Genius Guild

We believe in AGI for good, decentralized systems that are fair, personalized well-being for all, quiet electric transportation for the planet, and technologies that have yet to be imagined but are inevitable. To build the future requires brave new thinking and relentless dedication for what’s possible. We exist to help founders build the seemingly impossible and bring to market critical products, infrastructure, and technologies that will shape the world we live in. Experienced founders / operators investing in new founders We’ve worked in operating roles in small to large companies, and started several venture-backed startups that have exited in both success and failure. Founders face challenges every day – navigating the idea maze, building a team, shipping products to customers. We’ve experienced all of this first-hand, and it’s our mission to support dedicated founders on their journeys. Our Threefold ApproachWe invest in technology startups in their earliest rounds of financing, primarily pre-seed and seed We often help form and fund: we partner with entrepreneurs before they have created their companies and help form initial teams and sharpen ideas, before funding We engage closely with our founders and leverage our deep networks globally to help bring their visions to life

“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 are an investor of a new generation. Our heart beats for technological progress and innovation - wanting to change the world with passion and entrepreneurial courage. Therefore we invest own capital in new business models and ambitious growth companies. Investing With investments in ambitious, high-growth companies we support innovation. Simultaneously, we invest in new business models. Across sectors, approachable and fair. Optimizing We implement, review, reflect and adapt. This enables us to achieve our ambitious goals and keep our promises. Developing We set ourselves ambitious and yet realistic goals. Instead of deriving recommendations for actions we act. Fast, uncomplicated and honest. Therefore, we use our comprehensive knowledge and unconventional measures. Our Mission We create positive change with convincing and talented people. As a provider of capital and innovation, we generate sustainable growth. Together we go beyond normal. We’re not just talking, we tackle it. We as blueworld.group combine progress and sustainability in an economic, ecological and social dimension with the aim of making our wonderful world even more worth living for future generations. Together with pioneering companies and their executives we work to create outstanding performance as well as real and sustainable value. Our Goals As blueworld.group we see it as our responsibility to clearly express our vision and mission. We’re not just talking, we tackle it. We do not derive any recommendations for action, we act. Specifically, this is reflected in our long-term corporate goals. In order to create long-term values, it is essential to operate on a sustainable basis. Of course, we follow the intention of making profit and increasing the value of our investments. This is the only way we can build the bridge to ecologically and socially sustainable economic growth. From an ecological perspective, our goals are clear: Just as the blueworld.group is already climate-neutral in partnership with natureOffice, we want each of our companies to be climate-neutral by 2025. As a means to an end, we require the efficient and careful use of all resources. We also sensitize our partners to the use of emission-free mobility offers and energy sources. The incentives for all employees to use public transport are just as much part of our required spectrum as the switch to green electricity providers and compensation payments for essential greenhouse gas emissions.. We are also committed to our region and promote regional society and its companies. We are not counting every euro when it comes to finding the right partner to fulfill our obligations. We always meet employees, suppliers and customers on an equal footing. We live equality. That is why we strive for a balanced women’s quota for ourselves and our investments – across all positions and areas of responsibility. We make no distinction between men and women, pay the same salaries, give the same career paths and opportunities to reconcile work and family. Nothing is placed above our responsibility for our employees. That is why we strive for an above-average employee satisfaction of at least 90%*. We pursue this goal as an employer and at the same time make it a claim on our companies. *measured by our average ratings on Kununu Our responsibility Climate-neutral into the future We see it as our responsibility to actively shape the world of tomorrow and to have a positive impact. In this section, we would like to regularly give you an insight into achieved goals, status updates and current topics. We achieved one of our big goals! In partnership with natureOffice, we as blueworld.group are climate-neutral and offset the emissions that arise. We support Project Togo, which fulfills 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The project tackles the causes of the problems and focuses thereby on the areas of education, jobs, energy, water and health. We report more about Project Togo here. We are also in close contact with our portfolio companies on the subject of climate neutrality in order to jointly go the way towards a climate-neutral future in the midterm. Accept the status quo? No way! We question actions, incidents, ourselves. Every day. To get a little better every day. This leads to discussions about things like soap, toilet paper, meat consumption, mobility. And exactly these discussions help us to sharpen our view. In order to promote exchange and to better understand the satisfaction and needs of our employees, we have introduced regular employee surveys on various topics. In addition to a regular exchange of personal feedback, we have set up a feedback platform on which feedback can also be provided anonymously. Our morning starts with a team stand-up – daily. A platform that we introduced during the lockdown, in times of home office and spatial separation, in order to promote team cohesion, exchange and continuity. The format is constantly evolving and we talk about weekly goals, highlights, but also mistakes and the respective lessons learned from them. Because in addition to an open feedback culture, it is the constructive handling of mistakes that allows us to grow and improve. Education as the central basis Over here, access to education is too often taken as (almost) self-evident, but unfortunately this does not reflect reality at all. We want to start right here and support corresponding projects. That is why we are forcing national and international partnerships to promote sustainable projects, for example in the education sector or integration. For us education is the greatest lever for future-oriented development that offers everyone - as an individual and as part of society - countless opportunities. Lifelong learning and further training are essential for us. In addition to internal and external training measures, our 5-minute sessions, for example, have become an integral part of our stand-ups every week, in which a topic of personal choice is presented and then discussed openly in our team. We have big visions and think broadly, also when it comes to sustainability. For us, however, this is not a process that can ever be completed; rather, we are concerned with every single step. Towards a more sustainable and even more livable world.

