SJF Ventures

“Spero” is Latin for hope. We help founders build a hopeful future. We’re a team of former startup founders, operators, and investors from landmark companies including eBay and Tesla. We invest in determined founders building mission-driven technology companies in three focus areas: wellbeing; sustainability; learning, work, and play. We prefer to lead or co-lead a $3-$10M round (late seed or Series A). Our typical check is $2-$4M, and we reserve capital for follow-on. We are conviction-based investors who play the long game. How We Work With YouWe have the conviction to lead and price your round. We participate in follow-on funding and help with subsequent fundraising. Our concentrated portfolio approach allows us to engage deeply with our founders. We’re supportive throughout the life of a company. Every one of our founders has full access to the entire Spero Ventures team. We know some ideas take time to catch on, so we offer patient capital. We are calm and steady partners in uncertain times. We help companies scale to serve billions of customers. We’ve done this as operators and founders, and as advisors and board members. We connect our companies to a network of founders, advisors, coaches, domain experts, and executive talent. We build community by bringing founders and leaders together through our CEO Summits, Product Leader Summits, founder breakfasts, workshops and thought-provoking events. We offer expert-led workshops that help founders with brand/storytelling, sales/go-to-market, consumer growth, and fundraising. Our focus Wellbeing Agency over physical and mental health People deserve to be in control of their own physical and mental health. For that, they need new kinds of information and access to care. What devices, apps, tools and services will help people live longer, healthier, more vibrant lives? How can genomics help us better understand our world and ourselves, and contribute to new solutions? Companies that answer these questions will make life worth living. Sustainability Protecting and preserving our planet Life is worth living on a healthy planet. But many of the largest systems we rely on - water, food, energy, transportation, product production and waste - were designed in a way that’s unsustainable and detrimental to our personal and planetary health. The economic, social, and health impacts of climate change and industrial pollution are growing too large to ignore: unprecedented droughts, fires and floods have disrupted millions of lives and result in billions of dollars of loss each year. How can we develop safer, more efficient systems? What can we do to improve power grids, recycling, environmental monitoring and disaster analytics? We invest in sustainability with conviction. Learning, Work, and Play Freedom in work and life Savoring relationships, art, joy, and laughter makes life worth living. Today, the way we do these things is changing. We can now learn, work, and play in hybrid ways that suit individual needs. This means self-directed learners need access to education and job preparation. Likewise, self-directed workforces need freedom, flexibility, and the ability to manage their goals. How can we provide better access to rewarding, satisfying work? What tools and support systems do people need to thrive? We invest in powerful visions for the future of learning, work, and play.

We go beyond early growth stage capital. We commit to the tech companies we invest in, providing them with access to our unique network of industry experts, leadership team and partners in Asia and the Middle East. Together we build a collaborative advantage to overcome the global water issues we are facing today. Naturally, we create impact by design. We invest to transform the world’s clean water supply. Natural Ventures has an impact-driven approach to investment that is at the centre of addressing the interrelated challenges arising from climate change, world population growth and the transformation of the world’s water system. Natural Ventures is focused on accelerating the transformation to a sustainable and economic supply of clean water. Let’s reimagine water together. Water around the world is rapidly changing from an abundant resource to a scarce one. We believe the inevitably increasing pressure on our water resources offers enormous opportunities for companies who offer breakthrough technologies in a profitable and scalable way. We are a team of seasoned investors with an excellent track record, experienced water, food and energy experts, entrepreneurs and leadership developers who have purpose-built Natural to help solve some of the world’s most pressing water and environmental issues. Natural Ventures has a unique proposition to its portfolio companies, combining a deep network in major markets in Europe and North America with particular and unique strength in areas of the world where water is scarce or infrastructure and urbanisation means that demand exceeds supply by an ever-increasing margin. The partners of Natural Ventures have extensive experience of living and working in the Middle East and Asia, and maintain a broad network of partners for manufacturing, distribution and delivering compelling solutions to the regions. We are on a mission to support purpose-driven entrepreneurs across three investment pillars across the Water – Energy – Food Nexus

Navus Ventures is an independent privately held investment company. We invest in unique high-tech and sustainable start-ups and scale-ups that drive the transitions in food and energy. Next to our financial contribution, Navus Ventures actively creates value by sharing knowledge, network and experience hands-on. Our approach is hands-on and pragmatic. Navus Ventures B.V. (“Navus”) is a venture capital firm aimed at high-tech and sustainable start-ups and scale-ups, part of a family office and linked to Lely (farming innovators). Founded in 2013, Navus has invested across a range of sectors and is now primarily focused on the ongoing transitions in food and energy. As a family funded VC, Navus is not subject to entry or exit pressure, invests both in typical VC setup as well as for longer holding periods and has simple governance allowing for quick decisions. Navus draws from the knowledge and network of the Lely family business, with a longstanding history in high-tech product development and successful market entry of innovations (but is not linked to the Lely business strategy). Our approach is hands-on and pragmatic, as an independent fund we can respond well to changing situations and act quickly and we support our portfolio as active shareholders with short communication lines to support management on strategic and operational matters. We value transparency and honesty in our relationship with start-ups and fellow investors. For whoYou have a viable idea for your Venture and want to validate the concept You have a proven concept and are preparing for market launch Your company has proven traction in the market and wants to grow Navus invests in unique high tech that supports the transition to..Cultivated / automated and sustainable food production Sustainable (instead of fossil) industries and energy production-, transport- and storage systems Navus invests in companies in different life cycle stages.. Validation Technology development and IP Building a team Subsidies and funding Build & Launch First sales traction Product development, licenses, distribution Funding Growth Professionalising / scaling sales Supply chain and service model Partnerships We acquire a relevant minority share as sole-, lead- or following investor, with typical tickets of EUR 0.25 - 2.50m (or more for later stage growth), often in tranches and with ample room for follow on investments. Our target companies generally..Develop a unique technological innovation with (potential) intellectual property Combine hardware with data / software aspects Combine a potentially high financial return with societal impact Are based in the Netherlands or (surrounding) countries in Europe

