EnVest is an investor membership organization connecting top environmental investors with each other, and the most compelling environmental investment opportunities. We host invite-only events to accelerate the environmental economy to protect our planet, while generating returns for investors.
Member Investors
EnVest screens each member to ensure they are actively deploying capital – namely Seed to Series B at $1-30M annually – into the environmental field. Members can attend the annual summit and investor salons throughout the year, as well as receive exclusive access to environmental deal flow. Our network with billions in assets under management include leading environmental VC funds, family offices, angel investors, and foundations. Our committed environmental investors:
Advisory Board
Ira Ehrenpreis, DBL Partners Geoff Eisenberg, Ecosystem Integrity Fund David Griest, SJF Ventures Catha Groot, Radicle Impact Jake Hanft, Schmidt Marine Adrian Horotan, Safer Made Danielle Joseph, Closed Loop Partners
Rob Kaplan, Circulate Capital Thomas Knowles, Gratitude Railroad
Chris Larson, New Island Capital Rob LeClerc, AgFunder Brock Mansfield, Salmon Innovation Fund Mike Velings, Aquaspark Marisa de Belloy, High Tide Foundation Peter Bryant, The Builders Initiative John Robinson, Mazarine
Ira Ehrenpreis, DBL Ventures
Geoff Eisenberg, Ecosystems Integrity Fund
David Griest, SJF Partners
Catha Groot, Radicle Impact
Jake Hanft, Schmidt Marine
Adrian Horotan, Safer Made
Rob Kaplan, Circulate Capital
Thomas Knowles, Gratitude Railroad
Chris Larson, New Island Capital
Rob LeClerq, AgFunder
Brock Mansfield, Salmon Innovation Fund
Matt Mulrennan, Oceans X Prize
Jason Scott, Encourage Capital
Mike Veilings, Aquaspark
Kelly Wachowitz, Catch Invest
Our events and membership are designed by and for active environmental investors, fund managers, family foundations, and venture philanthropies – to meet a curated lineup of green startups. EnVest screens investor members to ensure they are actively deploying capital into environmental companies.
Apply for Fall 2022. Presenting companies are vetted early stage environmental companies with a core technology or service providing clear sustainability benefits. Strong preference for previews to groups raising the following year. We take referrals from member investors, and an expert advisory board selects the finalists.
EnVest is an event whose time has come. We are in a unique period of history that will be characterized by unprecedented opportunities for investment in resource-efficient technologies. I’m looking forward to connecting with the entrepreneurs and other investors leading this revolution at EnVest.Trevor Zimmerman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner Blackhorn Ventures
Private capital has always been a primary driver of innovation and scale, and the Environmental Economy will be no different. But private capital requires quality investment opportunities and strong smart syndicates to thrive. Getting the world’s most committed environmental investors together to evaluate high quality opportunities makes EnVest a “can’t miss” event for me.Brock Mansfeld Managing Partner, Salmon Innovation Fund
It is more important and timely than ever before for investors to back ground-breaking companies addressing climate change, energy systems, transportation, etc. I look forward to attending EnVest to meet serious, active investors, and inspiring entrepreneurs who together will help solve these issues while earning meaningful positive returns.
Howard Fischer, CEO of Basso Capital and Co-Founder of Gratitude Railroad
EnVest was an incredibly good and efficient use of time. Anyone interested in finding the next great company and interfacing with a great community of like minded investors should attend.Ira Ehrenpreis, Managing Partner at DBL Partners
History has shown that technology is the sustainable solution to addressing global environmental challenges. What excites me about EnVest is the opportunity to interact with passionate entrepreneurs who are driven to solve our biggest problems.Jim Kim, Founding Member and Partner at Builders VC
The best part about EnVest is the companies that they manage to put together. Really, really well curated event…among the best ones I’ve seen.Adrian Horotan General Partner at Safer Made
Environmental Investment Themes
EnVest is shaped by and for sophisticated, active environmental investors. As such, it is designed to allow attendees to see multiple opportunities that fit their asset class and environmental themes. These themes include:
Captures food scraps from grocery stores, turns into premium agricultural inputs
Frequently Asked Questions
What is EnVest?
