Climate tech dollars are climbing 📈
Necessary Nuggets
Happy Thursday! If you’re new here, welcome to Necessary Nuggets, your one-stop pre-seed shop. We deliver updates from Necessary Ventures and helpful tidbits on our little corner of the world. Every edition is also on our blog.
Jobortunities 🚨
✨NEW FEATURED ROLE✨
Nevoya: First fully-electric trucking fleet in the United States, helping truckers trade gas-guzzling for environment-protecting. Get involved and tackle unsolved problems in the trucking industry.
Magrathea: A climate tech startup making waves by making carbon neutral magnesium metal from seawater and brine.
Reach out with any questions! All 154 open job postings are listed here.
Market Stirrings 🚩
Here's what the week looked like in pre-seed:
$5.4M
Total Amount Raised
5
Total Funding Rounds
$1.1M
Average Dollars per Round
$5.4M-$10.8M
Estimated Valuation Range
Data aggregated from proprietary research and Crunchbase; valuation estimate based on 10-20% ownership stake.
SAFE FOR NOW
Pre-seed rounds raised on SAFEs and convertible notes have maintained momentum since 2021, with 2024 on pace to match 2022. These types of rounds peaked in 2023, raising $0.9 billion across over 15,000 rounds. However, 2024 looks like it will likely fall shy of those numbers.
Good Reads 📖
For the rushed reader …
MCJ Collective and BNP Paribas each held closes on climate tech funds this week, at $80.6 million and €150 million respectively.
Startups are struggling to maintain compliance after crossing state lines.
A recent study by GoDaddy and UCLA showed that digital infrastructure improvement created nearly 300,000 jobs nationwide between April 2020 and March 2024.
For the less rushed reader …
A CLIMBING CLIMATE: Climate tech soil just got richer. MCJ Collective and BNP Paribas each held closes on climate tech funds this week, at $80.6 million and €150 million respectively. MCJ Collective will focus on startups “driving the transition of energy and industry.” It will invest in early stage startups ranging from pre-seed to series A, with selective follow-on approaches at later stages. The BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund focuses on growth-stage startups and will invest in 15-20 startups across Europe and North America. With the closes from MCJ and BNP Paribas, climate funds across the globe have raised $7.1 billion, topping last year’s total at $5.2 billion. As it turns out, climate tech might be the real Mr. Worldwide.
LOOKING FINE: Startups are running fine … I mean, running into fines. Startups are struggling to maintain compliance after crossing state lines. Once a startup ventures into another state, by having employees there, conducting an acquisition, or signing up customers there, the startup is required to register in the state and pay ongoing taxes and fees. However, it’s not as straightforward as that – the requirements are often complex depending on each business. Carta and Pulley are two big examples of startups that were fined or had their business license revoked as a result of not meeting state-level requirements, Carta in 2022 and Pulley earlier this year. The problem is that it doesn’t typically come to the surface until a startup is being acquired or thinking about going public, where it can backfire. Add compliance to the list of early startup worries.
INFRA LOOP: There are three things we hold most dear in life: family, friends, and internet service. A recent study by GoDaddy and UCLA showed that digital infrastructure improvement created nearly 300,000 jobs nationwide between April 2020 and March 2024. Every year, GoDaddy's Venture Forward Research Initiative and the UCLA Anderson Forecast publish the Microbusiness Activity Index to show the impact of microbusiness activity over time. The most significant finding of the research is that investments made in digital infrastructure level the playing field for entrepreneurs across the US. Areas like Miami, Las Vegas, and New York City have some of the densest environments for small businesses, and it can be tied directly to infrastructure improvements. I'm calling it now: Broadband will be the next artist to hit #1 on Billboard's Top 100.
Fire Up the Pre-Seeds🔥
Check out details on the pre-seed raises from the past week:
healthtech
TippingPoint Biosciences - Drugging out novel treatments.
TippingPoint Biosciences raised funding from the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, Sontag Foundation, Yuvaan Tiwari Foundation, and BrightEdge. TippingPoint is creating a drug discovery platform to identify treatments for diseases related to dysfunctional DNA packaging.
legaltech
Agree - A new, agreeable product.
Agree raised $3 million led by Better Tomorrow Ventures. Agree built an all-in-one, gen-AI-powered platform that integrates every step of an agreement, from sending to signature to invoice and payment.
Trestle - Hammering on data management.
Trestle raised $2.3 million led by Lerer Hippeau with participation from MetaProp, Laconia Capital, Alumni Ventures, The LegalTech Fund, Redbud VC, and Meridian Ventures. Trestle is developing an AI-powered system that centralizes supplier data and assists with performance management for the construction industry.
artificial intelligence
Konvas AI - How to make it in marketing.
Konvas AI raised $120k from Techstars. Konvas AI is creating a platform that automates marketing campaigns and provides insights throughout the entire customer journey.
Outro🚪
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Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
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