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- 🌎🏛️ Overture raises $60M debut fund to help climate startups navigate bureaucracy
🌎🏛️ Overture raises $60M debut fund to help climate startups navigate bureaucracy
dot.LA Weekly Update
🔦 Spotlight
Picture a VC who just successfully raised a $60M fund in the icy funding environment of 2023-2024. What do you see?
You might imagine a former investor from Sequoia or a16z with a stellar track record. Maybe you imagine a former venture backed founder. Maybe a senior PM at Google who got their start at Goldman Sachs.
You probably don’t picture someone spent a good portion of their career working for the federal government in Washington, DC.
That, however, is exactly where LA-based Overture Climate VC co-founders Shomik Dutta and Brandon Hurlbut made their bones. Shomik and Brandon met while working on the 2008 Obama campaign before serving in a number of roles in the White House and and across the government, including in the DOE and the FCC. Shomik then moved into startupland and started his first venture fund, Higher Ground Labs, dedicated to investing in startups saving democracy (yes, you read that right), and Brandon started Boundary Stone Partners, a government affairs firm.
They reunited to bring their government expertise special sauce to Overture Climate VC, which is (obviously) dedicated to climate investing. In the world of climate tech startups, Shomik and Brandon believe they can help founders properly navigate the bureaucracy in Washington, as climate tech companies struggle with regulatory approvals, government funding, and selling into public sector customers.
Their story and mission clearly resonated with the LP community, driving Overture’s oversubscribed $60M debut fund. LPs listed by the firm include Schneider Electric’s SE Ventures, WovenEarth, and Richard Kauffman, along with non-profit foundations, family offices, industry leaders, and personal friends.
Here’s to hoping that Overture helps build a greener future for all of us. 🌳
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
Hadrian, a precision manufacturer for aerospace and defense, raised a $117M Series B in a mix of equity and debt from RTX Ventures, a16z, Construct Capital, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, and others. - learn more
Axle Health, a provider of home health care scheduling software, raised a $4.2M Seed Round from Pear VC and Trac VC - learn more
SocialCrowd, a provider of performance management software, raised a $1.6M Pre-Seed Round led by Bread and Butter Ventures. - learn more
EngineEars, a music engineering and studio marketplace, raised a $7.5M Seed Round led by Drive Capital, with participation from Slauson & Co., 645 Ventures, FLUS Investment Group, Kendrick Lamar, Ghazi, AlexDaKid, Roddy Ricch, Mustard, YG, DJ Khaled, Russ, Tunde Balogun, and Sean Famoso. - learn more
Clairity Technology, a startup that has developed a method for removing carbon dioxide from the air that it maintains is more cost-efficient than competing approaches, raised a $6.75M Seed Round co-led by Initialized Capital and Lowercarbon Capital. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
MaC Venture Capital led a $13.3M Seed Round for Exponential Markets, a developer of financial risk mitigation tools. - learn more
Overture Climate VC raised their debut $60M fund dedicated to climate tech startups. - learn more
Kinship Ventures, an early stage fund led by Gwyneth Paltrow focused on consumer products and software, is raising its $75M debut fund - learn more
Actively Raising
Azure Printed Homes, a startup leveraging 3D printing technology using recycled polymers to prefab modern backyard offices, ADUs, homes and emergency housing 70% faster and 30% less expensive than existing construction methods, with a positive environmental impact, is raising a $10M Series A Round. - learn more
ReelCall, Inc., an entertainment technology company focused on powerful apps and platforms that help build and maintain the professional network of connections vital to career growth, is raising a $850K Pre-Seed Round. - learn more
CZero, a startup building software to decarbonize logistics for logistics businesses and goods business through a vetted marketplace and optimization software. - learn more
Couri, a technology startup addressing last-mile delivery issues, is raising a $450K Pre-Seed Round at a $2.2M post money valuation. - learn more
StartupStarter, an investment platform that provides real-time data and analytics on startups, is raising an $850K Angel Round. - learn more
If you’re a founder raising money in Los Angeles, give us a shout, and we’d love to include you in the newsletter!