Nucleus Adventure Capital
14 Murray Street, Suite 207, New York, NY, 10007, United States
Overview
Born out of decades of friendship and investing, NAC was created to identify and support ground breaking innovation in the pursuit of a better world. We invest early and quickly, build relationships with founders and love to get our hands dirty to help our partners achieve their goals. Our fundamental investment philosophy has two tenets: 1) We believe that identifying and investing behind change - especially fundamental shifts in how the world works or what is possible - is key to capturing exponential returns 2) We believe that while early-stage investing can appear to be little more than random to the casual observer, subject matter expertise properly applied to evaluate uncommon opportunities tilts the power law in our favor As a result we like to stick to our knitting: we have had success and we continue to find incredible opportunities to work with smart and driven executive teams operating in markets that are going to be big in the consumer-touching space. Our approach is deliberately sector and vertical agnostic, and we've invested in businesses ranging from IoT to ice cream to space tourism to secure crypto wallets (and everything in between) but we believe our best investments come when we can understand the impact on the person at the end of the value-chain and what it's worth to them, and that the combination is much, much bigger than the market understands. We evaluate hundreds of opportunities annually from sources public and private: private placements, portco spinoffs, syndicates, friendly VCs, accelerators, founder referrals, and plain old fashioned networking and shoe leather. We look for the combination of a team + product that is positioned to win the future as well as an access + opportunity that we believe gives asymmetrical upside - and then look to share the best of the best with partners who can contribute more than just capital.
- Total investments
- 2
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 2
Sector focus
- Finance
- Venture Capital
Investment portfolio
- Tumelo
Participated · Series A · May 2022
Tumelo offers APIs and white-label software that show investors which companies their money is invested in and collect investor vote preferences on issues such as CEO pay, board diversity and climate change. The collected vote preferences are sent to fund managers, who hold the power to effect change through voting at company AGMs. Tumelo says its technology strengthens investor loyalty, drives increased AUM and retention, and can help win large workplace pension accounts. The company has established relationships with 17 leading investment platforms and 75 fund managers in the UK. Tumelo describes itself as impact-focused and positions its product for investment platforms, robo-advisors and pension providers. The new funding will be used to build more partnerships and to expand into the US and Australia. Tumelo offers an investment-transparency platform that shows users where their money is invested and provides tools to take action, including shareholder voting, joining campaigns, and switching to ethical fund and pension options. The company was founded by Georgia Stewart while she studied at Cambridge University after a successful university activism campaign to change Cambridge’s £6 billion endowment investments. Tumelo has received support from Addleshaw Goddard’s AG Elevate programme, which provided mentoring and legal guidance during product development. The recent £1 million funding will be used to perfect the platform and expand the team from seven to 12, adding developers and UX specialists. The startup aims to capitalise on growing demand for ethical investment options in the UK, where assets in ethical funds rose from £4.5bn in 2008 to £16.7bn by the end of 2018. Georgia Stewart serves as co-founder and CEO as the company continues its app rollout.
- TômTex Co
Participated · Seed · Apr 2022
TômTex is a New York-based sustainable biomaterial producer that makes biodegradable textiles from chitosan, a biopolymer sourced from seafood shells and mushrooms. Its material has been used by designers and brands including Peter Do, Di Petsa, Dauphinette and Maitrepierre at New York and Paris Fashion Weeks. The textile can be custom-moulded, stamped, 3D-printed or embossed in animal leather-style patterns. The company recently achieved a production milestone of 100 linear feet in its initial run and plans to scale to larger-scale production. Founder Uyen Tran said the $2.25M seed will fund team growth, key hires and expanded manufacturing and help secure new contracts and revenue. With this round TômTex has raised $4.15M to date, including a prior $1.9M round. Investors including Happiness Capital, SOSV, Parley for the Oceans, MIH Capital and Earth Venture Capital have expressed support for the company's technology and environmental potential. TômTex produces a biodegradable leather alternative made from chitosan derived from shell seafood and mushroom waste. The material is designed to mimic leather’s look and feel while avoiding petrochemical "vegan leather" and reducing environmental harm. The company is targeting the $400 billion global leather market and is initially focusing on luxury leather goods, developing partnerships with large brands and designers in New York City. TômTex plans to expand beyond luxury goods into apparel and accessories and later into consumer electronics and automotive interior applications as it advances material properties. The startup will use its $1.7M pre-seed funding to bring the product to market and to grow its team beyond the three founders, hiring business development, technical staff, a senior scientist, and marketing/communications. Headquartered in New York City, TômTex emphasizes circularity by using waste-derived feedstocks and water- or ethanol-based processing to avoid harsh chemistries and improve biodegradability.