Top-Decile Angel Portfolio of Sustainability Startups 🌱
For informational purposes only. Not to be construed as financial advice, nor an offer to buy or sell any securities. No forward looking statements. All rights reserved by Zecca J. Lehn (Copyright 2021).
Journey as an impact Angel
When I started as an Environmental Economist more than a decade ago, people would often give me confused stares when I described the field. The idea of protecting the environment, while doing good for the economy was often thought of as a contradiction — it’s not.
Nearly three years ago, I became an impact Angel. I dove-into venture, Sustainable Tech and Social Tech. I started the podcast posi2ive, a CH club with 5k members, and a private VC Impact Capital Community, all focused on Venture Scale Positive Impacts.
Recently I started being interviewed on podcasts, to share ideas surrounding VC Impact, ethical Ai, and why I got into the field of impact. And recently we announced our 506c public raise at Responsibly Ventures — a PreSeed VC Impact Fund, also aligned with multiple impact factors per deal.
Angel Portfolio Performance
The below is an overview of the unrealized performance of my private Angel portfolio, from March 2019 through September 2021 — with a TVPI of 2.665, and gross IRRs of 74% and 125% respectively in both 2019 and 2021 (*Updated 10/15/2021).
My thesis is that there are Seed opportunities which are more defensive — with lower failure rates, and higher potential returns , driven by positive impacts. Think: Tesla vs. Ford; Grove Collaborative vs Proctor & Gamble, where low friction and pent up demand intersect.
This thesis has led to extraordinary returns from my portfolio of just 2.5 years, benchmarked against both top-tier and a large pool of US VC funds, and syndicates, over the same time period.
In terms of diversity, more than 84% of the startups have one or more diverse Founders (Female / BIPOC only).
What does this all mean? For myself, the experiment of backing direct and indirect impact startups, each with multiple SDG factors per deal, has been a great success! This includes investing in Founders from underrepresented backgrounds, and female led teams. It also meant expanding my mindset to allow for more nexus opportunities that cross over industry verticals and areas of impact.
As a small Angel, first starting, I was unable to gain access to direct deals because of $25K mins. Instead, I decided to focus on investing in pre-vetted direct deals through syndicates on AngelList and elsewhere — like Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH syndicate. Since I was a former Data Scientist, I took weeks to collect data on as many factors, both qualitative and quantitative (hundreds of syndicates) and leads along with their themes. I chose clusters of high levered syndicates with moderate deal flow — 12+ deals a year. I reviewed 1000+ deals via syndicates in the first year, and analyzed each deal for 30min minimum — using a series of questions and summaries to debias my investment process, and track my thesis.
Eventually, I got into starting my own syndicate focused on positive impacts, building an LP base, and did proprietary scouting non-exclusively for multiple funds around the US — to center myself on reviewing deals more deeply, and networking with amazing Founders. In total, I’ve likely met with 1500+ Founders, learning about all aspects they experience at scale.
To date, I backed only other people’s syndicates (15+ selected strategically), with limited follow-ons at pro-rata. The results speak for themselves. Sustainability and Social Good deals are not concessionary — but rather have outperformed remarkably in the top decile, with no failed startups in the portfolio to date. See AngelList’s portfolio benchmarking tool for comparing Net Total Value of Paid in Capital (Net TVPI) against the net Internal Rate of Return (Net IRR) with effective duration — both used as industry standard with VC funds to gauge performance.
In the next section, I do a quick review of the startups’ missions, and impact focus, along with the multiple SDGs they align with — based on public and private information I’ve reviewed.
Note: I will not be able to share valuations from deals yet to be reported publicly. And have found that 2/3 of deals have yet to report their raises at initial or latest round on Crunchbase /AngelList. The average raise to post-money multiple is around 5x across the past 2.5 years. Distributions from publicly reported date against private markups was negligible.
Who are these startups, and why did I invest?
The below is a complete writeup of the startups I backed from 2019 through Aug 2021, including the round I invested in and the year. I have marked the SDGs that I assessed as aligning with each startup. Some startups have pivoted, expanded into new areas of impact; this is all part of early stage venture. Proudly, none of the startups below have failed — compared against the industry average of around 70% failure through Series A, which I think speaks to the resiliency of Sustainability and Social Good startups.
