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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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,…

June 28, 2018 – (MobiHealthNews) – It is highly likely that the following statement has been erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein, but we can hope he, at least, also had some internal debates on the topic. “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” At SJF Ventures, we’re both impact and…

In our most recent blog post, we discussed how venture capital can help scale solutions that mitigate the impacts of climate change. This post will focus on one of those solutions, energy storage, which we believe is at an inflection point within its life cycle. Energy storage has the capability to make the electrical grid…

August 15, 2017 – (LinkedIn) – President Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement in July prompting cities, states, organizations of all sizes and everyday Americans to step forward and pledge to uphold the core tenets of the Paris climate agreement and fight climate change. 274 mayors have signed on as part…

Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” And yet the inherent optimism of human nature causes us to avoid talking about the inescapable truth of death. Studies have repeatedly shown that while we widely recognize the value in end-of-life consideration and planning, we do not take…

SJF Ventures has joined thousands of investors, businesses, and universities along with nine states and hundreds of cities to sign on to the “We’re Still In” pledge to join the global effort to hold warming well below 2C.  Climate wealth investment opportunities abound, as recently illustrated by the 100 solutions profiled in Drawdown-The Most Comprehensive Plan…

SJF is proud to release its 2016 Impact Report, which highlights the organization’s impact strategy and portfolio company achievements across six impact objectives: mitigating climate change, conserving natural resources, increasing nutritious food & sustainable agriculture, improving education access & outcomes, enhancing health & wellness, and enabling greater economic access & quality job creation.  The report…

In 2016, SJF Ventures undertook a project to better understand the climate change impact of its portfolio.  SJF Ventures worked with a team from the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, along with its partners at the Duke Carbon Offset Initiative and with review by the Environmental…

Last week I had the chance to toast Dan Shugar, CEO of NEXTracker, a global leader in tracking systems for solar power plants, such as the 70MW Javiera Solar project in Chile pictured above.    Since SJF Ventures led a Series B financing with the company in December 2014, Dan and his team grew the company…

When we ask education entrepreneurs “Who will buy your company X years from now?” the answer, more often than not, is either limited or defies reality. Entrepreneurs are busy building great companies that tackle extraordinary problems and impact the lives of (hopefully) millions. These aspirations make me most excited to partner with them. A company…