February 1, 2024

In a Tumultuous Market, These Trends Will Shape Workforce Startups in 2024

By Arrun Kapoor Over the last 12–18 months, we’ve seen some dramatic shifts in the economic and technology environments surrounding education and workforce development. The post-pandemic era of flush corporate budgets has been replaced with more conservative purchasing and decision making. To make things more challenging, advances in generative AI have offered longer term promise,…

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June 29, 2023

SJF Market Analysis Outlines Startups Disrupting Menopause Care, Opportunities for Investors

Menopause has long been overlooked and misunderstood. It is a condition that is, at worst, the butt of jokes and, at best, discussed in whispers. In recent months, however, that narrative has shifted. The New York Times (here,  here and here), Bloomberg, and Axios have all called attention to menopause, the severity of its symptoms,…

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October 11, 2022

Amazon’s Former Head of Worldwide Returns and Recommerce Joins Optoro’s Board of Directors

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Optoro, Inc., the leading technology platform for retail returns and reverse logistics, today announced the appointment of Libby Johnson McKee to its Board of Directors. Johnson McKee brings experience scaling businesses and building components of the circular economy at some of the world’s most well-known brands. Most recently, Johnson…

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May 16, 2022

Partners at Climate Tech Venture Funds Urge Federal Leadership for Energy Transition

DURHAM, N.C., May 16, 2022 / PRNewswire / — SJF Ventures and 38 other climate venture funds write letter to congress and administration: Dear President Biden, Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, As leaders of venture capital funds investing in entrepreneurial companies leading the clean energy transition, we are writing to urge you to pass the pending energy…

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December 20, 2021

An Exit To Accelerate Climate Impact: AES Acquires Community Energy Solar

December 20, 2021 / Dave Kirkpatrick LinkedIn / – We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Community Energy Solar (CES) by AES to accelerate the deployment of utility scale solar and storage. SJF led the Series A financing for CES in 2010, in partnership with our co-investor NGP ETP. At that time, the CES…

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October 15, 2021

Fiverr’s Play at Closing the Education and Employment Loop

October 15, 2021 / Arrun Kapoor LinkedIn / – It was great to see Fiverr’s acquisition of CreativeLive last week. The acquisition will bring an upskilling product under the umbrella of a thriving gig placement platform, consolidating two of the primary components of employment into one offering. At SJF, we have long been interested in…

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September 30, 2021

SJF Hosts Future Impact: The Solar Century Panel

SJF Ventures hosted its second Future Impact series event on solar energy’s transition to the primary source of global energy this century.  On September 30, 2021, SJF Ventures hosted a conversation on the future impact of the “Solar Century.” Facilitated by Dave Kirkpatrick and Jacqueline Goodman at SJF, this discussion focused on solar energy’s transition…

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August 9, 2021

Waycare Acquired by Rekor Systems

SJF Ventures portfolio company Waycare Technologies has been acquired by Rekor Systems, a Govtech company focused on intelligent infrastructure and smart cities. Waycare is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based connected mobility platform for transportation agencies that provides actionable insights and predictive analytics to improve traffic and safety management operations. Waycare’s technology will enhance Rekor’s existing suite…

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February 4, 2021

SJF Ventures Closes Fifth Fund at $175 Million

Feb. 4, 2021 / PRNewswire / — SJF Ventures has launched SJF Ventures V, L.P., a $175 million impact investment fund. SJF backs visionary entrepreneurial teams working in clean energy and climate, circular economy and logistics, mobility and govtech, health, education, future of work, and sustainable food. The firm has offices in Durham, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. Limited partners…

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September 21, 2020

Terabase Investment in Pursuit of $0.01/kWh Solar Power Globally

September 21, 2020 / LinkedIn / – At SJF Ventures, we have a history of investing in the clean energy transition which is only becoming more important as we grapple with the magnitude of the climate crisis. We are thrilled to announce leading the Series A round at Terabase Energy as the next step in our climate investment…

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September 21, 2020

SJF Publishes 2020 Impact Report

SJF Ventures is proud to release its 2020 Impact Report, which details the fund’s impact strategy, gives an overview of SJF’s investment and impact themes per sector, and provides a deep dive into the various dimensions of impact for each portfolio company. Download SJF’s 2020 Impact Report here. Please note that the report is interactive,…

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July 10, 2020

Technology Innovations Tackling the Youth, Young Adult Mental Health Crisis

Stephanie Nieman recently authored an article, Technology innovations tackling the youth, young adult mental health crisis, that was first published in MobiHealthNews.  The piece gives a breakdown of the growing list of digital mental health tools available to these populations, and the various ways to deploy them. July 10, 2020 / MobiHealthNews / – The current COVID-19 pandemic and…

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June 5, 2020

Black Lives Matter – SJF Ventures Statement of Support

We, like you, have been dealing with shock, sadness, frustration, and anger in the wake of the recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  As with the cases of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and others, we know the unfortunate truth that for every George Floyd, there are an unknown number of similar events that go…

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April 21, 2020

SJF Ventures Cleantech Office Hours

SJF Ventures is offering Cleantech Open Office Hours from 10 am – 6 pm ET on Thursday, April 30 and Wednesday, May 13 to support growth-stage companies with the potential to rapidly scale in an economic recovery. During the office hours, cleantech entrepreneurs will present their investment opportunity or discuss top-of-mind issues via video with…

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April 18, 2020

Coronavirus Proves Government is Important

Dave Kirkpatrick recently authored an article, Coronavirus Proves Government Is Important, that was first published in The Hill.  The column covers how attacks on government have weakened our response to the pandemic and climate crisis and highlights the urgent need for proficient and accountable governments to protect all citizens from these crises, especially the poor.  The piece…

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January 21, 2020

Optoro Publishes 2019 Impact Report

Each year, Optoro publishes an impact report outlining the company’s environmental and social impact achievements. Through its mission to make retail more sustainable by eliminating all waste from returns, on average in 2019, Optoro clients were able to keep 96% of returned and excess goods out of landfill. Additionally, the company mitigated 8.5 million pounds…

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August 5, 2019

Cleantech – A Forest of Funds

August 5, 2019 – (LinkedIn) – SJF Ventures has been investing in cleantech companies for 20 years. We have seen many funds come and go, most notably Silicon Valley funds that rushed in some years ago only to get burned. The incorrect media conclusion after that saga was ‘cleantech VC failed’. However, funds like SJF have continued…

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June 11, 2019

20 Years of Impact – SJF Reflects on 20th Anniversary, Thanks Partners and Supporters

Please feel free to download our 20th celebration graphic via PDF.

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December 12, 2018

SJF Featured in Tideline and ICM White Paper: The Alpha in Impact

December 12, 2018 / TIDELINE / – New research from Tideline and Impact Capital Managers (ICM), a network of private fund managers committed to impact investing, shows that a social and environmental focus on investment management can, in fact, boost financial returns. The new white paper, titled The Alpha in Impact, is based on Tideline’s analysis…

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August 31, 2018

Use electrons. Not too many. All clean.

August 31, 2018 – (LinkedIn) – I attended the Electrification 2018 EPRI conference last week in Long Beach. I came away inspired to further invest in ‘electrifying everything’ to reduce carbon emissions and enhance performance and employment.  But I was also schooled by utility experts on the challenges to the grid, such as increasing peak loads,…

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