I look forward to connecting and chatting about the dynamic world of early-stage startup investing, go-to-market strategies, and the venture capital ecosystem. As a Venture Fellow at Fordham Angel Fund (FAF), I bring hands-on experience evaluating startups, conducting market analysis, and developing go-to-market strategies. Let's discuss founder due diligence, growth hacking techniques, and the nuances of crafting effective term sheets. I'm also passionate about discussing programs like Vencapital and Venture Cooperative that support minorities and women breaking into VC. Additionally, I'd love to share insights on content creation and storytelling from my experience hosting a YouTube podcast. If you're interested in personal branding, networking, or leveraging LinkedIn for career growth, let's connect! Join me for a walk and chat about the global business landscape, embracing diversity, and adapting to new environments. See you there! #NYTechWeek #TechWalk #Startups #VentureCapital #ContentCreation #PersonalBranding #Networking #GlobalBusiness #DiversityInVC

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Daniel Marques and I caught Kemi Levi being founder in the wild at Saint Francis Tulsa Tough last Friday. The grind doesn't ever stop, does it? I'm guessing some #founders in my network can relate!😂 Check out Pangia! These guys are a revolutionizing Community as a Service by leveraging human data/analytics.🚀 Ever had a wild founder moment? Share your story below! #startups #community #hustle

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I’m thrilled to be announcing that Notion Capital is leading the $15m Series A investment in Cogna today. In the industry, we like to think that software has been eating the world. But when you look at the data a better description would be more of a nibble. Depending on what source you look at the software industry represents between 5-8% of global GDP. Contrast that with the services industry that represents between 60-70% of GDP and worth around $25 trillion on a global basis. Most services have been out of reach for the software industry. They have either been too complex or too specialized for off the shelf software to access in any economically viable way. But that’s beginnning to change with GenAI leading to the emergence of ‘service as a software.’ Cogna is at the forefront of this opportunity - building precision software at scale and delivering huge productivity gains for traditional industries. We know Ben Peters & Lars Mennen well having backed their previous company Five AI that was acquired by Bosch in 2022. And we’re very excited to be backing them again together with Hoxton Ventures & Chalfen Ventures Read my full blog post on why we invested here. Radu Bozga Ben Peters Lars Mennen Bryan G. Mike Chalfen Hussein Kanji Kirsten Connell https://lnkd.in/eh8mhcJb

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Some seed-stage VC firms give up their pro rata rights due to lacking capital to meet the high capital requirements of a late-stage round and competition from larger VC firms. Alpha Partners, SignalRank, and SaaS Ventures are now stepping in to help seed-stage VC investors exercise their pro rata rights to maintain their ownership percentage. VC firms like Alpha Partners, SignalRank, and SaaS Ventures specialize in providing capital for pro rata investments for Series B and beyond funding rounds. #VentureCapital #Startups

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Every day is a reminder that startups are unpredictable as hell. As alums of YCombinator's Summer 12 batch, we've long taken pride in being "the batch that broke YC" - as PG calls us. So it tickles me to no end to see this in the 2024 YC Top Companies list: "The S12 batch is the best represented, with 5 companies on the list: Benchling, Coinbase, Instacart, SmartAsset and Zapier" 🤣💪 #ycombinator #ycs12 #startups https://lnkd.in/gNDewZfn

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Great conversation with Nate Bek of Ascend (btw, stoked for Founder's Bash this week too) ☔🔥☔ Advisors can truly make a difference for founders navigating the complexities of growth and scaling, but only if they're founder focused.

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Third and last part of my post with some insights from the #fundraising of our latest fund. Some of the tools we used and how we managed to get the finish line successfully!

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. . . and REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund. #PersonalMantra: Work; Till your idols become your rivals. By my rough estimates, the next smallest fund featured among the judges at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 has at least 100x the amount of capital we do. And yet, here we are. Our Investment Thesis: REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund invests in early stage startups refashioning legacy industries through Data & AI, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing, & Next Generation Supply Chains; Defensible through economic moats. Join us. It’s Day 0. #IndustrialTransformation #SupplyChain #Innovation #Technology #Startups #VentureCapital #DISRUPT2024 #TechCrunchDISRUPT Ps: As my mathematics and statistics teacher, Mr. F.K. Lagbo taught us at the Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School (PRESEC); “To appear at the top of the list you must first be on the list. So first be on the list. There will be plenty time to work your way to the top of the list.”

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Insightful look into bioplatform strategy, and what it takes to raise a Series A from my partner, Omri Amirav-Drory: https://lnkd.in/dFv7GbF6

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Over the years, we at GFR Fund have solidified our investment thesis, which is that we invest in "emerging digitally native communities." These communities can be built around games, social media, and any consumer applications. Now, founders have many easy-to-use tools to build user communities, such as Discord, X/twitter, Instagram, etc, and we believe the founders should start building communities even before they launch a product. The communities can help founders: - reach PMF faster - acquire users cheaper - retain and engage users longer - build better UX/UI, and - hire early employees Below, you can see how RTFKT and Omeda Studios built the community and then worked with them to create a product the users really wanted. We would love to talk to the founders who think the community is essential in building a product!

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🚀 This one’s for the founders: a masterclass in execution and innovation. This week, I sat down with Adhemar M., founder and CEO of Kovi, a Brazilian company redefining mobility through car subscriptions and connected tech in a market plagued by high costs and limited credit access. Backed by ~$145M in funding from the likes of Valor Capital Group, monashees, MAYA CAPITAL, Globo Ventures, Norte Ventures and Peter Thiel's family office, Kovi is addressing high car costs, tough credit barriers, and insurance gaps in one of the world’s most exciting markets. What we covered 👇🏻 ​🔑 Driving innovation: How Brazil’s mobility challenges are powering market transformation ​🤝 Connect the dots: Building stronger founder/VC partnerships through transparency and market education ⚙️ Complexity doesn’t scale: Lessons in building efficient, scalable operations 🌐 Break down silos: Creating synergy between tech and operations in a startup ​⚡ Clean win: How Brazil’s renewable edge and gig economy lead the EV growth Link in comments—don’t miss this one! 🎧 PS: Thank you Vander Corteze, MD for the intro to Adhemar and for some excellent question suggestions 👏🏻

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