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A little less than two years ago, when the actor, producer, and investor Robert Downey Jr. unveiled his new, sustainability focused initiative called the FootPrint Coalition at Amazon’s re:MARS conference it was little more than a static website and a subscription prompt.
Jump cut to today, and the firm now has five portfolio companies, a non-profit initiative, and is launching a rolling venture fund, Footprint Coalition Ventures, at the World Economic Forum’s Digital Davos event.
With the new rolling fund, managed through AngelList, Downey Jr.’s initiative sits the intersection of two of the biggest ideas reshaping the world economy — the democratization of access to capital and investment vehicles and the $10 trillion opportunity to decarbonize global industry.
It’s another arrow in the quiver for an institution that aims to combine storytelling, investing, and non-profit commitments to combat the world’s climate crisis.
Rolling funds and the revolution in finance
There’s a revolution happening in finance right now, whether it’s the rise of the Redittors trying to avenge the malfeasance of short-sellers and big institutional investors that’s happening through investments in stocks like Blockbuster, Nokia, Gamestop and AMC, or the new crowdfunding sources and rolling funds that are allowing regular investors to finance early stage companies, things on Wall Street are definitely changing.
And while the public market gambles are undoubtably minting some new millionaires, opening up access to interesting startup investments is a thesis that’s a stark contrast to the cynicism of day-trading gambles.
Both could leave investors with less than zero in some cases, but with rolling funds or crowdfunding, there’s a real opportunity to build something rather than just sticking it to the man.
Unlike traditional venture funds, rolling funds raise new capital commitments on a quarterly basis and invest as they go, hence the “rolling”. Investors come on for a minimum one-year commitment, and invest at a quarterly cadence. In Downey Jr.’s fund that commitment amounts to $5,000 per quarter for up to 2,000 qualified investors (and a smaller number of accredited ones), according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.
“The idea of opening [the fund] to real people, rather than the ivory tower of the institutional bigwigs… It’s a little bit more slamdance than Sundance [and] I kind of dig it,” said Downey Jr.
A guide to recognizing FootPrint Coalition Ventures
FootPrint Coalition Ventures will be split between early and late stage investment funds and will be looking to make six investments per year in early stage companies and four later stage deals.
Helping Downey Jr. manage the operations are investors like Jonathan Schulthof, who previously founded LOOM Media, which leverages smart urban infrastructure for advertising, founded Motivate International, which manages bike sharing services in cities across the U.S., and served as a managing partner for Global Technology Investments. Schulthof is joined by Steve Levin, who co-founded Team Downey, Downey Jr.’s media production company and Downey Ventures, which invests in media and technology companies.
The firm already has four companies in its portfolio through investments it made using the founders’ own capital. And while those investments were all under $1 million, the firm expects that the size of its commitments will grow as it raises additional cash. Footprint Coalition has also maintained pro-rata investment rights so that it can increase the size of its stake in businesses over time. And the investments it made to date were sized in anticipation of potential for follow-ons at much higher valuations.
A venture fund inside of a coalition
The initiative that Downey Jr. hopes to build is more than just an investment arm. Both he and his co-founders see the investment side as a single piece of a broader platform that leverages the massive social following Downey Jr. has created and the storytelling skills he and his team have mastered through decades spent working in the movie business.
That broader team includes Rachel Kropa, the former head of the CAA Foundation, who will lead scientific and philanthropic efforts and serve as the fund’s Impact Advisor and liaison to the scientific and research communities, according to a statement.
Rachel Kropa, former head of the CAA Foundation who joined Footprint Coalition to lead scientific and philanthropic efforts last year, will serve as the fund’s Impact Advisor and liaison to the scientific and research communities.
“The idea that the content that we made can be related back to the individual is very powerful,” said Kropa. “This problem is so intractable and interconnected across the world. It does matter that the fish that you eat are made using a sustainable feed.”
Kropa is referring to a piece that the FootPrint Coalition put out around sustainable aquaculture tied to the group’s recent investment in Ÿnsect, a company that makes protein from crickets for use in animal feed and human food.
