The Venture Codex

Participated · Series B · Jun 2026

Captura designs and manufactures a PFAS-free bipolar membrane electrodialysis platform that generates acid and base streams for applications including direct lithium extraction, industrial water treatment, long-duration energy storage, and CO2 management. The platform was originally developed to power Captura’s Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) system, which removes CO2 from seawater for permanent storage or utilization. Captura operates the only U.S.-based production plant that produces complete electrodialysis systems and plans to scale domestic manufacturing capacity following its Series B raise. The company reports that its technology offers greater performance with significantly lower energy consumption and capital costs compared with leading market alternatives. Captura recently secured multiple purchase orders for its first electrodialysis stacks addressing the lithium extraction market, with initial deliveries expected this summer. CEO Steve Oldham says the company is now manufacturing systems for customers while continuing to advance commercial deployment of DOC globally.

Participated · Series C · Jan 2025

BeZero Carbon is a London-headquartered ratings agency for the voluntary carbon market that provides independent, project-level assessments of carbon credits' efficacy in achieving CO2 avoidance or removal. It uses a comprehensive analytical framework to evaluate carbon projects across various risk factors, assigning ratings on a seven-point scale from AAA+ to A; the article also references an 8-point rating scale where each incremental notch commands an average 40% price premium. BeZero's ratings and data are available on over 40 platforms and cover more than 480 carbon credit projects, with customers in over 30 countries and more than 100 corporate subscribers, including UBS, Sumitomo, Emirates NDB, Equinor, Woodside Energy, and ERM. The company has raised $32M in a Series C, bringing total funding to over $104M. Proceeds will be used to expand ratings coverage into compliance carbon markets such as Article 6 and CORSIA and to continue investing in automation. BeZero positions independent, risk-based, project-level ratings as a quality measure for carbon markets and to influence capital and demand toward higher‑rated credits. BeZero Carbon provides carbon credit scoring, risk assessments and analysis, anchored by a freely available methodology that lets investors probe the quality of specific offsets before transacting. The company also sells pay-for-access enriched offset assessments, insights and risk tools and publishes software API plug-ins for third-party carbon credit exchanges. Since launching two years ago, BeZero has signed clients including Equinor, Glencore and Watershed and is pursuing strategic collaborations with Hitachi, EDF and ICE to create standardised trading products. Headquartered in London, the company intends to expand coverage into continental Europe and Asia. The $50 million fundraise will be used to continue investing in its ratings, risk and analytics tools and to support geographic expansion, including planned new offices in New York and Singapore. Company leadership describes the opportunity as a chance to embed carbon trading into economic models to accelerate the net-zero transition. BeZero produces carbon ratings and analytics intended to make ecosystem assets measurable, tradable and investable by creating a new risk language for carbon markets. The company publishes headline letter ratings and summaries freely on its website while operating a subscription platform with full ratings assessments and analytics. BeZero reports more than 230 ratings data points covering over 50% of credits outstanding, and says dozens of major enterprises are trialing or hosting its ratings via API. The team has grown from 45 to 95 people and includes more than 50 research and ratings analysts; the firm is investing heavily in data science, remote sensing, ground-truthing and multidisciplinary research. Future plans emphasize product delivery, adoption-first go-to-market, partnerships with marketplaces and exchanges, continued methodological transparency, and ongoing collaboration with industry and academia to build confidence in the VCM.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2024

Heirloom is a climate-tech company founded in 2020 that is scaling a next-generation direct air capture platform designed to provide the most cost-effective path to gigaton-scale carbon removal. Its process accelerates natural carbon mineralization to pull CO₂ directly from ambient air, after which the captured gas can either be permanently sequestered underground or used to produce sustainable aviation fuel. The company is headquartered in Brisbane, California, and positions its technology to serve multiple decarbonization roles across energy and industrial markets. Heirloom has raised at least $150 million to date, including a Series B round led by climate-focused investors and airlines such as Japan Airlines, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Mitsui & Co., followed by a separate investment from United Airlines. Newly added strategic investors—the Development Bank of Japan and engineering firm Chiyoda—bring financial strength and large-scale project expertise that Heirloom intends to leverage for global deployment. These Japanese partnerships also poise the company to issue carbon credits within Japan’s emerging GX-ETS compliance market, expected to become Asia’s second-largest by 2026. Management describes the technology as versatile, capable of supporting clean-fuel production as well as permanent removals, and sees the fresh capital and alliances as critical to accelerating large-scale DAC facilities worldwide.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2023

