Ambitious Green VC Firm Counts Leonardo DiCaprio in Its Wing
Seemingly overnight, Pangaia’s Earth-centered mission swept into mainstream consciousness.
Wheat pastings popped up in New York’s East Village and talent was culled from the Global Fashion Agenda, and most recently Ssense. A pop-up with Nordstrom was followed by the launch of Pangaia Superfoods, which sealed the material innovator’s seemingly ubiquitous presence.
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The early-stage, private company leans into its capital infusements from VC firms like Beverly Hills-based Regeneration.VC and Squared Circles (cofounded by British businessman Alexander Gilkes).
Just last week, Regeneration.VC launched a $45 million inaugural fund devoted to supercharging consumer-powered climate innovation, with Leonardo DiCaprio, a strategic adviser, and William McDonough, circular advocate and “Cradle to Cradle” coauthor, in its wing.
WWD spoke with general partners Dan Fishman and Michael Smith on the firm’s aims.
Fishman is a longtime brand builder (including House of Harlow with Nicole Richie, L’Agence, and Coolhaus) turned investor. Smith — a former DJ — founded and operated media and real estate ventures before establishing Ponvalley, a climate-focused family office.
Regeneration.VC invests across apparel, food and CPG with three core themes being design (packaging and materials), use (products and brands), and reuse (reverse logistics and marketplaces).
“When we invest in companies, we obviously look at the economic opportunity in the market and the environmental [impact],” said Smith, in reference to the $4.5 trillion opportunity in climate-related solutions. Although long-term goals stretch out to 2025, 2030, 2050 and the like, in the case of the United Nations or other global blueprints, the firm is focused on the early stage and getting companies to scale.
”It’s far easier to measure early-stage companies. All of that focus and interest helps drive innovation with the next-generation. With early-stage companies, you can look to address and solve a variety of pain points.…Consumers have more power than they realize here. Their purchasing decisions vastly improve the planet [and] supercharge the evolution of this and move the consumer to circular and regenerative models.”
Along with Pangaia, there’s VitroLabs, which leverages cell culture technology to design animal husbandry out of leather supply chains; Cruz Foam, which transforms aquaculture processing waste streams into a certified compostable polystyrene alternative, and Arrive, a resale and rental solution provider to names like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Eddie Bauer.
“A lot of the backend IP that they are incubating — the seaweed fibers, the carbon capture glasses, the next iterations of leather.…Where we fit in, we can look at these businesses as a business point of view. Apparel and food are two areas that I live in and love,” added Fishman. “Within apparel, fibers are just at the beginning of a revolution.”
Although the firm is centered around a shared mission to “reverse” the climate emergency, the partners agreed the state of the climate crisis may mean adaptation and mitigation are the only means.
To keep their early-stage portfolio rooted on the path of change, Fishman mentioned Regeneration.VC’s Regenerative Environmental Gauge, which was codeveloped with partner Katie Hoffman, who cofounded the University of California Berkeley’s divestment campaign.
The REG is lining up the firm’s quarterly reporting on a go-forward basis, which will cover efforts in overall resource footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, material use and waste, toxicity and human-related impacts.
Courtesy Regeneration.VC
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