EnVest is where the world’s leading environmental investors gather. Through an invitation-only format EnVest hosts intimate events to connect the best environmental investors with each other and the most compelling environmental companies and investment opportunities. The goal is to accelerate the environmental economy to help protect our planet, while generating returns for investors.
EnVest is built around key environmental economy segments. Both invited investors and presenting companies are selected based on their ability to impact: Energy & Transportation, Clean Air, Water, Climate, Fisheries & Oceans, and Waste & Circular Economy.
EnVest is a passionate, carefully curated ecosystem of the world’s leading environmental investors, start-ups, and philanthropists who believe in the power of entrepreneurship to revolutionize our protection of the environment.
The annual summit is meant to be an efficient way to deploy more capital into environmental companies and their innovations with the goal to generate at least $1 billion of early stage investing by 2030 through connections made at EnVest.
Where and when is EnVest?
The EnVest annual summit in 2022 is planned for November 17th in San Francisco, and we plan to host EnVest events each year until 2030 to accelerate the environmental economy. EnVest has been held four times, in 2017 in Seattle at the Rainier Club, in 2018 in San Francisco at the Commonwealth Club, in 2020 virtually on Hopin, and in 2021 at Fort Mason in San Francisco. These events showed the EnVest network can drive significant early stage investment into environmental companies, and can succeed across multiple geographies, and virtually. Alongside the annual summit, we also host investor salons for member investors to get updates on the presenting companies, do deep learning on environmental investing topics, share new deals, and network between investors.
What does it cost to attend and become a member?
$1000 for investors - with early registration discounts
$250 for presenting companies - with financial hardship discounts
Ticket price includes attendance, receptions, and meals at the annual summit as well as year-round membership in EnVest including investor salons and access to environmental deal flow. Tickets are provided to investors and companies who are accepted and receive a request to attend, and seats are limited. EnVest can provide discounts to founders having any financial issues, and does not ask for equity in the presenting companies.
What are the benefits of membership?
Members attend the annual summit in November to see pitches from 36 top environmental companies and receive investing updates about alumni companies, invites to investor salons throughout the year to do deep learning on environmental investing topics, and make connections with other leading environmental investors. Member logos are recognized on the EnVest website.
Why is EnVest happening now?
The decade from 2020-2030 may be one of the most important in human history, as we need to transform our entire economy to help save our planet. Environmental entrepreneurs are needed more than ever, and EnVest brings them an incredible opportunity to pitch in front of an exclusive network to grow their innovations and companies. At the same time, environmental investors are constantly seeking good quality deal flow that has been vetted. EnVest is an efficient, action-oriented event that fosters these relationships to deploy the resources needed to protect the environment. Environmental investing is still a nascent field which needs community building, collaboration, and attracting more investors into the fold, so EnVest also hopes to help grow this field and empower this ecosystem.
What will make EnVest successful?
We define the success of EnVest in three ways:
The amount of money invested into environmental opportunities as a direct result of EnVest;
The number of investment opportunities that receive investment as a direct result of EnVest; and
The number of member investors that return to EnVest in subsequent years.
What will happen at the EnVest annual summit?
The core of EnVest is an annual investment summit held each year in November. This efficient 24 hour event provides curated investment opportunities for investor members, broken down by asset class and subject. Companies, largely shared from member investor portfolios, pitch their ideas before programmed time for networking and any discussions on deals. The focus is on private asset classes including seed, venture, growth capital and private equity. On either side of the summit there are social events aimed at giving investors and management teams the chance to share ideas and ambitions around environmental investing.
Who leads EnVest?
