September 2024 Highlights

Risky Business

Last week, Mike, Qhalisa and Sam attended Climate Week in New York City - a week filled with events, relationship building with great partners and lessons learned.

TL;DR - climate risk might be better portrayed as a risk to your current way of living - your home/coffee/wine/travel/skiing/appreciating nature/political stability will all be impacted. Humans have tended to be good at predicting the future by analyzing the past but in this case, we will have to be better at understanding what our already determined future climate is, so that we can focus on quickly adopting the available and already viable solutions.

We also wanted to share some key learnings from an event we co-hosted below:

1) A lot of value comes from intimate discussions with smart people that have different viewpoints. Our topic was electricity grid challenges resulting from the rise of AI’s energy consumption, and how AI could actually help navigate the surge in demand. While fundamental changes to the grid are required, many feel that the safety and dependability that our utilities provide must continue to be priority #1.

2) Several large utilities are feeling pressure from their Public Utility Commissions (PUC) to improve grid flexibility, which means less peaker plants, decreased emissions and more innovative ways to shift when people consume power. They are looking to adopt tools that can safely and reliably provide more visibility into decision making. There are several startups doing this well, such as ThinklabsAI in our portfolio.

3) The energy transition has an uncertain short-term outlook, but the long term looks very strong. Later stage investors, and those that invest in infrastructure, are cautiously deploying capital into solutions. They hope to see more first of a kind (FOAK) facilities successfully built and more evidence of strong outcomes for climate companies in public markets. Fortunately, we heard repeatedly that the significant risks for society need to be addressed urgently, and the corresponding upside for those that have strong solutions could be huge.

4) Recognition that the Active Impact Investments brand is growing globally. Over the course of the week, we had people from around the world congratulate us on progress, exits, fundraising and share their excitement for our new investments. Our event only had space for 25 people and ended up with over 700 people registered! In VC, brand matters, and it was nice to see peers recognize the work we’re doing on both sides of the border to help move the needle on climate change.

Follow-on Investment - GlacierGrid

We are thrilled to see Glacier Grid (Fund I) close another $2.75M in funding. This round gave us the opportunity to increase our position in a business with increasingly strong evidence of market pull and sales exceeding target in H1 2024. The management team expects this financing to bring the business to cashflow positive. We’re excited for what the future holds for Glacier Grid!

Follow-on Investment - Optiwatt

Well, that happened fast…! Casey, the founder of Optiwatt (Fund II) casually mentioned in a board meeting that one of his current investors was interested in investing more money if a bridge would better position us for a strong Series B. It turned out that he wasn’t the only one. Active Impact was among a group of investors that wanted to increase ownership, and so $5M USD was raised on mutually agreeable terms within days. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was always that easy?!

Founder Spotlight: Devon Wright of Lumo

When considering the biggest challenges the world will face over the next 100 years, Devon Wright felt one was gravely ignored: water security. California faced extreme drought during the pandemic when Devon asked farmers and governments about water management tools and tracking. No one was tracking their water usage since measuring tools were finicky, unreliable, and inaccessible. After falling in love with the problem, Devon founded Lumo to craft a solution.

Lumo’s proprietary valve and software platform improves business outcomes for farmers, the biggest users of freshwater globally, by optimizing precision irrigation. Lumo allows farmers to use the exact amount of water they want while keeping a log of actual usage – improving yield, crop health, and operational efficiency. Lumo’s customers have found that just by irrigating at night when energy is cheaper (and cleaner) irrigation efficiency is improved by 10-15%. Considering the additional benefits Lumo provides, like dispensing the right amount of water and catching leaks early on, Devon estimates that Lumo saves 30% of water use for the farmer.

After kicking things off in California in 2022, Lumo recently launched their first foreign expansion in Canada! If you’d like to be a part of Lumo’s success story, please get in touch.

Closed their biggest sales month on record with $120K booked, including their first international deal in the Canadian Okanagan region: a 2 ranch install with Mark Anthony Group and a 110 acre expansion deal at their Naramata ranch.

Released their MVP product for automated dynamic grid planning system with AI-based power flow. Selected by a large US investor-owned utility for an automated dynamic planning project.

Came out of stealth mode and officially launched their website and LinkedIn. Released all engineering drawings for their next build of 10 vehicles and supporting charging infrastructure.

Secured a contract with Ra Foods, representing 10,000lb/month of alfalfa seeds. Identified a new opportunity with artichoke seeds after unlocking a 9% increase in germination rates.

Signed an agreement with an auto OEM for a $1M POC with a total addressable market of $10B supplying battery storage systems for remote energy resiliency. Selected as one of 12 companies for the CalTestBed program sponsored by the California Energy Commission.

The Integrated Financing solution finished a record third quarter with 35 credit applications received and $2.5M closed. Scheduled 13 more demos with lenders interested in licensing Enpowered’s proprietary software to achieve operational efficiency in the financing space.

Installed their 900th thermostat and are installing the first few pilot sites for Dutch Bros, representing their largest pilot opportunity to date ($1.2M ARR) and marking the launch of a lighting control solution and asset level metering solution.

Formally announced its partnership with IHS, a major cell tower operator across Africa, and surpassed 3,000,000 battery swaps across over 100,000 customers.

Doubled MoM charging deployment and surpassed 10,000 charging stations installed.

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Thanks for subscribing (or making it this far into our newsletter). Active Impact Investments is a Certified B Corp based in Vancouver, BC, whose mission is to support environmental sustainability through profitable investment. With three limited partnership funds with over $145M in assets committed, we provide money and talent to accelerate the growth of early-stage companies that are capable of achieving venture scale and becoming extremely profitable while solving the most urgent environmental issues.

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