The Radical Fund

📢 We are very excited to announce our strategic partnership with Keppel (Real Estate Division), signifying our joint commitment to driving innovation in sectors such as the #BuiltEnvironment, #RenewableEnergy, #Decarbonization, and #InfrastructureTechnology. The MOU was signed in Singapore between Mr. Louis Lim, CEO, Real Estate, Keppel Ltd., and Ms. Alina Truhina, CEO and Managing Partner of The Radical Fund. "With Keppel’s strong capabilities and deep experience in the area of real estate, we are confident that their suite of sustainable urban space solutions and proprietary digital initiatives will contribute to our collective expertise and capability to capitalize on the opportunities in the innovation and technology potential of this region." said Alina Truhina, CEO and Managing Partner of The Radical Fund. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/g9g4ZcU9 and here https://lnkd.in/gQNpNquK 🏢 Under this collaboration, The Radical Fund will source technology-enabled ventures that address climate-related challenges relevant to the real estate development and built environment sectors. ➡️ Are you working on a tech-enabled solution with the potential for scaled climate impact in real estate, and based in SE Asia? Get in touch with us here: https://lnkd.in/gS4ChSst 📸 Image Source: Keppel Ltd.

🇸🇬🇦🇺 A few weeks ago, we attended the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore 2024 organized by #Singapore's National Environment Agency, where Zachary Lee (李惠翔) was part of the panel discussion “Green Horizons: Driving a clean environment of tomorrow with Austrade” and judging panel “Developing A Sustainable Circular Economy Through Partnerships”. 👉🏻 Here are a few key highlights from Zachary Lee (李惠翔)’s panels:  🏙️ The #BuiltEnvironment faces Significant Challenges: Due to climate change, such as increased floods and extreme weather, especially with SEA’s cities on coasts and low-lying land. This necessitates collaboration among city officials, architects, civil engineers, building managers, insurers, and financiers. The entire ecosystem must adapt to these new realities, ensuring infrastructure and buildings are resilient and future-proof. 🪫#Hydrogen as a Promising Fuel? While hydrogen holds potential as a versatile fuel, 99% of existing production is not environmentally friendly and remains #costly. In almost all applications, it is dominated by other lower cost energy like #solar or #wind coupled with #batterytechnology. Infrastructure investments in transportation, storage and distribution are needed to unlock its full potential. 🥤#MaterialsInnovation: The market offers many alternatives, but cost remains a primary barrier. While plastic pollution is a pressing issue, with microplastics found in various parts of the human body, startups should focus on niche, high-value applications like healthcare and industrial uses before tackling the mass market for single-use plastics. 🚀 Long Term vs Short Term: When evaluating investment opportunities, VC funds prioritize risk-adjusted #returns, focusing on market validation through technology deployment and proof of concepts, as a foundation for long-term success. Over the long term, individual returns are highly unpredictable and therefore effective portfolio diversification is necessary for an optimized risk-adjusted return. ⚖️ Balancing #performance, #cost-effectiveness and #sustainability: Initial meetings with clients should highlight sustainability-related metrics like lower energy costs and emissions but successful pilots and execution hinge on managing costs and ROI efficiently. For example, deep tech innovations like carbon capture are intriguing, they require further efficiency improvements and shorter payback period for widespread adoption. —---------  🌆💡🌿 Are you working on a tech-enabled solution with the potential for scaled climate impact in Southeast Asia? Get in touch with us! 👉🏻 https://lnkd.in/gytxg8v6  #VentureCapital #SmartCities #SustainableInvesting #UrbanDevelopment #Innovation #ESG

🇻🇳 XenConnect Vietnam is finally here! Vietnamese Founders, are you ready to meet regional and local VCs? Xendit, collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS), GenAI Fund and Qapita, would like to invite you to our upcoming ONLINE speed dating for Vietnamese startups on July 18th 2024! 📣 For this session we will be joined by esteemed VCs from around the region: The Radical Fund Mulia Sky Capital Meet Ventures SAGANA Innoven Capital SEA Trihill Capital Integra Partners East Ventures FEBE Ventures Vertex Ventures SE Asia & India GenAI Fund Granite Asia Ansible Ventures Venturra Plug and Play Tech Center Orvel Ventures Saison Capital AVV (Ascend Vietnam Ventures) DO VENTURES Register your startup now at: https://lnkd.in/g8pQB2Jb

