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The enterprise funds are a part of Footprint Coalition, a challenge Downey Jr. introduced in 2019. The coalition additionally features a nonprofit arm that helps early scientific analysis, and a storytelling part that produces content material about sustainable applied sciences.
Downey Jr. tells Quick Firm that the funding arm makes a press release concerning the position non-public firms can play in tackling sustainability targets. “This simply feels so very important,” he says, calling the enterprise funds “a dedication to wanting to essentially get knee-deep in the issue fixing.” Downey Jr. introduced the funds Wednesday on the World Financial Discussion board’s Davos Agenda occasion.
The 2 enterprise funds—one for early-stage and one other for later-stage investments—are structured as rolling funds, also referred to as subscription funds. By a partnership with AngelList, Footprint Coalition Ventures says it will likely be capable of settle for new capital from certified and accredited traders on a quarterly foundation. Rolling funds hope to make enterprise investing extra accessible to particular person traders.
“We attain this actually activated viewers round a topic that [they] are very enthusiastic about, and we would like the viewers to essentially have interaction within the worth creation,” says Jonathan Schulhof, who heads Footprint Coalition Ventures. Provides Downey Jr.:” We like opening entry. It actually speaks to what our ethos is.”
The funds will primarily give attention to applied sciences in six funding areas: meals and agriculture, vitality and transportation, training and media, supplies, and what it referred to as superior environmental options. Footprint Coalition mentioned it has made investments in 5 firms so far: Arcadia Earth, a media platform; RWDC Industries, a biotech firm; Ÿnsect, an insect protein firm; Aspiration, a socially acutely aware on-line financial institution; and Cloud Paper, a maker of bamboo-based paper merchandise.
Downey Jr. joins a protracted record of actors and artists backing enterprise funds, however not like different celebrities, lots of whom desire to stay behind the scenes, Downey Jr. plans to make use of his profile and storytelling abilities to assist advance his investments and their targets. Schulhof factors to a Footprint Coalition video, starring Downey Jr., that explains the distinction between plastic and polyhydroxyalkanoate, a biodegradable polymer that RWDC Industries, a Footprint firm, is growing. Although the video, which received tens of millions of views on social media, doesn’t explicitly point out RWDC, the corporate has been ready to make use of the video to elucidate its work to regulators and different stakeholders.
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