In 2020 Matt Mulrennan became the CEO of EnVest. Prior to joining EnVest full time, Matt served on the Advisory Board for the 2017 and 2018 EnVest events, recommending and vetting ocean-based companies. Matt was the Director of the Ocean Initiative at the XPRIZE Foundation for six years working on fundraising, designing, and operating prizes for innovations that solve the ocean’s grand challenges. He also worked as a marine scientist at ocean conservation group Oceana, as a lab researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and as an advocate on congressional and environmental campaigns. He was one of 20 candidates nominated for the 2018 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award and was the Grand Prize winner of the Con X Tech Prize a prototyping competition for conservation technology. He is a public speaker and community builder, with a passion for supporting entrepreneurs, innovations, and investors working to preserve the environment. His work has been featured in various media outlets; Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, BBC, and National Geographic. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Miami University and a master’s in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.
EnVest is also supported by its Co-Founders Brock Mansfield and Nancy Reid, a small Steering Committee, and a larger Advisory Board broken into vertical specific committees. The Advisory Board committees are filled by experts in their fields responsible for identifying, vetting, and preparing investment opportunities for their respective theme.
Metrics
$300+ Million
Raised by presenting environmental companies via EnVest investor members and others
3 to 1
Minimum ratio of environmental investors to presenting companies
75%
Of the environmental companies have raised after presenting to member investors
$1 Billion
2030 goal for the total amount of curated early stage deals to accelerate the environmental economy
Company Investment News
Of the 108 presenting companies to date:
81 raised after EnVest – 75%.
24 companies are worth over $20M+.
8 worth over $100M+.
Valuations of presenting companies have increased after presenting. 9 had a 5X markup. Company valuations aggregated at the time of EnVest was $410M which grew to over $1.4B after presenting to member investors. Companies can share updates here publicly at least one year after presenting. Member investors receive regular updates about the alumni companies.
Cruz Foam’s shell-based Styrofoam alternative brings in $3.4M seed with DiCaprio and Kutcher [Read Article]
April 20, 2022
Finless Foods Bringing Plant-Based Tuna To The Masses, Ramping Up Cell-Cultured Plans with $34 Million In Series B Funding [Read Article]
March 7, 2022
GM electric boating stake: $150M in Pure Watercraft [Read Article]
November 22, 2021
AKUA Lands $3.2M to Turn Kelp into Burgers [Read Article]
November 5, 2021
Lilac Solutions Announces $150 Million Series B to Scale Lithium Supply for the Electric Vehicle Era [Read Article]
September 22, 2021
Natel Energy Announces $20M Series B to Further Deploy Modern, Renewable Hydropower [Read Article]
July 21, 2021
Moleaer raises $9M for its sustainable nanobubble system [Read Article]
Seattle startup ioCurrents raises $5M to bring big data to the high seas [Read Article]
March 26, 2019
Redmond-based WISErg, which turns food scraps to fertilizer, raises $19.2 million to fund California plant [Read Article]
June 12, 2018
StormSensor raised $1.2m more cash to help cities track stormwater data and prevent pollution or flooding [Read Article]
June 11, 2018
Sponsorship
CATALYST SPONSOR
CATALYST SPONSOR
“EnVest is the best investor event out there in the climate space. We rely on it to meet a curated set of high-impact companies.”
Marisa de Belloy, Executive Director, High Tide Foundation – Catalyst Sponsor
SEED SPONSOR
SEED SPONSOR
SEED SPONSOR
SEED SPONSOR
Sponsorship Opportunities
EnVest is seeking sponsors – Seed, Impact, and Catalyst Levels – to support the event and the growth of the environmental economy.
Sponsor benefits include:
Over 100X return for sponsor money invested into innovative environmental companies each year
Necessary community building for early stage environmental investing
Recognition in website, programming agenda, public relations, and signage
Introduce presenting companies in thematic investment rooms (Food and Agriculture etc.)
Year-round ‘first-look’ introductions with leading environmental companies
Sponsorship Inquiries
Newsletter
DISCLAIMERS
Investment: EnVest does not provide advice, endorsement, analysis or recommendation in connection with investment in any company or fund attending the event. EnVest does not make any warranty related to the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of information provided by any company or fund. Investors must conduct their own due diligence in connection with any investment, including but not limited to legal, tax and investment advice.
COVID-19: By registering and attending EnVest’s annual summit, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where other people are present. By attending the event, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and release liability for the event organizers, staff, and venues.