“Our content around Cellular Agriculture, exemplifies the type of content we can create in the course of taking a deep dive into a particular industry. Though we have not (yet) invested in the space, we do believe there are interesting stories to tell,” said one person who works with the company.
That media is additive to activate the group’s audience, and is not something that it charges for — or considers part of its investment valuation. “We’ve been creating edited video segments with Robert doing voice over and overlaying animation all of which we’ve been posting to social. We do this for free to the companies, and we don’t charge / strong-arm / cajole for warrants, advisor shares, or the like in return,” the person said.
Weird science and sustainability
While Ÿnsect is one example of a company that the FootPrint Coalition has backed that’s doing something which may be a little outside of the purview of most of Downey Jr.’s following, other businesses like the bamboo toilet paper company, Cloud Paper, and the new investment in the sustainability focused financial services company, Aspiration, have definite direct consumer ties.
That balance is something that Schulthof said the firm was looking for as it pursues not just environmental and sustainability returns, but, more concretely, profit.
“We look at things that are meaningful and impactful [and] I get to be purely capitalist. The question is this a good opportunity is something that has to do with its margins, its scale, its risk profile, the people involved and fundamentally what are the terms… do we think the company will deliver value to investors,” said Schulthof. “We’re looking for returns.”
The opportunity for returns is enormous. As the group noted, the ESG sector – funds that focus on the Environmental, Social and Governance issues – continues to grow rapidly Part of the broader stakeholder capitalism movement, impact investing funds have topped $250 billion, and sustainability assets have doubled in value over the past three years.
“We see two powerful trends working together to support the environment. First, engaging content and media distribution enable us to create a passionate community from Robert’s 100 million followers and to use that audience to access great investments. Second, a turnkey technology platform now enables us to manage a broad set of individual investors,” said Schulthof in a statement. “Venture funds traditionally have high minimums that exclude only the wealthiest individuals, or endowments and foundations. With much lower minimums and shorter investment periods, we can now offer access to these same companies to a much broader group. When these investors further ignite our passionate audience, we hope to set a positive feedback loop in motion with environmental technologies as the ultimate beneficiary.”
Spin, the micromobility startup acquired by Ford, has developed a new scooter with partners Segway-Ninebot and software startup Tortoise that aims to solve the sidewalk clutter problem for good.
The Spin S-200 scooter not only has three wheels — a design change that helps it stand out in a crowded pool of two-wheelers — it’s also equipped with repositioning software that allows remote operators thousands of miles away to move vehicles off the sidewalk and into a proper parking spot. A fleet of about 300 Spin S-200 scooters will be tested in Boise, Idaho this spring. But the goal is much grander. Spin ultimately wants to roll out remotely operated scooters to cities in North America and Europe in 2021.
These scooters, which operate on the so-called Spin Valet platform, are equipped with front and rear-facing cameras. When combined with Tortoise’s software, the scooters can be controlled remotely.
The remote operations team will initially use the repositioning software to move the scooters if they’re blocking a sidewalk, crosswalk or handicapped space. Eventually, users will be able to hail a scooter, which will travel up to several blocks to their location, according to Tortoise co-founder and president Dmitry Shevelenko.
“We’re focused on making Boise wildly successful and I think if that happens, then the numbers kind of take care of themselves,” Shevelenko said in a recent interview. “If this Spin scooter gets even 25% more rentals per day than their standard fleet, they’re going to shift their fleet as quickly as possible.”
If that happens, the only real hurdle is getting the scooters manufactured. Shevelenko said a manufacturing bottleneck is unlikely because Segway-Ninebot has the tooling in place to make this a mass-produced product. “They have a lot of conviction around it,” he added in reference to Segway.
Image Credits: Spin
“There has been a lot of fanfare around the potential of remote-controlled e-scooters, but this partnership marks a turning point in tangible operational plans to bring them to city streets,” Spin’s chief business officer Ben Bear said in a statement. “In addition to providing reliability to consumers and more order to city streets, this could significantly improve unit economics, reducing carbon emissions and the operational work required to maintain and reposition fleets.”
Shevelenko said as important as the reposition is, the design of the actual scooter deserves attention as well. The S-200 is equipped with three independent braking systems — a regenerative rear brake, front and rear drum brakes — and turn signals located on handlebars and near the rear wheel.
