Roy E. Bahat

Excited to announce our investment in Alta Resource Technologies alongside Leonardo Banchik (Voyager Ventures) with participation from Orion Resource Partners, Overture Ventures, and WovenEarth Ventures. Rare earths are critical in products from magnets to ceramics and it's important for the US to develop its own supply chain. While the US has some of the best rare earth resources, separating them has historically proven expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Alta through it's computationally designed and optimized proteins allows the US to bring back rare earth production with a cleaner, lower capex, and lower opex solution - and that's just the beginning. Congrats to Nathan Ratledge and the entire Alta team. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gbGnAJn3

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How y'all feeling out there? We asked, and the data is in! Elemental Impact & Sightline Climate (CTVC) surveyed ~100 investors and industry folks on market sentiment, and heard some surprising perspectives. Here are 5 of the results - I (unscientifically) ranked them from most surprising to least surprising to me. 1. Where will companies face the greatest financing challenge? 51% say first of a kind facility 😯. (I expected FOAK to be high on the list, but not this dominant) 2. What's the most catalytic role for philanthropy? The vast majority say that philanthropy should provide catalytic funding, both directly and through intermediaries. I found this surprising because not where philanthropy has necessarily focused, but it makes sense given the huge capital gaps right now. 3. What's your expectation for capital availability for FOAK? Only 11% expect it to increase, despite the importance and all the efforts afoot 🫤. At Elemental we are totally focused on proving those 11% right 😉 4. The financing gap that caught my attention: Respondents identified the $40-100M range as hardest to fund. This is our experience as well – and the project size where we’ve been deploying catalytic capital and seeing 4x to 190x multipliers in follow-on funding. 5. Biggest concern for climate tech? 54% said policy uncertainty, and 21% cited macroeconomic factors 😵‍💫. This one didn't surprise me... What it looks like on the ground: Even while the financing outlook for FOAK looks bleak, the catalytic strategy feels right. We're seeing small investments (in our case, powered by bold and committed philanthropy) truly unlock additional capital. Take Nitricity for example, where our $2M in catalytic capital helped unlock $7.5M in additional funding for their FOAK project earlier this year. The bottom line: When investors get cautious, flexible/catalytic capital becomes even more powerful. Check out the full post for all the data: https://lnkd.in/g26AeXjD

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Where does consumer VC fit in Seattle’s tech-heavy landscape? On this week’s Sound Investments, I talk with Jason Stoffer, Partner at Maveron, one of the few funds in the Pacific Northwest focused exclusively on consumer. We cover: 🔹 Jason’s path into venture capital 🔹 How Maveron spots breakout consumer brands 🔹 The role of AI in shaping the next wave of consumer opportunities 🔹 Trends in edtech, wellness, and retail If you’re curious about where the next consumer breakthroughs will come from - or how a fund like Maveron thrives in a city dominated by enterprise and cloud - this one’s for you. 🎧 Listen here: https://pod.fo/e/319e2a #VentureCapital #ConsumerTech #Innovation #Seattle #Startups

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Despite policy headwinds, U.S. climate tech startups aren’t fleeing abroad. They’re doubling down locally. At SecondMuse, we’re seeing founders recalibrate within the U.S., chasing states with strong demand, clearer incentives, and investor trust. 🔑 Three quick takeaways: 1️⃣ It’s not brain drain. The real risk is startup attrition without better domestic support. 2️⃣ Winners are solving real problems. Capital is flowing to industrial solutions that work without subsidies, like green shipping, carbon capture, and grid optimization. 3️⃣ Policy clarity shapes startup decisions. States like NY are stepping up, but federal uncertainty risks losing top talent, especially international researchers. We need inclusive, well-capitalized ecosystems that move with urgency and equity, because climate tech doesn’t wait. Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/gsDbkeqD

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Shutdowns don’t just pause government - they stall America’s ability to build at scale. Factory buildouts, pilot production lines, heavy-equipment installs, and AI datacenter rollouts all depend on predictable public actions: grant payments to fund R&D, timely permits and inspections to break ground, customs clearances for critical machinery, and utility/interconnection approvals to power facilities. When agencies pause, each link snarls. The effects are real: Long-lead experiments stop and become costly to restart. Permits and inspections slip, leaving capital idle and suppliers scrambling. Equipment piles up at ports while customs backlogs delay production ramps. AI datacenter projects stall without steady approvals and infrastructure support. “Pause and resume” kills scale. Startups and manufacturers can’t certify, build, or ramp when timelines are political theater. Other countries keep building - they win the investment and capacity. If we want industrial strength and AI infrastructure here, fund flows, permitting, inspections, and procurement must be reliable. Pass clean funding and protect the steady public processes that let pilots become production. #BuildNotBreak #Manufacturing #AIInfrastructure #IndustrialScale

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