Climate Rising Drawdown Fund: Scaling the Impact of Climate Technology
Aug 14, 2024
Erik Snyder is the founder and CEO of the Drawdown Fund, dedicated to financing climate tech startups. Paul Hawken, an influential author and editor, co-established the fund to combat climate change. They discuss innovative investment strategies for sustainable solutions, including impactful initiatives in urban infrastructure and mass transit. The conversation highlights the challenge of food waste in climate change, emphasizing the importance of strategic funding and the need for scalable technologies to create meaningful environmental change.
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Catalyst Question Sparked Drawdown Fund
- Eric Snyder describes a friend asking what he'd do with a billion dollars, which catalyzed his climate focus.
- That question led him to Paul Hawken and the Drawdown research that inspired the Drawdown Fund.
Drawdown Prioritizes Scalable Solutions
- Drawdown ranked 100 solutions and separated 20 'coming attractions' from 80 immediately scalable solutions.
- Snyder used that ranking to target which solutions could be mobilized through market-based capital.
Targeting The Growth-Stage Financing Gap
- Drawdown Fund targets a gap in financing between early VC and mega buyout funds, focusing on $10–50M growth equity rounds.
- They invest in companies with proven tech and product-market fit (roughly $10M revenue) to scale impact.