The Stylist LA: Fast fashion focused rental company, with a circular commerce model. Female Founded, and based in Los Angeles.
SDGs: 5, 6, 12
Investment: 2019 PreSeed
Captiv8: An internet platform that allows influencers to own, promote and monetize their audience. They support micro-influencers and creatives to build their small business. Amazing diverse team.
SDGs: 8, 9, 10
Investment: 2019 Seed
Balloon: Unlocks the true value of collaboration by removing cognitive bias, group dynamics, and fears from organizations and teams. Highly empathetic, husband and wife Founders.
SDGs: 3, 5, 10
Investment: 2019 Seed
Ampjar: A community of brands working to help each other grow. They support creators, local artisans, and microbrands to build their small businesses. The CEO Peter is incredibly engaged, and cares deeply for customer success.
SDGs: 8, 10, 12
Investment: 2019 Seed
Tovala: A food-tech company on a mission to offer a low cost meal service, paired with a countertop smart oven. They are expanding into smart packaging, along with plant based meals. Midwest team, with a passion for a better fast culinary experience.
SDGs: 9, 12, 15
Investment: 2019 Series A+
Vela: Gives you the tools to manage, optimize and grow your business like never before — impact for small merchants and SMBs. Making waves with micro-brands managing their own platform.
SDGs: 8, 9, 10
Investment: 2019 Seed+
Torii: A service that enables users to search properties for sale, schedule showings, make offers, and track progress. They have a unique property model which is buyer friendly, and customer loving. Started in Boston; great team.
SDGs: 8, 9, 11
Investment: 2019 Seed
Neyborly: A marketplace for short-term commercial real-estate. They create intimate gathering places which promote vibrant local communities, and more flexibility for small merchants. Two brothers, who are gritty as f*ck!
SDGs: 8, 11, 12
Investment: 2019 PreSeed
Sheets & Giggles: Direct-to-consumer, eco-friendly lyocell bedding. Playful brand, which uses less water consumption, and less harmful resources over it’s bedding competitors. Funniest CEO in America!
SDGs: 3, 12, 15
Investment: 2019 Seed
Aavrani: A digitally native, premium skincare company inspired by India’s ancient beauty rituals. Highly diverse team, serving an underrepresented market. They are centered on community, and clean beauty principles. Founders care deeply about cultural heritage, and personal empowerment.
SDGs: 3, 10, 12
Investment: 2019 Seed
Safely Health: Sexual health at your fingertips. Safely is a marketplace platform for testing and verification of STDs and COVID-19. Female led team, who care about public health.
SDGs: 3, 4, 10
Investment: 2019 Seed+
Massive: A highly scalable SDK that allows developers to offer premium content to users in exchange for a little bit of their unused processing power. Impacts low wage tech community, via shared resources. Founding team has worked in non-profit tech, and is privacy focused.
SDGs: 9, 10, 12
Investment: 2019 PreSeed
Blokable: Unravel the Gordian Knot of real estate development to unlock the efficiencies of technological and financial system advances. Love their focus on affordable housing. Jason Calacanis and Scott Kapor are both on their Board.
SDGs: 1, 11, 13
Investment: 2019 Series A
Remoov: Saves time and helps you recapture the value of your items. Their mission is to reduce waste by increasing reuse. Uses Ai and an intelligent distribution system for recycling and empowering lower income households and businesses. Diverse team, with an incredible vision on reducing waste.
SDGs: 1, 11, 12
Investment: 2019 Seed
GRIN: A marketing platform that enables direct-to-consumer brands to collaborate and manage their relationships with the influencer community. Core Values are “Integrity, Humility, Taking Action, Ownership and Thinking Big” (Like this!)
SDGs: 8, 10, 11
Investment: 2019 Series A
Pared: A market network for hospitality professionals. Increases flexibility for hospitality work, while supporting small businesses to scale. On a mission to help restaurant operators work smarter not harder.
SDGs: 1, 8, 11
Investment: 2019 Series B
Bluedot: A geofencing technology company helping businesses deliver high impact experiences and contactless solutions via mobile apps. See my recent interview with the CEO on @posi2ive.
