Giant Ventures

“The UK was rapidly falling behind European and US competitors on government climate support,” Tommy Stadlen, co-founder and general partner at Giant, told Sifted. The UK Government's newly formed GB Energy is big news for climate. GB Energy is one of the new UK government’s flagship policies: a state-owned company to increase renewable energy generation. £8.3bn will now be allocated to GB Energy over the next five years, to co-invest and accelerate large infrastructure projects. This has ripple effects on startups. “Government policy and investment has definitely played a role in us backing American, French and Nordic climate companies," Stadlen told Sifted. In France, Bpifrance already co-invest significant capital alongside private investors, helping great French companies scale their impact. Read more on the UK from Kai Nicol-Schwarz and Freya Pratty: https://lnkd.in/euJJkKDX

On Tuesday I'll be sharing insights into how Coca-Cola Europacific Partners has partnered with Waterplan to utilize advanced technology to centralize, analyse, and report high-quality water risk data across operations. Join the webinar webinar to discover how we have revolutionized water risk management through the power of technology and AI. 📝 Register now: https://hubs.la/Q02Ff2HQ0 📅 Date: Wednesday, July 16th 🕒 Time: 11 am EST (5 pm CET)

Giant Ideas brings together 250 founders, CEOs, heads of state and leading investors to rethink technology as a force for good, from climate to health. In June, I spoke at Giant Ventures' Giant Ideas event, interviewed by the Financial Times' Gillian Tett, about Oatly's journey. We discussed how to build a climate-focused brand that cuts through, why purpose matters, and why I think we need governments to make bolder climate decisions. I hope you enjoy the episode!

How do you build an iconic climate brand? Today on the podcast we are joined by Oatly's former CEO Toni Petersson. CEO of Oatly for a decade, he transformed it from an unknown Swedish eco food innovation into a global consumer giant - with just shy of $1BN in sales. Toni famously used quirky (and divisive) marketing to build one of the most loved green brands of all time. Building the brand came with bold decisions, and strong leadership. But how exactly did he make oat sludge aspirational? In this conversation with Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett, recorded at Giant Ideas Summit, they discuss why purpose matters, why governments should make longer term decisions, and how to make climate products aspirational. Link to listen in the comments!

We are excited to announce that we have led RxDiet's $3 million seed round. RxDiet is on a mission to battle chronic disease with personalised nutrition, at a fraction of the current cost. RxDiet uses AI to create personalised and medically tailored food plans, with fresh ingredients and behavioural support, and deliver them directly to patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension. The latest results from their program with Aetna, a CVS Health Company have been nothing short of remarkable. Results show an NPS of 97, and a 76% app usage rate among a senior audience with (average age +78), demonstrating high engagement for a demographic historically difficult to engage in healthcare programs. Co-founded by Roman Kalista, MD and Jan Škvařil, RxDiet aims to remove the cost-prohibitive nature of treating chronic conditions - lowering the bar significantly for healthcare payers. This year, they launch a low-cost digital tool which insurers can offer to reach even more of their members. We are joined in this round by Better Ventures, FORM Life, and notable angel investors including Immad Akhund, founder of Mercury and Austen Allred, founder of BloomTech. Read more about RxDiet's news here: https://lnkd.in/gjji5Djn

The US Government have just made a bold bet on the bio manufacturing sector - designating Champaign in Illinois as a biomanufacturing "Tech Hub". The "Tech Hubs" program invests $50-$75 million in high-potential U.S. regions, with the goal of making them innovation centres: creating jobs and enhancing economic and national security. The hubs are chosen for their potential for rapid growth in key technology sectors, and the precision fermentation industry is projected to reach $11.8 billion by 2028, with the potential to generate one million jobs by 2030. This is a key positive indicator for biomanufacturing companies, like Synonym - building infrastructure for the biomanufacturing economy - and Invert - building modern software for bioprocess development and scale-up. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ettxpD6a

Huge congratulations to our portfolio company Waterplan (YC S21) who have been selected by Google as a winner of their Founders Fund. Waterplan is a water sustainability platform which helps organisations gather, report and act on water related risks. Their stellar client roster already includes AB InBev, Meta, Mars, Amazon and more. Google for Startups Founders Fund selects the best underrepresented founders to support with cash, Google credits, and hands-on support so they can scale their businesses more quickly. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gPxfn5_t Congratulations too to the other winners, including mission-driven founders working on problems like home energy management (Akeptus), forecasting and insights for farmers for specialty crops (Bountiful), and climate insurance tools for governments, financial institutions and insurers (Raincoat).

We are excited to announce the 2023 Giant Impact Report 📚 💰 We invested in 11 purpose-driven companies 💼 Our portfolio companies created 2,079 jobs 🌈 49% of our portfolio companies are led by diverse founding teams. If our portfolio scales to 2030, together we could: 🌏 Abate 263 mega tons of carbon per year (the annual emissions of Netherland, Portugal and Belgium) 🏥 Touch the lives of 19 million people, save the NHS £840m, and impact 20,000 cancer patients worldwide. 📈 Positively impact 279m lives worldwide The need to scale purpose-driven companies cannot be overstated. We are at a pivotal moment where the urgency of addressing climate change, improving healthcare accessibility, and reducing inequality has never been greater. The Giant Impact Report is a testament to our portfolio founders' ambition, the tangible changes they have already brought about, and what is possible. We are grateful to our founders and team's work, especially Jia Lin Yong, for creating this comprehensive report. 📚 Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dZ7drPH2

We are thrilled to announce that Grant Allen is joining us as a Venture Partner. Based in Palo Alto, California, Grant is one of the most established investors in climate tech, and he has the track record to back it up with investments spanning 16 years across energy, industrials and AI. Most recently he helped build SE Ventures a $1.1 billion fund anchored by Schneider Electric where he was the first General Partner. Grant sourced and/or led over 60% of SEV's investments including Banyan Infrastsructure, Higharc, AutoGrid, Scandit, Poka, Kojo, and Fabric8 Labs. Before SE Ventures, he was previously CEO of ABB Ventures, the $300M investment arm of ABB Group, where he was a member of ABB's global Technology Leadership Team and backed category leaders such as Northvolt, Bonsai AI, MineSense, CMR Surgical and Atom Power. Grant has an engineering degree from Duke University and an MBA from The Wharton School. He has also been an active angel investor for the past decade, with 40+ investments including Butlr, Carta, Chargelab, Coinbase, Dexterity, EquityZen, Persimmon and Wagestream. We are excited to partner with Grant, further augmenting Giant's presence in the U.S., and deepening our relationships with large OEMs and energy companies to provide even greater value to our founders. Please welcome him to the team!

We loved leading this Tech Nation panel on how to raise a Series A, with Atomico, Speedinvest, and Plan A. As part of the Tech Nation Climate Programme, Tech Nation run a Climate Tech showcase in London, supporting 24 of the UK's leading climate tech start ups. Tommy Stadlen (Giant Co-founder and General Partner) joined Terese Hougaard (Partner at Atomico), Namratha Kothapalli (Principal at Speedinvest) and Lubomila Jordanova (CEO and co-founder at Plan A) to share the lessons on raising a series A - what investors are looking for, and what the founder experience is like. The event also included Lara Lewington, presenter of technology show "BBC Click", Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of Leon Restaurants and the Sustainable Restaurant Association, and Louise Kjellerup Roper, CEO of Volans. Tech Nation are doing brilliant work for the UK tech ecosystem and we are proud to support them!