Call it impact. Call it sustainability. Call it “world positive.” Obvious Ventures, co-founded by Twitter and Medium co-founder Ev Williams, is among a handful of San Francisco-based venture and private equity firms, finding opportunities for financial outperformance, or alpha, in megatrends such as decarbonization, mobility and health, even if they don’t call themselves impact investors.
Obvious this week closed its fifth fund at $360,360,360, defying the fundraising drought. With the new fund, Obvious will continue backing early-stage companies across the three pillars of planetary, human and economic health.
“We love the metaphor of taking a 360-degree view in each of those areas,” Obvious Ventures’ James Joaquin told Techcrunch. “We made it to fund five, which is actually a big deal in the venture landscape,”
Ups and downs
Obvious’ most widely known exit remains the plant-based meat company Beyond Meat, which reached a market capitalization of more than $14 billion following its 2019 IPO (BYND’s current market value: $352 million).
The Obvious portfolio also includes payroll platform Gusto, valued at $9 billion, and satellite imagery provider Planet Labs, which went public via a SPAC and is now valued at $8.5 billion. Another investee, electric schoolbus maker Proterra, also went public via SPAC – and bankrupt in 2023.
The firm’s current holdings include Zanskar, which uses data and AI to identify geothermal energy sources.
Sustainability trends
Other San Francisco-based firms are finding similar success with tech-enabled solutions to the kind of major challenges identified in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
San Francisco-based Fifty Years raised its third fund in 2023 to deploy in “deep tech” addressing the SDGs (see, “Big swings at big challenges”).
Last month, 50 Years invested in OnePotAI, an AI platform for drug discovery. The $30 billion sustainable asset manager Generation Investment Management, officially based in London with its major US office in San Francisco, has ridden what it calls the sustainability megatrend.
Through its growth equity arm, Generation has backed companies including energy fintech M Kopa and eco-friendly household goods company Seventh Generation.