SDGs: 8, 9, 11
Investment: 2019 Series A
EvaBot: Helping businesses build authentic relationships with their clients by making it easy and quick, to send personalized gifts. The platform supports Sustainable CPGs, and I’ve been supporting the CEO’s efforts to increase this offering.
SDGs: 10, 11, 12
Investment: 2019 PreSeed
PartySlate: The first digital platform designed specifically for event professionals for a better way to showcase their work. Connects local communities and empowers local vendors. Awesome female Founder!
SDGs: 5, 9, 10
Investment: 2020 Series A
Public Goods: Making healthy products affordable. This company has a deep commitment to Sustainability and a better grocery delivery experience.
SDGs: 12, 13, 15
Investment: 2020 Seed+
Farmstead: An artificial intelligence-powered farm-to-doorstep grocery delivery startup. Their mission is to deliver incredibly fresh, locally-sourced grocery essentials, once a week to their customers.
SDGs: 2, 12, 15
Investment: 2020 Series A
STEEZY: Creates online dance classes with the world’s best instructors. Fun, engaging, and healthy! It also helps people making a career out of their art.
SDGs: 3, 8, 11
Investment: 2020 Seed+
Passport: An international shipping carrier for eCommerce companies and their 3PLs. Supports more affordable international shipping, with a focus on resource efficiency. Highly experienced and diverse team.
SDGs: 9, 10, 17
Investment: 2020 Series A
Airhouse: An end-to-end fulfillment solution for ecommerce companies. They are on a mission to change logistics. Highly experienced team in transportation, now solving the factory-to-door problem for DTC brands.
SDGs: 11, 12, 13
Investment: 2020 Seed
Cabinet Health: On a mission to build a better OTC medicine experience, with an emphasis on sustainable packaging, and brand. Fire team, and diverse.
SDGs: 3, 12, 13
Investment: 2020 Seed
Mood Health: Making high-quality mental health care affordable, convenient, and accessible to all. Highly compassionate Founding team.
SDGs: 1, 3, 10
Investment: 2020 Seed
Plant Provisions: Plant-based slices that you can feel good about and are absent of any artificial flavors.
SDGs: 3, 12, 13
Investment: 2020 PreSeed
Blackbird Foods: Manufacturer of plant-based foods. Plant protein pizzas, delivered to your door. Yummm!
SDGs: 3, 12, 15
Investment: 2020 PreSeed
Aether Diamonds: The future of fine jewelry, designed for humans and the planet. Aether is the Alchemy of air. The CEO is passionate about Sustainability, and carbon captured.
SDGs: 7, 12, 13
Investment: 2020 Seed
unspun: A robotics and digital apparel company building custom-fit jeans through automated, localized, and intentional manufacturing. Diverse team, focused on Sustainability (primarily fabric waste), and highly innovative.
SDGs: 10, 12, 13
Investment: 2021 Seed
Walnut : A point-of-sale lending platform on a mission to make healthcare more affordable for patients around the world. Walnut was built from the ground up with empathy for the patient to alleviate the burden of large healthcare bills.
SDGs: 1, 3, 10
Investment: 2021 Seed
10xAR: Untethered AR headset with ~20hr battery life , 50g weight, low latency computer vision with fast neural engines.
SDGs: 8, 9, 11
Investment: 2021 PreSeed
MilkRun: An online marketplace and grocery delivery service that connects consumers and Chefs directly with hundreds of local farmers. Their mission is to innovate the foodspace by moving food dollars locally to strengthen native economies.
SDGs: 3, 8, 12
Investment: 2021 Series A
Origen Hydrogen: Innovative electrolyzer hardware that enables a path to very low-cost green hydrogen as low as $1/kg.
SDGs: 7, 12, 13
Investment: 2021 PreSeed
DroneSeed: Paid-per-acre to plant tree seed vessels after a wildfire — using heavy-lift Drone Swarms. Founding team is committed to climate change, and to improve ecosystems.
SDGs: 6, 13, 15
Investment: 2021 Seed
DiviGas: A new process for hydrogen manufacturing which has yielded vastly superior results.
SDGs: 7, 12, 13
Investment: 2021 Seed
Sensorydata: An innovative healthtech platform to capture data from vital senses — reducing negative health impacts to individuals in hospital care.
SDGs: 3, 8, 9
Investment: 2021 Seed
