US climate fund Regeneration VC, which counts Leonardo DiCaprio as an LP, has taken over the running of Sky Ocean Ventures, a sustainability-focused fund seeded by British telecoms giant Sky.
Regeneration will take over the management of Sky’s portfolio, which includes next-generation plastic startup Xampla and sustainable packing company Notpla, while Sky will retain its financial stake.
Both funds have a focus on consumer startups with a climate edge. Regeneration, which launched in 2022, has backed European companies including green pigments developer Colorifix and Greyparrot, an AI platform for waste analytics.
“We are backing these consumer companies because those categories of climate have received less funding than energy and mobility,” Regeneration partner Jamie Rowles told Business Insider.
“We’re seeing a really exciting trend of some of the world’s biggest corporates wanting to make changes in their value chains and their supply chains.”
Since 2022, a large number of climate-focused funds have popped up in Europe and commentators have predicted consultation in the sector. Outside of climate, high profile VC consolidations include the merger of German early-stage fund La Famiglia and US fund General Catalyst, which took place at the end of 2023.
As well as taking over Sky’s fund, Regeneration has bolstered its team, hiring Narina Mnatsakanian, previously UBS’ former head of impact investment. Mnatsakanian joins as Regeneration’s chief impact officer.
And as for DiCaprio, he has a long-documented focus on climate investing. As well as investing as an LP, he’s backed startups directly, including Spanish green tech SolarMente and Dutch foodtech MosaMeat.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/leonardo-dicaprio-regeneration-sky/
