The Unicorns Podcast cover logo

Burnt Island Ventures Investor Story: Funding the best water entrepreneurs in the world

29m · The Unicorns Podcast · 27 Oct 20:47

Water is a fundamental molecule that enables society to exist, and few people understand the potential of the water investment space as well as this episode’s guest, Tom Ferguson, Managing Partner at Burnt Island Ventures, a new $30 million fund dedicated to supporting startups focusing on water.  In this episode, Tom discusses how we are at a turning point. From the wildfires of the Western US to flooding in Niger, climate change is here, with rising temperatures straining the world's water resources more than ever before. Products and services that allow individuals, governments and companies to navigate this change are in increasing demand, and entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge, emerging with the skill and insight to meet that demand and develop solutions to water problems at scale. In a nutshell, Tom explains that climate change is water change. It is the medium through which we will feel the effects of a warming earth. It is our responsibility to manage Earth’s most precious resource, now more than ever. Burnt Island Ventures therefore exists to find, fund and support the best of these founders.  Diving straight in, the two discuss what founders in the lucrative water tech space should expect when looking for investment. Tom goes on to give some examples of the incredible investment opportunities he’s backed to date, including water recycling and filtration innovators ZwitterCo, and Spout, the company behind the worlds smallest atmospheric water generator.

The episode Burnt Island Ventures Investor Story: Funding the best water entrepreneurs in the world from the podcast The Unicorns Podcast has a duration of 29:31. It was first published 27 Oct 20:47. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

More episodes from The Unicorns Podcast

VU Venture Partners Investor Story: The most scalable venture fund in the world

In this episode, Cassandra Harris sits down with J. Skyler Fernandes, a Powerlist 100 VC and the founder and general partner of VU Venture Partners, a global venture capital fund focused on consumer, enterprise, fintech, frontier, healthcare and proptech. The teams investment partners have invested over $1.8B+ to date in over 250 companies — and they have been some of the earliest and largest investors in 20+ unicorns, such as Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Venmo, FabFitFun, Beyond Meat, Oculus, Wish, etc.  After explaining what prompted him to abandon his dreams of being a quantum physicist in favour of the world of startups and venture capital, Sky shares some insight as to why VU Venture Partners is the most scalable venture fund in the world. Combined with their ‘sniper-like’ approach, VU sees over 10x more deal flow than a traditional venture fund, but are far more selective, picking just 20 investments per year across the globe and going after the biggest possible market opportunities in existence, resulting in both short-term plays like their investment in agrotech company Bear Flag Robotics (sold to John Deere for a 9x return within 14 months) and long-term plays, such as healthtech companies like 3D-printed organ pioneers 3D Biocorp and men’s reproductive health startup Contraline, where the opportunities are 10x-100x+  Sky ends with a brief overview of the concept behind Venture University, the world’s leading investor accelerator for individuals breaking into the VC/PE industry, as well as some advice geared towards potential founders looking to catch his eye. Through his approach, Sky’s confident that he and his team will find not only more unicorns (companies who grow to valuations of $1B+), but also possible ‘chimera's’ — a term they’ve dubbed to refer to companies with the potential to grow to being valued at $1+ Trillion dollars. A number of companies have now crossed the $1 Trillion valuation and were VC backed (Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google).

Burnt Island Ventures Investor Story: Funding the best water entrepreneurs in the world

Water is a fundamental molecule that enables society to exist, and few people understand the potential of the water investment space as well as this episode’s guest, Tom Ferguson, Managing Partner at Burnt Island Ventures, a new $30 million fund dedicated to supporting startups focusing on water.  In this episode, Tom discusses how we are at a turning point. From the wildfires of the Western US to flooding in Niger, climate change is here, with rising temperatures straining the world's water resources more than ever before. Products and services that allow individuals, governments and companies to navigate this change are in increasing demand, and entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge, emerging with the skill and insight to meet that demand and develop solutions to water problems at scale. In a nutshell, Tom explains that climate change is water change. It is the medium through which we will feel the effects of a warming earth. It is our responsibility to manage Earth’s most precious resource, now more than ever. Burnt Island Ventures therefore exists to find, fund and support the best of these founders.  Diving straight in, the two discuss what founders in the lucrative water tech space should expect when looking for investment. Tom goes on to give some examples of the incredible investment opportunities he’s backed to date, including water recycling and filtration innovators ZwitterCo, and Spout, the company behind the worlds smallest atmospheric water generator.

