news 
Juniper Ventures spins out of Climate Capital to invest in synthetic biology for the climate
Juniper Ventures has spun off from Climate Capital to focus exclusively on investing in synthetic biology startups that aim to tackle the climate crisis. The new fund, which has already secured $10.6 million in capital, will write checks ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 to support scientists working to commercialize their research.
Juniper’s founding partners, Michael Luciani and Jennifer Kan, have been investing in climate startups for years within Climate Capital, initially as part of the firm’s special purpose vehicle investments. However, they recognized that there was a significant mismatch in climate tech investing, with over 50% of all dollars invested since 2020 flowing into energy and transportation startups.
“It’s awesome to see those solutions doing well,” Luciani acknowledged, “but as he points out, those sectors represent less than half of all carbon pollution. ‘The big contributors are how we make things, the industrials and chemicals and plastics, as well as food and agriculture and buildings,’ he emphasized.”
Juniper will focus on the latter areas, specifically targeting startups working on engineered biology to address these issues. “I have come to believe that engineered biology is the best emerging solution for the majority of problems in those categories,” Luciani stated.
The new fund’s early investments include California Cultured, which cultivates plant cells to create more sustainable coffee and chocolate products, as well as Cache DNA, a startup developing innovative methods for storing DNA and RNA.
Source: techcrunch.com