🏢 Southeast Asia's rapid #urbanization is set to bring over 100M people to cities by 2030, pushing #energy demand up by 42% in the next decade. With the #BuiltEnvironment contributing 39% of global CO2 emissions, we need new innovations to support the climate transition. Hear insights from Zachary Lee (李惠翔) on the built environment sector in Southeast Asia here on e27 (Optimatic): 🗞️ https://lnkd.in/g6hrxM-A Challenges and Opportunities: 🌍 SEA's Vulnerability to Climate Change: rising sea levels, extreme weather—necessitates resilient building designs and proactive climate #adaptation measures. The built environment sector faces challenges with rising energy costs and volatile interest rates, hindering decarbonization efforts. 🏢 Green Building Certifications: LEED, BREEAM, and others are gaining traction, driven by tenant demand, green loans, and lower operating costs. 💸 Market Potential: $20-30Bn market for decarbonizing embodied carbon emissions from building materials, and a $10-20Bn market for reducing operating emissions through energy-efficient systems and renewable energy. Investment Outlook: 💡 Innovations in green building materials and software technologies offer opportunities for startups and investors; for example, startups like Neocrete and CarbonCure Technologies are leading the way with low-carbon concrete solutions, while AI-driven energy management systems enhance operational efficiency. 💡 Green Loans & Incentives: Governments, like Malaysia, are promoting green building investments through policies and schemes, making it financially viable for developers. 💡 Venture Capital Interest: Funds like Fifth Wall and Taronga Ventures are investing heavily in proptech and sustainable real estate, indicating strong market confidence. 💡 Higher Returns: Green buildings not only reduce environmental impact but also offer lower operating costs and attract premium tenants, translating to higher revenue and investment returns. 🚀 Calling all #Climate #Founders decarbonizing the #BuiltEnvironment! The Radical Fund have recently entered a strategic partnership with Keppel (Real Estate Division) (read more: https://lnkd.in/gQNpNquK) and now actively looking for founders driving innovation in sectors such as the #BuiltEnvironment, #RenewableEnergy, #Decarbonization, and #InfrastructureTechnology in Southeast Asia. ► Does this sound like you? Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gDFdA8bi

📰 Announcing Okapi Solar's successful closure of its oversubscribed pre-seed round led by The Radical Fund, with participation from angel investors, including the co-founders of Ninja Van, Chang Wen Lai and Shaun Chong. ☀️ Okapi is a #solar infrastructure #financing platform aiming to make solar energy affordable and accessible for home and business owners across Southeast Asia, starting with the residential market in Malaysia. Through strategic partnerships with EPCs, Okapi offers quick and cost-effective financing solutions to help reduce electricity bills for energy consumers of all sizes. 🔋 By sourcing competitive capital and allocating it to high-quality, low-cost solar assets, Okapi eliminates the psychological and logistical barriers to adopting solar energy. This seamless approach accelerates the energy transition across the region. 🏡 Malaysia's vast housing market, with nearly 9 million households, consists mainly of sophisticated middle-income consumers with strong credit ratings. Amid rising utility costs and recent government diesel subsidy reforms cutting RM4 billion and SolaRIS rebate to install solar energy systems on their rooftops, Malaysians are feeling the pressure of the energy transition. 🌟 Co-founded and led by Zhern Yung Lai, former Chief of Staff and VP of Corporate Development & Treasury at Ninja Van, who played a pivotal role in growing the company from Series B to a multi-billion dollar unicorn. With extensive experience in engineering, operations, and finance, Zhern Yung and his Co-Founder Christopher Kwong is now focused on addressing Southeast Asia's energy crisis. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/eABFYpSD Congratulations to the Okapi team! We're thrilled to support your journey towards a sustainable energy future. 🙌 www.okapisolar.com #Okapi #RadicalPortfolio #ClimateTech #SolarEnergy #RenewableEnergy #SoutheastAsia #Sustainability

🌏 Thank you Fin-Erth MSCI Inc. for hosting the top #Women in #Climate Dinner in Singapore 🇸🇬 building on the momentum from the previous COP28 dinner with MSCI and ongoing collaborations leading to #COP29. Our team Alina Truhina, Lauren Blasco and Tharani Prakash joined the well-curated evening, highlighting the immense potential for collaboration on climate investments alongside #debt and #BlendedFinance 💰 with like-minded industry peers genuinely eager to collaborate on climate solutions as we gear up for NY Climate Week and COP29. Thank you Serena O. for your continued work with Fin-Erth and we're looking forward to continuing this important work together! ► If you are a #FemaleFounder or gender-diverse team working on a tech-enabled solution with the potential for scaled #climate impact in SE Asia, get in touch with The Radical Fund team: https://lnkd.in/gS4ChSst ► Curious about the climate innovation potential in SE Asia? Download our report: https://lnkd.in/gxiti_cJ

