Early-stage climate and sustainability venture firm Congruent Ventures recently announced the closing of its first Continuity Funds focused on quickly scaling its early-stage portfolio with more than $300 million in commitments, which highlights the interest of institutional investors seeking exposure to climate venture despite a challenging fundraising environment.
This brings the total AUM for Congruent to over $700 million, making it one of the largest climate portfolios in early-stage ventures and nearly doubling the firm’s AUM. And the fund’s commitments represent Limited Partners with over $2 trillion in assets, bucking the recent trend of LPs trimming their exposure to venture capital and private equity.
The Continuity Fund has been navigating the ever-evolving climate environment to support Congruent’s early-stage portfolio companies as they scale to meet the demands of the changing climate innovation landscape. And Congruent partners with companies at the earliest stages and the Continuity Fund will be deployed to support them throughout their life cycles.
Congruent’s portfolio includes many category-leading climate companies from food to fusion, including Meati Foods, AMP Robotics, Fervo Energy, Span.IO, Hippo Harvest, Pano.AI, Avalanche Energy, Parallel Systems, and Lightship, among many others.
Llaunched in 2017, Congruent Ventures is co-led by Joshua Posamentier and Abe Yokell, who have decades of climate tech investing expertise between them. And Congruent’s team has grown to 11 members who are among the most experienced and diverse in early-stage climate, having invested through the first Cleantech cycle.
The investors supporting Congruent include CalSTRS, investors advised by Cambridge Associates, multiple U.S. and Canadian pension funds, the Grantham Foundation, Three Cairns Group, Sobrato Capital, and multiple other institutions representing some of the largest endowments, pensions, and foundations in the world.
Congruent’s previous 2 fund families (Fund I family in 2017 at $92 million and Fund II in 2021 at $175 million) have been focused on supporting entrepreneurs who have been building solutions to address sustainability challenges. the climate sector focuses on mobility and urbanization, energy transition, food and agriculture, and sustainable production and consumption.
Congruent has supported 51 companies over the past 6 years, making it one of the most active and experienced U.S. investors in climate. And its portfolio represents companies that will help to decarbonize every sector of the economy — energy, fleet electrification, farming, new food products, sustainable aviation fuels, manufacturing, and more.
KEY QUOTES:
“Congruent invests in early-stage transformational companies in climate tech, where we leverage our capital and deep in-sector experience to fund the best companies in the space.”
- Joshua Posamentier, co-founder and managing partner of Congruent Ventures
“The fast-paced innovation and change now powered by funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act must be met with sufficient venture funding. Congruent’s co-founder and managing partner. “We saw a strategic need to help our existing portfolio companies, and we’re delighted to have the support of our Limited Partners despite the broader pullback in venture investing.”
- Abe Yokell
