ImpactAlpha, May 21 – Climate investor Kim Zou launched Climate Tech VC in 2020 to track trends in climate tech investing. The free newsletter started “as a pandemic-era side project” while Zou worked with venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners.
Now her full-time gig, she’s setting her sights on climate-tech data insights and services for corporates, investors and policymakers. CTVC is expanding its database of climate tech milestones.
“An alphabet soup of rounds doesn’t always translate into success, but real projects on the ground, commercial contracts and partnerships do,” Zou wrote, announcing CTVC’s $1.8 million pre-seed raise.
The investment round was backed by former presidential candidate and Galvanize founder Tom Steyer, Elemental Excelerator and Earthshot Ventures’ Dawn Lippert, Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr, and AccelR8.
Zou has brought on two new co-founders: chief product officer Mark Taylor, ex- of Bloomberg NEF, and executive editor Grace Donnelly, who joins from Morning Brew. Oliver Booth was hired from ADL Ventures as a research analyst.