🌍 Venturing in ReFi #20
Your 5-minute deep-dive into regenerative web3 startups
Happy Thursday, investors and builders,
We are embracing #ReFi in our branding 🎉
Our newsletter’s mission remains the same. You’ll always receive curated
global news and fundraising announcements
content to help you (&our DAO contributors) become better investors
The Aera Force DAO also remains committed to backing innovators that improve life for people and our planet.
Why #RegenerativeFinance instead of web3 for climate?
#ReFi broadly describes startups building crypto infrastructure for positive externalities or climate action.
It’s catchy and relevant. #DeFi (/decentralized finance) describes crypto companies reshaping our financial system. #ReFi is an easy-to-understand meme.
In many ways, theoretically, “regenerative finance” is a system with more effective markets: no unaccounted for environmental damage, innovation without sabotaging natural ecosystems, and **maybe** an economy resembling the evolved patterns in natural ecosystems (localized power, strength from diversity, no centralized control, bottom-up evolution, resiliency balanced with efficiency, circularity of waste).
If you’re a startup that fits that bill, Aera Force DAO is here to support you, our fellow investors are also excellent partners, and you should consider joining the ReFi DAO for founder support.
It’s an exciting time. We’re privileged to be venturing in #ReFi alongside you.
Let’s dive into our burgeoning ecosystem:
Global Ecosystem News 🌊
Newly Launched Projects
💡 Reneum, a Dubai-based startup that raised $2.6M in Q1, officially launched its platform directing capital to renewable energy certificates.
🧑🎨 Heroe5 is building a charitable fundraising platform, starting with a $1M raise for Lonely Planet’s ocean programs, based around digital collectibles (NFTs)
🌏 ESG DAO announced the “OpenESG System” launch to reduce costs and increase industry transparency for ESG ratings.
(Editor’s note: the announcement shows a high-quality team thinking deeply about the oft-maligned, confusing ESG reporting process)
♻️ Kleanloop, a startup tracking the recycling industry’s waste transfers, announced it is launching its MVP in a tire recycling (/plastic pyrolysis) plant.
🌊 Sea Sweepers is a one-year-old Miami startup launching its MVP to track the origin of plastic products.
Ecosystem News
💸 The Climate Collective announced it opened applications for its next round of climate and #ReFi grants due on September 5th.
👩💻 The social media giant Reddit is making its “community points” tradeable and trackable on the Ethereum mainnet.
🇨🇩 Congo now allows bids from carbon credit project developers on their oil fields.
(Writer’s note: if you want to get involved, the Redemption DAO lobbied the government for this opportunity and is collating funding to bid on the auction.)
🌊 The World Bank, Aspiration, IFC, and Chia Network launched a $10M fund to “invest in high-quality” carbon offsets.
💸 #ReFi projects can raise non-dilutive funding in the next Gitcoin Grants Round (Sept 7-22).
🦜 Toucan Protocol, a carbon tokenization platform, was the world’s largest buyer of carbon offsets (17 million tons) according to Bloomberg’s analysis.
🗼BlackRock now offers crypto assets to institutional investors through a new partnership with Coinbase.
🤝 Buenos Aires will run Ethereum validators starting in 2023. In April, the government announced that it would accept taxes through cryptocurrencies.
🎓 Monash University in Australia is leading a new consortium researching web3 and climate applications with a $50 million grant from the Algorand layer-one blockchain.
Fundraises
None this week. See prior editions.
Founders, feel free to submit your project here.
Weekend Reading 📚
1 - Interview on how to run a DAO — Crypto Good & Gitcoin’s COO
Want to learn how to run one of Ethereum’s decentralized autonomous organizations? Kris, their ops lead, shares how they operate with their ~1000 contributors and 80 full-time individuals. In particular, the interview covers the tools Gitcoin uses, how its token design funds its operating costs, and why Kris emphasizes simplicity.
2 - Introducing the Climate Collective’s New Grants Program
Climate Collective is a grants-giving fund built upon the Celo blockchain. This article shows you fifteen examples of their early-stage #ReFi investments, ranging from global plastic-removal markets to biodiversity data:
Plastiks: an NFT Marketplace that allows users to offset waste through tokenized plastic recycling guarantees
Senken: a user-friendly marketplace for tokenized carbon projects, built on Collective members Toucan Protocol and FlowCarbon
SimplexDNA: a “Proof-of-Life” protocol for monitoring biodiversity through eDNA barcoding and analysis of air and water samples
For those new to the Climate Collective, it is an exciting organization to follow. Their team — run by Nirvaan, Ikarus, and Craig — thoughtfully examines how crypto can catalyze climate innovation at scale.
3 - To Fix Tech, Democracy Needs to Grow Up | WIRED:
Want to avoid totalitarian control and existential risks? Let’s create a functioning democracy? Would you love markets that enhance nature as our economies grow? Yes, please, and hell yep. This article (20-minute read) shares Divya Siddarth's research into how we might need to “upgrade democracy.”
The article is long but straightforward. Democracy, as we have it, is just version zero. The system is our best-flawed option because it prevents a dystopic control of power. However, democracy must evolve in a new world of digital technology.
The article describes many of the concepts explored in the web3 and DAO world (ranging from retroactive funding that Ale Borda and Protocol Labs are creating to the quadratic voting Gitcoin uses to allocate community funding fairly).
Fun extras
If you’re looking to build a startup in ReFi, the ReFi Roundup focuses on helping our industry’s founders.
If you’d like a regular analysis of on-chain carbon markets, Toucan Protocol runs the excellent deCarbonized newsletter.
Always feel free to reply if you have any startup or article suggestions!
With love,
Alex Filotimo and the Aera Force DAO
Researching web3 venture investments for a flourishing future
P.S. If you want to contribute research into web3-climate investing, feel free to contact us or contribute to this open-source insights repository.
This newsletter is for educational purposes only. While we strive for accurate and unbiased information, none of it is verified or intended to help as investment advice.