“I think in some ways the three-wheeled scooter is as big of a deal,” Shevelenko said. “It’s necessary because it solves the balancing issue without a kickstand, but it’s also appealing to riders who aren’t dudes in their 20s. It’s higher up, you feel sturdier and it’s really hard to tip over and fall. And so, in terms of making sure people in their 40s and 50s and 60s feel comfortable getting on, I think this going to be very disruptive.”
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/27/spin-bets-its-scooter-future-on-3-wheels-and-remote-control-tech/
Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.
“Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you’re in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.”
Extra Crunch members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.
Dear Sophie:
I just got my U.S. citizenship! My husband and I want to bring my mom and her husband to the U.S. to help us take care of our preschooler and toddler.
My biological dad passed away several years ago when I was an adult and my mom has since remarried. Can they get green cards?
— Appreciative in Aptos
Dear Appreciative:
Congrats on becoming a citizen! That is a long road, and you did it. :) For all those out there awaiting citizenship, good news: It’s a priority for the Biden administration to speed up processing times. Other good news — the Muslim Ban is cancelled! And USCIS is going to make things a lot better for Dreamers seeking DACA.
We can definitely figure out a plan to support your mom and stepdad to get green cards in the U.S. As your mom married your stepdad after you turned 18, you can’t sponsor him directly. You need to sponsor your mom for a green card first, and then she can sponsor him as her husband. My law partner, Anita Koumriqian, who is an expert in family-based immigration, and I discussed getting green cards for parents and siblings in a recent podcast. Check it out for more details. To set clear expectations, this is a multistep process that will probably take a few years. So you may want to consider hiring a nanny if you need childcare sooner than that! ;)
Alternatively, to speed things up for your stepdad, if he has a daughter, son or sibling who is a U.S. citizen, any of them can sponsor him for a green card. If your mom ends up sponsoring him once she’s a permanent resident, that’s quicker than a U.S. citizen sibling sponsoring a brother, for example, but generally is not as quick as a U.S. citizen child sponsoring a parent.
Since your mom is abroad, she won’t be able to come to the U.S. until the U.S. embassy or consulate in her home country reopens and resumes processing routine visa and green card applications. However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is currently open.
Image Credits: Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window)(opens in a new window)
It’s possible to get started sponsoring your mom for a green card now, and you can work with an attorney to streamline the process. You need to be at least 21 years of age and be a U.S. citizen. As her sponsor, you will also need to accept legal responsibility for financially supporting her.
You will need to initially submit to USCIS documents such as your birth certificate and proof of U.S. citizenship, and make sure that all foreign language documents have certified English translations. Currently, the USCIS California Service Center is taking about seven months to process green card applications for parents.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/27/dear-sophie-how-can-i-sponsor-my-mom-and-stepdad-for-green-cards/
At TC Sessions: Justice on March 3, we’re going to dive head-first into data discrimination, algorithmic bias and how to ensure a more just future, as technology companies rely more on automated processes to make decisions.
Algorithms are sets of rules that computers follow in order to solve problems and make decisions about a particular course of action. But there is an inherent problem with algorithms that begins at the most base level and persists throughout its adaption: human bias that is baked into these machine-based decision-makers.
Algorithms driven by bad data are what leads to biased arrests and imprisonment of Black people. They’re also the same kind of algorithms that Google used to label photos of Black people as gorillas and that Microsoft’s Tay bot used to become a white supremacist.
At TC Sessions: Justice, we’ll hear from three experts in this field. Let’s meet them.
Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble
Image Credits: Stella Kallnina (opens in a new window)
Associate Professor at University of California Los Angeles a professor at the University of Southern California and author of “Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism,” Noble has become known for her analyses around the intersection of race and technology.
In her aforementioned book, Noble discusses the ways in which algorithms are biased and perpetuate racism. She calls this data discrimination.
“I think that the ways in which people get coded or encoded particularly in search engines can have an incredible amount of harm,” Noble told me back in 2018 on an episode of TC Mixtape, formerly known as CTRL+T. “And this is part of what I mean when I say data discrimination.”