Pulsar Fusion Founder Story : Using Fusion energy to fly to the moon and back

Visiting the site of the Chernobyl disaster left a major impact on Cassandra Harris. Originally a trip planned to learn what happened, speak to people on the ground, and improve her general knowledge of alternative energy sources, Cassandra’s trip also opened her mind to a more specific question: whether or not a safer, even more efficient alternative to fission reactors could be found and used to improve humanity. It’s an even more relevant topic these days as fuel prices shoot through the roof, the effects of which will be experienced by billions of people around the world as the winter begins to set in — and far beyond.  The answer, she would discover, is fusion, a concept which few can explain as well as Richard Dinan, a fuel and energy scientist and the founder of Pulsar Fusion, a fusion energy venture aiming to be the European leader in commercial nuclear fusion technology, through leveraging R&D advances into industrial products across the aerospace and energy sectors.  After running Cassandra through Pulsar Fusions mission to harness the power of R&D developments in the nuclear sector and use them for propulsion well before fusion-based energy is a common occurrence, Richard talks a bit about the science behind it — with the main point that the universe has chosen fusion to power itself, and humanity should strive to emulate nature. Richard then discusses some of their achievements to date, including testing engines with the support of the UK government and the RAF, as well as their fundraising goals and eventual plans for commercialisation, before ending with some advice for potential entrepreneurs looking to enter the space.

Una Terra Ventures Investor Story: Helping people, profit and planet exist in harmony

In this episode, Cassandra Harris sits down with Luca Zerbini, Partner of Una Terra Ventures, a new €300m venture capital fund focused on early growth sustainable startups.  Luca provides some context on the origins of Una Terra Ventures, highlighting its mission to eliminate 2GT of CO2 emissions and 1m tons of plastic waste per year before 2030, approximately 5% of the total required to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The two then move on to discuss the fund’s current state — Luca providing some insight into their funding targets and their belief that sustainability is the biggest economic opportunity of our time. He then provides an example of how one of his current portfolio companies,  Pulpex - is pioneering the sustainable packaging industry.  Cassandra and Luca move on to discuss his startup scouting philosophy, the unique challenges posed by the fund’s primarily European focus, and what investors are thinking about when it comes to deploying capital in this current economic climate. The podcast ends with some useful advice for founders in the sustainability space.

Prelude Ventures Investor Story: Cutting back on carbon

How should founders approach their fundraising during this turbulent time? The prevailing economic downturn of the last couple years has indicated that in many cases, founders can no longer rely on business as usual. Money is tighter, and investors are going to be more selective.  To discuss this in more detail, in this podcast, Cassandra Harris talks to Mark Cupta, Managing Director at Prelude Ventures, a venture capital fund with $1.6bn under management, partnering with entrepreneurs to address climate change. The two discuss Mark's perspective on the state of the market and what it means for valuations, resource allocation, and fundraising during a precarious time. Mark also explains why in the current economic context, striking a balance between standing out from the crowd and conserving capital and runway is crucial. Impact is one thing, he notes, but being able to convey where a startup is, how it’s going to scale to be a multi-billion dollar company, and what it’ll look like 1, maybe even 2 funding rounds in the future, is infinitely more powerful. Potential founders take note! Listen to the full podcast for more advice from Mark.  Outside of providing some timely advice for entrepreneurs looking to enter the clean tech/climate tech space, which Prelude specialises in, Mark also tells us a bit about Prelude’s philosophy, which is centred around investing in early stage companies that are able to have both a positive impact on the world itself as well as prove themselves capable of scaling and becoming profitable. Adding some additional context, Mark discusses a couple of the startups they’re involved with, including Pivot Bio, a biological fertiliser company whose technology enables plants to create their own fertiliser using nitrogen in the air, and Boston Metal, whose method of steel production is cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and suitable for small-scale local steel production.

Every Podcast » The Unicorns Podcast » Burnt Island Ventures Investor Story: Funding the best water entrepreneurs in the world