In late May, The Radical Fund’s Paul Ark (Polapat Arkkrapridi) attended the 3rd Southeast Asia #AgriFood Roundtable, hosted by Temasek, Rethink, and Thai Wah Public Company Limited. 👉🏼 During the event, Paul moderated the discussion on “Building Biodiverse & Resilient Food Systems for Asia”. Here are some key insights from our session: 🌿 Need for #Inclusive Agricultural Transition: building resilient global food systems for the 21st century requires a blend of #RegenerativeAgriculture practices utilized by smallholder farmers and indigenous peoples for generations with the technology, capital, and supply chains of modern economies that could scale such practices. Such blending requires an an acknowledgement that grassroots farmers, fishermen, and indigenous communities are essential stakeholders that must be included and integrated into future food systems. 🌿 Need for Increased Capital and Resources: only 3% of climate finance is allocated to food systems, of which only a fraction of capital flowing to #grassroots communities. Building regenerative agricultural systems means directing more capital and resources to such communities, there that financing comes in the form of grants, loans, and subsidies, or private equity, venture capital, or infrastructure spending. Investment at the scales envisaged would mean half of all food produced could be regenerative and agro-ecological by 2040. 🌿 Need for #Policy Action: economic incentives alone often are insufficient to enable systematic change and transition, necessitating government policies to create frameworks, standards, and mandates to align stakeholders around a common cause. The complexity of global food systems and their integral role in the economy requires policy action that is both holistic and well thought out, and should integrate a gender perspective, the meaningful inclusion of those most directly affected by #FoodInsecurity, and intensive collaboration among a wide cross-section of stakeholders. 🌿 Need for Discussion of #Biodiversity: while the words “resilient” and “resiliency” were mentioned several times, much of it was in the context of making existing mono-crop-oriented food systems greener and more sustainable, there wasn’t enough discussion around biodiversity and the multi-crop-oriented practices required to achieve truly resilient and regenerative food systems. A huge thanks to Radical’s friends Ren Hua Ho and Hataikan Kamolsirisakul at Thai Wah for inviting us to participate in this gathering of leading agri-industry, #agritech and climate movers & shakers, and to panelists Ira Noviarti of Unilever, Deepali Khanna of The Rockefeller Foundation, Yvonne Pinto of IRRI, and Navarun A. of Transitry for sharing their insights! ► Working on a tech-enabled solution with the potential for scaled #climate impact in SE Asia? Get in touch with The Radical Fund team: https://lnkd.in/gS4ChSst

 🏙️🌱 Ready to reimagine urban life? Join our panel on "Smart Cities of Tomorrow: Sustainable Materials, Hydrogen Power, and Green Innovations" at our upcoming event: Green Horizons: Driving a clean environment of tomorrow with Austrade, held in conjunction with CleanEnviro Summit Singapore!  🌟🔋 Explore how sustainable materials and hydrogen power are paving the way for greener cities. Featured Speakers: Carol Lum, Senior Investment Director, Austrade Zachary Lee, 李惠翔 Lee, Head of Investments, The Radical Fund Oscar Leong, Director (Business Pursuit), Pacific Zone, NaviX 📅 Date: 18th June 2024 🕒 Time: 06:00pm - 09:00pm 📍 Location: Venue will be disclosed to successful registrants Register Here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ghf_MUF3 #CircularEconomy #SustainableBuilding #EcoFriendly #GreenFuture #Innovation Don't miss out—see you there! 🙌

The Radical Fund’s latest report, "Towards Green Growth: Climate Venture Capitalism in Southeast Asia, " is a crucial and practical guide for investing in new talent, innovative ideas, and effective solutions to address the climate challenges in Southeast Asia. The report covers: 🌏 The Climate Context in SEA, unpacking the climate change impacts, as well as the innovation and commercial potential in the region. 💸 Investment Opportunities in Climate in SEA, highlighting investment prospects in mitigation and adaptation sectors, with a spotlight on the SEA climate VC ecosystem and venture case studies. 📚 The Radical Fund Approach to Investing in SEA, introducing our framework, and investment criteria, with a focus on delivering returns and scaled outcomes in climate and inclusion. 👉🏼 Dive into the report here: bit.ly/towardsgreengrowth #climate #venturecapital #climatetech #investments #climatechange #greentech #innovations #founders #startups #sustainability

🗞️ Highlighting global #women-led climate tech companies and funds - thank you ClimateRaise for the featuring The Radical Fund and Alina Truhina on the latest newsletter! 👉🏼 See Issue #65 here: https://bit.ly/CRmayNL As Marcella Muse rightfully expressed, “While US climate tech benefits from far more capital and media attention, assuming the US can just export one-size-fits-all solutions to the rest of the world is a mistake. A successful green transition requires leveraging innovation tailored to diverse cultural contexts and regions, driven by a multitude of perspectives.” Women in climate tech can be found everywhere, as featured: 🇳🇬 Payhippo 🇲🇽 microTERRA 🇺🇸 Kit Switch 🇳🇱 ReCarbn 🇮🇪 EVE Mobility 🇨🇦 Wild Coast Biologics Next up, women in climate tech in SE Asia! ► Are you a #FemaleFounder or gender-diverse team working on a tech-enabled solution with the potential for scaled #climate impact in SE Asia? Get in touch with The Radical Fund team: https://lnkd.in/gS4ChSst ► Curious about the climate innovation potential in SE Asia? Download our report: https://lnkd.in/gxiti_cJ