Mutale Nkonde
Image Credits: Via Mutale Nkonde
It’s important to explicitly call out race in order to create just technological futures, according to Nkonde. In her research paper, “Automated Anti-Blackness: Facial Recognition in Brooklyn, New York,” Nkonde examines the use of facial recognition, the history of the surveillance of Black people in New York and presents potential ways to regulate facial recognition in the future.
Nkonde is also a United Nations adviser on race and artificial intelligence and is currently working with Amnesty International to advance a global ban on facial recognition technology.
Haben Girma
Image Credits: Courtesy of Haben Girma
Author of memoir “Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law,” and human rights lawyer, Girma focuses on advancing disability justice.
At Sight Tech Global last month, Girma spoke about how discussions around algorithmic bias as it pertains to race have become somewhat normalized, but too often do those conversations exclude the effects of algorithms on disabled people. Girma told me at that when it comes to robots, for example, the topic of algorithmic bias is lacking among developers and designers.
“Don’t blame the robots,” she said. “It’s the people who build the robots who are inserting their biases that are causing ableism and racism to continue in our society. If designers built robots in collaboration with disabled people who use our sidewalks and blind people who would Use these delivery apps, then the robots and the delivery apps would be fully accessible. So we need the people designing the services to have these conversations and work with us.”
If you’ve made it this far in the post, you’re probably wondering how to attend. Well, you can snag your ticket right here for just $5.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/27/battling-algorithmic-bias-at-tc-sessions-justice/
Stilt founders Priyank Singh and Rohit Mittal
Stilt, a provider of financial services for immigrants in the United States, announced today it has raised a $100 million warehouse facility from Silicon Valley Bank for lending to its customers. This brings Stilt’s total debt facilities so far to $225 million, and will enable it to reach more than $350 million in annualized loan volume. The company also announced the public launch of its no-fee checking accounts, which have been in private beta since September.
A Y Combinator alum, Stilt was founded five years ago by Rohit Mittal and Priyank Singh. Both dealt with the challenges of accessing financial services as immigrants and wanted to created a company to serve other people without Social Security numbers or credit histories.
For applicants without traditional credit reports, Stilt’s loan application process considers their personal information, including bank transactions, education, employment and visa status, and also uses proprietary machine-learning algorithms that draws on demographic data from a wide range of financial and non-financial sources.
TechCrunch last covered Stilt when it announced a $7.5 million seed round in May 2020. During the pandemic, demand for loans increased for a wide range of reasons. Some customers sought new loans because their working hours got cut. Other borrowers’ own jobs weren’t impacted, but they needed to transfer money to family members in other countries who had lost income. Several used loans to pay for additional visa processing and many customers turned to Stilt because other financial providers shut down or reduced their loan programs over concerns about repayment.
Despite the economic challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Stilt’s loan performance has remained steady. Many of Stilt’s customers are using their loans to build a credit history in the United States and even borrowers who lost income because of the pandemic continued making payments on time (Stilt also created temporary programs, including waiving interest for a few months, to help those who were struggling financially).
Mittal said immigrants are also in general more creditworthy, because many moved to the United States to pursue educational or career opportunities. The difficulty of securing visas means “all immigrants move to the U.S. after jumping through a lot of hoops,” said Mittal. He added that “it isn’t just people coming from other countries. We also see it in DACA applicants. They tend to be the best risk-adjusted return customers. These are people who are going to school, they are working, they have seen their families work, they are helping their parents, they are doing all these things, and they understand the value of money, so they end up being a lot more financially responsible.”
Stilt’s money transfer feature
Stilt’s new checking accounts, powered by Evolve Bank and Trust, are also designed for immigrants, with features like spot-rate remittance to about 50 countries. Users can also apply for credit lines and pre-approved loans through their accounts. Since opening to existing customers in September, the number of active checking accounts is growing 50% month over month, with many using it for direct deposits of their salaries.
The new debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank means Stilt will be able to provide larger loan volumes and better interest rates, said Mittal. Stilt’s average interest rate is about 12% to 14%, compared to the 30% to 100% charged by other programs, like payday loans, that people without Social Security numbers or credit reports often use.
