Announcing new team members across research, operations and investment and our first Venture Partner.
Over the past months the 2150 team has continued to grow and we wanted to pause and celebrate the addition of some brilliant mission-aligned minds to the team. Our model of Constructive Capital requires a broader organization beyond just investment and portfolio management.
We spend a lot of time doing research on the biggest challenges facing our planet and technologies to face them, and have started publishing summaries of that research with, for example, recent posts on Cooling and Windows. We feel that deeply understanding the problems and the potential solutions allows us to engage more meaningfully with entrepreneurs during fundraising and beyond.
To support our research efforts we are excited to have Nicole Florack join us as a Research Associate. Originally from the States, Nicole moved to the UK a few years ago to get her Masters at Oxford and then joined Morgan Stanley as a Research Analyst. Her passion for sustainability led her to proactively look for roles where she felt she could have the greatest impact, and eventually to 2150. Her infectious energy has already permeated across the team and her research is already making us better informed investors.
The “Business of Venture” requires efficient operations to allow the rest of the team to execute at speed and scale. To support that, Christian Hojdevang joins our operations team to help build our data pipes and analytics. He spent the last few years using data models for portfolio management at Vækstfonden, the Danish sovereign fund.
We are constantly seeking out inquisitive minds with a passion for our mission. So when Christopher Burghardt let us know that he was stepping down from the Executive Team at Chargepoint, the publicly-listed EV charging network, we quickly sought to find a way to work together. He joins us as a Venture Partner. Chris has been in “Climate Tech” for more than a decade having led First Solar’s expansion in Europe. His experience in Policy with Uber will also help 2150 and our portfolio better understand the regulatory tailwinds that could help accelerate the deployment of sustainable technologies.
Intellectual curiosity is a key attribute across the whole 2150 team. As we looked for a new investment team member, we knew we wanted a complimentary curiosity to allow us to explore new areas. Our ideal profile was a scientist with a consulting background with a passion for impact: someone who could use a scientific framework to understand a technology but also apply an analytical framework to deconstruct a business model. Dr. Max Blanshard joins us from L.E.K. Consulting where he led client engagements in life sciences, having previously completed his PhD in Molecular Biology at UCL.
The final addition is not new to the team as Shahnaz Khan had joined us at the beginning of the year as an intern. Having experienced her analytical skills, sharp mind and empathy for the voyage our entrepreneurs embark on, we made the very easy decision to cut her internship short and ask her to join us full time. Prior to 2150, Shahnaz spent some time in investment banking at Evercore before switching to impact investing with Acumen and spinning out an impact measurement startup.
As we looked across the rooms in London and Copenhagen this week and welcomed many new faces, there was a palpable excitement in knowing we each hope and expect to be better, get smarter, be more impactful… because of everyone else sitting alongside us.
Let’s go!
PS Yes, thanks for noticing our naming conundrum. We now have three Christians and a Christopher on the team, two Nicoles, plus an Alexander and an Alexandra. We’re considering switching to CO2 PPM at time of birth for simplicity. This is 329.52 signing off!
PPS We’re hiring for Principals, Research Associates and Interns
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2150 is a venture capital firm investing in technology companies that seek to sustainably reimagine and reshape the urban environment. 2150’s investment thesis focuses on major unsolved problems across what it calls the ‘Urban Stack’, which comprises every element of the built environment, from the way our cities are designed, constructed and powered, to the way people live, work and are cared for. Find out more at www.2150.vc