With each investment we consider the lasting impact on future generations. Our primary focus is on supporting growth companies. Building stronger and more sustainable companies in order to accelerate positive change, our mission is making impact mainstream. Vision on impact At SevenGen, we believe that a sustainable world can be achieved through individual choices. Your choices of today conduct the impact for generations to come. As meaningful impact is driven by innovative companies that offer sustainable solutions to a wide audience, we focus our investments on sectors with the highest positive impact on climate. To achieve this synergy, we rely on our extensive experience and network. Our managing partners have consistently delivered both impact and strong financial returns since 2015. Identifying and supporting impactful opportunities, SevenGen builds upon a rigorous investment approach and solid knowledge of the field, to accelerate positive change through growth capital. Vision on investing SevenGen prioritizes companies with strong management, clear risk profiles, solid governance, high impact potential and a commitment to setting the new standard to their industries. Within our field, we target companies with the ability to be price competitive in order to reach a wider audience and make their products mainstream. How we create value in our portfolio? Through strategic planning for growth and strengthening of teams using our ambassador network. We offer disciplined financial management and pursue international opportunities. Our commitment to transparency and accountability ensures we closely monitor and adapt to financial, impact, and operational metrics, driving long-term success for our investments. Team Allow us to introduce our dedicated and dynamic team: Frederik Deutman, Pieter Smit, and Rass Butt, all armed with extensive expertise in driving positive change through climate impact investments. Core to our success are our joint values of ambition and reliability, connecting to whom we work with and for, thinking beyond generations and adding a bit of fun into each endeavor. Join us on our exciting journey towards impactful and profitable investments.

We love tech startups who are pushing the possibilities in materials science. From enabling sustainable energy solutions, to accelerating advanced materials breakthrough, to ensuring wider availability of sophisticated healthcare technologies, TDK Ventures is actively searching for solutions for difficult problems. TDK has a proven track-record of solving problems, since 1935. Our VC firm believes in a sustainable world where digital, energy, and environmental transformation will improve billions of lives. Our mission is to help accelerate learning, bring meaningful contributions to society, and invest in startups with similar ideals. We absolutely want to “move the needle”, by delivering meaningful financial results with our co-investors and bringing new powerful transformational business opportunities to TDK. By focusing on Scaling Impact, we ensure a sense of purpose and a sense of urgency, with both patience and speed in our investment decision making. TDK Ventures exists to provide every startup we invest in with the tools they need to bring their visions to life. Of course, this includes financial resources and support, but we also bring a full measure of TDK Goodness to our portfolio companies to help accelerate their success. Depending on their needs, we may provide early product validation, pilot programs, customer, channel, and ecosystem access, industry and outsourcing connections, market insights, materials, manufacturing, supply chain expertise, branding, and/or go-to-market mentorship.

We have two types of offerings. Colbridge Growth is for firms that are at seed stage or beyond and seek to scale. We act either as consultants for specific growth-focused projects or as interim execs to execute longer-term remits. We focus on all commercial aspects of early stage businesses - including market understanding, licensing strategy, business development, sales growth, marketing mix, financials, and fundraising. If funding is sought we can also make select investor introductions through an extensive international network. We act as a management consultant, business development professional, and investment banker, all rolled into one. This is ideally suited to the needs of young growing technology-based businesses, who are often short of time, staff, and money. Colbridge Studio is a venture studio for very early stage startups that are looking for a commercial partner to help develop their business. We act as a commercial co-founder, providing the mature entrepreneurial and commercial guidance to help founders get the company off the ground. We invest up to $30k ourselves and can help fill out angel or pre-seed funding needs through an extensive investor network. What we believe We believe that we are at a critical juncture in humanity's journey where environmental disaster and massive social upheaval will occur if we don't act quickly. Business and technology can provide some of the answers. We are seeking similarly mission-driven entrepreneurs to partner with. Here are some of the areas that particularly interest us: GHG Emissions Reduction: This is the defining crisis of our time. Projects to help reduce carbon in the atmosphere and to mitigate its effects are desperately needed. This includes arenas such as renewable & alternative baseload power, circular economy, hydrogen, bioplastics, alt foods, and carbon credits. Water: Water systems are being disrupted by the changing climate. We need ways to clean water, utilize seawater, and generate new sources of freshwater. Regenerative Agriculture: Agriculture has the power to restore the land and water systems that support it. We believe this will be an essential tool to clean the earth while feeding the growing population. New Grid: The massive increase in renewable energy required to meet net zero targets will need an overhauled grid. Energy Storage: One of the key roadblocks to greater penetration of renewables is the limited nature of energy storage. We are looking for technologies to improve the cost, effectiveness, and robustness of energy storage. Metals, Minerals & Materials: Significant increases in volume of key metals, minerals and materials will be required for our changing energy mix. We are interested in technologies and business models for increased supply and reuse/recycling plus the development of new better materials.