REGENT develops and manufactures all-electric, hydrofoiling seagliders that operate exclusively over water and leverage existing dock infrastructure to service coastal routes up to 180 nautical miles. Its vehicles couple aircraft-like speed with boat-like operating cost and are zero-emission. The company’s 12-passenger Viceroy seaglider is expected to enter service by mid-decade. REGENT has already secured an order backlog of more than 600 seagliders worth over $9 billion from airline and ferry operators on six continents. The company is positioning seagliders for both passenger tourism and regional coastal mobility markets, with particular focus on integration into travel infrastructure. REGENT is based in Rhode Island and is advancing commercialization through partner engagements and customer orders. Regent develops electric seagliders — wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) vehicles that operate as hydrofoiling watercraft in harbors and fly within a wingspan of the water for dock-to-dock over-water transport. The craft exploit ground effect for aerodynamic efficiency, reaching cruise speeds up to 180 mph and ranges up to 180 miles on a single charge; Regent expects battery ranges of 350–500 miles by the end of the decade. The company argues WIG vehicles fall under maritime jurisdiction, enabling a more straightforward certification pathway under maritime law while maintaining safety standards. Regent has two products in development: Viceroy, a 12-passenger vehicle targeted to enter service by mid-decade, and Monarch, a 100-passenger seaglider. The Rhode Island–based startup plans trials next summer and aims for its first human flight by the end of 2024. The new funding will be used to build and test a proof-of-concept prototype and to grow the team from about 55 people to roughly 100 in 2024; the company has raised $90 million to date. REGENT builds all-electric, wing-in-ground-effect seagliders designed to provide harbor-to-harbor, overwater regional transportation at lower cost, noise, and emissions than aircraft and ferries. Its next-generation vehicle, the Monarch, is a 100-person capacity seaglider that operates within a wingspan of the water's surface. REGENT says the vehicle couples the speed of an airplane with the operating cost of a boat, will meet modern aircraft and watercraft safety standards, and will use existing dock infrastructure. The company states routes up to 180 miles are achievable with current battery technology and up to 500 miles with next-generation batteries. REGENT describes itself as venture-backed, staffed by aerospace and maritime engineers, and plans to bring seagliders to market within five years; the Monarch is slated for entry into commercial service by 2028. Regent develops an all-electric seaglider that uses wing-in-ground-effect and hydrofoil technology to travel a few meters above the water and reach top speeds of 180 mph. The vehicle is designed to motor out on a hydrofoil, take off at low speed using the water as a runway, then fly over waves while carrying passengers (the noted vehicle seats 12). Regent aims to certify the seaglider under maritime authorities and says that approach will allow it to fly first passengers within five years. The company is building a 1/4-scale prototype that it expects to have ready this year and plans to build and test prototypes on the water in Tampa, Florida later this year. Regent currently has about 20 full-time employees and additional contract staff. To date the company has secured $465M in provisional orders from airlines and ferry companies. Regent develops an electric "seaglider," a regional ground-effect aircraft that operates a few meters above the water to combine airplane speed with boat-like docking capability. The company name stands for "regional electric ground effect naval transport." Regent says staying within a wingspan of the water lets the aircraft fly twice as far as a standard electric aircraft; with current battery technology it can service routes up to 180 miles and the company aims for 500 miles with next-generation batteries. Co-founders Billy Thalheimer and Michael Klinker plan passenger routes including Boston–New York, Los Angeles–San Francisco and inter-island service in Hawaii. The company plans to expand its team (it is hiring for seven full-time positions) and to continue testing and modifying its aircraft technology. Pending maritime-authority authorization, Regent expects to fly its first passengers by 2025 and recently completed a $9M seed round to support development.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2021

Miles provides a universal rewards platform and mobile app that awards users ‘miles’ for travel across every mode of transportation, with higher rewards for alternative or more sustainable modes. Users can view miles earned per trip, participate in weekly and monthly activity challenges, redeem personalized rewards from a marketplace of more than 200 brands, or donate miles to charity. Reward partners include brands and services such as ButcherBox, Harry’s Razors, Home Chef, Noom, Thrive Market, and gift cards from Amazon, Starbucks, Target and Walmart. The platform also supports donations to charities including Doctors Without Borders, Feeding America and The Pride Foundation. To date, users have earned 12 billion miles, redeemed 7 million rewards and realized more than $50 million in savings. The company plans to use new funding to invest in R&D, expand its marketplace, and grow its team to accelerate growth and deliver value to partners and its user base. Miles operates a rewards app that tracks travel and physical activity and issues points redeemable with nearly 200 partner merchants. The core product incentivizes travel and greener modes of transport with multiplier bonuses (public transit 3x; biking, walking and jogging 10x) and temporary COVID-era bonuses (up to 20x for physical activity). The company has adapted its messaging during the pandemic to encourage staying home while driving redemptions with partner offers. Miles has a partnership with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to reward public-transit riders and is already operating in North America and Japan. The startup says users have redeemed over 500,000 rewards and received more than $10 million in discounts. To date the company has raised roughly $7.4 million, and it recently secured a strategic investment from Liil Ventures to fund further expansion. Miles is a mobile app that tracks users' travel by foot, bike, car, rideshare, bus, train and plane, and awards reward miles on a sliding scale based on eco-friendliness. The app is available on iOS and gives new users 2,000 miles (enough for a $5 Starbucks, Target, or Whole Foods gift card) and features nearby and online merchant deals that can be redeemed with miles. Miles’ platform includes predictive AI to deliver hyper‑targeted offers based on location and past preferences. The team foresees selling aggregated traffic and usage data to city governments and working with municipalities to incentivize sustainable transportation; the Contra Costa Transportation Authority plans to offer rewards via the Miles platform and Seattle is evaluating it. The company raised $3 million from Porsche Digital, Scrum Ventures and others, with former TechCruncher Keith Teare assisting on the raise.