Our mission is to partner with ambitious and visionary founders transforming the way in which we think about mobility to make it more sustainable. We are committed to being a part of mobility's transformation pushing for more efficient, safety-focused and environmentally friendly solutions. Investment thesisMobility ecosystem Late seed and series A First ticket from US$500k up to US $2mm Open to lead or co-invest Reserves for follow-on investments Actively seeking strong co-investors in all cases

We are an organization dedicated to creating pathways to opportunity so people can live to their full potential. We center our work on education, immigration reform, the environment, health, with justice as our goal. We use a wide range of tools and strategies - partnering with entrepreneurs and experts, makers and policymakers, advocates, and creatives - to build and execute innovative solutions that will spur change and promote equality. In order to address national and global-scale problems, we employ a wide range of tools and strategies. We believe that a combination of Philanthropy and Venture Capital can support the greatest leaps of innovation. This model allows us to deploy resources in the most flexible way for the greatest impact. Other ways we work include: Policy and Campaigns Arts and Activism Data and Technology Communications, Creativity, and Storytelling Learn more about us by reading the letter from our founder Laurene Powell Jobs.

When OMERS Ventures invests in you, you join a connected community of ambitious entrepreneurs around the world. You also become part of the broader OMERS family, a ready-made network dedicated to fueling your success. A startup superhighway: A shortcut to meaningful connections to drive your growth. A connected community: Assets like Hudson Yards, the Royal Exchange in London, Premise Health, Lifelabs, London City Airport, Bruce Power and the Port of Melbourne are all part of the OMERS family. Investment with a purpose: Our investments generate returns that pay the pensions of municipal workers including firefighters, paramedics and librarians. Our beliefsWe stay curious: The smartest people know they have a lot to learn. We ask questions constantly, so we’ll have the answers when our companies need them. We do our homework: We learn all we can before we sit down at the table. When we call you, we’re serious about your industry and company potential. We're always happy to hear from you: Whether it's good news or bad, we're here to listen and lend a hand. We were founded in Canada, so you can count on us to be nice no matter what. We’re networking engineers: We connect the dots between our network of people, assets and capital and our portfolio companies, building pathways between our partners. Family benefitsGrowth-based networking: We use our globally connected network of OMERS-owned properties, partners and scale infrastructure to help our companies grow faster. Global Scale: Our international structure means we might know the right people at the right places, around the world. OMERS offers entry into a global network of service area experts and potential partners. Tap into our powerhouse of procurement services, security expertise and property infrastructure. Long-term stability: We invest to win, and we’re prepared to play the long game. Our unique funding structure means we’re not bound by traditional fund cycles or pressure from partners. Our end goal is your success.