Climate CEOs: Scaling Startups $100M Climate Tech Fund Backed by Insurance Giant: Tim Krysiek of MassMutual Ventures
Discover how MassMutual Ventures is deploying $100M into early-stage U.S. climate startups, from clean power to climate intelligence, with lessons from geopolitics, unicorn hunting, and even pierogi-making.
⭐ My guest today is Tim Krysiek, Managing Partner at MassMutual Ventures.
MassMutual is an insurance and financial services firm with $460B in AUM, and MassMutual Ventures is their venture arm.
Their new US Climate Tech Fund represents $100M and is focused on early-stage opportunities (Series A and B) in climate intelligence, sustainable cities, and clean power. Initial check sizes are $2-5M.
Tim was previously Managing Director at Equinor Ventures where he worked across the energy value chain, including renewables, fusion, mobility, and storage. He was also a consultant at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (now S&P Global), a researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, and a political risk consultant at Google.
Krysiek achieved all these great things because he got an MBA from Duke University, where I teach. (OK, I exaggerate slightly.)
When not investing in world-changing companies, I hear that he’s an aspiring Eastern European cook focused on the 3Ps – pierogies, pelmeni, or potica.
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🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:
His team’s work investing in five climate tech unicorns
How his study of geopolitics across twelve countries shaped him into an investor
What their climate intelligence focus means in terms of cheaper data and falling processing costs
How the Net Zero Tracker of corporate climate goals influences their thesis around voluntary carbon markets
Why he’s excited about investing in proptech given the durability of buildings and the potential value that MassMutual can create for companies in that space
What he means by keeping one foot on certain ground and the other on uncertain ground
How much water he drinks per day and its relationship to the number of steps he takes per day
His three favorite climate books and three favorite business books (Power Law, anyone?)
And lots more
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