Hundreds of climate startups have been created in recent years, but for Casper co-founder Philip Krim, that's not enough.
“We need more zero-to-one founders in this ecosystem,” he told TechCrunch. Compared to other industries, “few people are working in the climate change space.”
Krim, who launched Casper in 2014, is no stranger to entrepreneurship. After taking Mattress Company public in 2020 and selling it to private equity in 2021, he focused on incubating new businesses such as Haven, which helps install home batteries. “Ultimately, climate change made me fall in love with this space.”
Through that journey, Krim met Evan Caron, a former commodity trader, and later Shalo Atome, an attorney and portfolio manager. They all quickly realized they wanted to foster the fast-moving, asset-light entrepreneurship that has captivated other parts of the tech world.
One particularly well-trodden path is to start a venture fund. The trio felt they had lots of ideas but not enough time to make them a reality. Instead of launching a VC fund, they are starting with an incubator called Montauk Climate, TechCrunch exclusively learned.
Incubator models are not new, but there are fewer climate-specific models. While some incubators take in founders and help them form companies at a very early stage of development, others like Atomic, Idelab, and Flagship Pioneering take a startup studio approach and help them envision the business themselves. Masu. The Montauk climate is one of the latter.
“We are the ones who create the businesses we want to create,” Krim said. “We don't take other people's ideas into account. We seriously put together ideas, and then we bring together talented people to help run the team.”
Montauk Climate is led by CIO Evan Caron, CEO Philip Krim, and COO Sharo Atmeh.Image credit: Montauk Climate
Many climate change technology companies focus on problems that need to be solved with hardware. The Montauk team is taking a different approach. The new incubator hopes to leverage its strengths in energy, software and infrastructure while creating businesses that complement its hardware-focused efforts.
“The core scientific projects are underway or have already been invented,” Atome said, citing wind, solar, hydrogen and geothermal. “Those kinds of bricks are being installed now, and we're building connections between consumers, between utilities and renewables, and helping to operate what's really fragmented right now. There is a lot of room to generate mortar that needs to be fitted in between” systems. “
Montauk Climate will launch with $8.5 million, led by a $7 million investment from Amplo Managing Partner Sheel Tyle. The company plans to explore business opportunities internally and, when it feels the time is ripe, hire a team and inject some initial capital into the company.
“Once we've assembled a team and developed a business plan that we feel is well-vetted and fully underwritten, we then fund the ventures we're interested in and spin out the business,” Krim said. . Montauk Climate will remain a shareholder in the spin-out company and have a seat on the board of directors.
Caron said the team is focusing on several areas, including energy use in data centers, electrification incentives, weather data aggregation, and insurance. Expect them to be software or platform plays. Krim said the insurance idea is the most advanced, with an industry veteran CEO and a model focused on helping business owners manage risks from climate change. .
“We should see some incubation operations come up in the second and third quarters of this year,” he said. As the number of incubating companies expands, Montauk Climate plans to raise its own venture fund to support them.
If these new businesses can take root, they will find themselves in a potentially rich environment to grow. According to the International Monetary Fund, low-carbon investments need to increase from $900 billion in 2020 to $5 trillion by 2030. With amounts like this, it's becoming a founder's market.