Buoyant Ventures, a Chicago, IL-based early-stage venture fund investing in digital solutions to climate risk, closed its debut fund with $76 million in commitments with an additional $5.7 million raised in co-investments, making the fund’s total assets under management $81.7 million.
Investor participation includes limited partners Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Xcel Energy, Bank of America, NiSource, WovenEarth Ventures, and the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer. Investors also include leading tech general partners, energy companies, software entrepreneurs, and impact investors.
Led by Amy Francetic, managing general partner, and Allison Myers, general partner, Buoyant Ventures is a female-led venture fund investing in entrepreneurs using digital technology to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Buoyant invests in startups leveraging software and simple hardware to address climate change across the energy, mobility, agriculture, water, circular economy, and the built environment industries.
The Buoyant Fund is focused on seed and Series A opportunities and has made nine investments to date: Raptor Maps (optimization software for utility-scale solar); StormSensor (software and hardware to manage urban flood risk); SupplyShift (software to measure ESG metrics in global supply chains); FloodFlash (parametric flood insurance); Shifted Energy (demand response software for residential energy load); Audette (decarbonization software for commercial real estate); ReelData (software to optimize land-based aquaculture production); Beni (software to streamline secondhand clothing shopping); and Canopy (climate benefits software for employee decarbonization).
Amy Francetic, co-founder and managing general partner in Chicago, has more than 15 years of investment expertise. She was the founding managing director, raising $165M at Energize Ventures. She was also the founding CEO of Clean Energy Trust and has been a board member and CEO of high-growth companies.
Allison Myers, co-founder and general partner in Denver, is a former Accenture Strategy executive with deep domain expertise in energy, mobility, built environment, and digital transformation strategies. She is a founding board member for Michigan Climate Venture at the University of Michigan.
FinSMEs
02/02/2023