Announcing our $352M Fund III

 

We are excited to announce that we have raised Material Impact Fund III, an oversubscribed $352M fund that will allow us to continue building deep tech companies powered by material science innovation. These will be the companies and ideas behind the next world-changing products.

How did we raise a $352 million fund during an economic downturn?

Simply put, we’ve stayed true to our investment thesis and firm values. Fund III is a continuation of the work we started in Fund I and Fund II and anchors on the following set of beliefs:

1. Our chosen founders and technologies are solving large-scale, real-world problems.
2. Material science innovation is behind all ideas that matter.
3. And we do everything in our power to help our founders succeed.

Our Relentless Focus On Material Science

At Material Impact, we assert that you can trace almost any major disruptive innovation in any market or industry back to an underlying innovation in material science. Whether it is what alloys have done for automotive, composite materials for aerospace, or what polymers and the element of silicon have done for almost every aspect of our lives, they all exist because of advances in materials.

Our North Star

We focus on what we call “Maslowian needs”…problems that transcend time and generation…problems like water scarcity, the food supply chain, sustainable manufacturing, mobility and energy, and under-represented healthcare. We develop and build companies and technologies that have the collective mission of keeping the world healthy, safe, fed, warm, powered, and secure. Over the last five years, deep tech has seen increased interest and investment from some of the most respected VCs and talented entrepreneurs, and we’ve had the opportunity to not only witness but be the driving force for this wave of innovation.  We’re proud to be among the first firms that focused exclusively on material science as more firms are moving into this exciting and important space.

Because of our thesis and philosophy, we don’t focus on a specific industry or investment area.

The Material Impact portfolio has grown to include thirty startups, with the most mature still being less than seven years old. While they span industries – from robotics to biomanufacturing and sustainable products to underrepresented healthcare – they are all dedicated to providing impactful solutions that help make a measurable and sustained difference to human life.

Our Company Building Model

As entrepreneurs and builders at heart, we know what it’s like to sit in the founder’s chair and keep that in mind as we guide these companies. We have and always will work shoulder-to-shoulder with our entrepreneurs to shepherd their businesses through key inflection points of growth. Our team – with their relevant operating experience and academic backgrounds – has implemented a codified system to maximize our portfolio’s strategic growth. We don’t just sign a check; it’s not uncommon for portfolio companies to put our team into their org charts. We show up for them every step of the way. This is especially important during challenging market dynamics.

Several of our companies were created from academic research and spun out of universities. Our firm recently launched the Materialize New York accelerator as a way to formally engage the academic ecosystem and help take advanced technologies from the academic lab to startup formation.

Our Championship Of Diversity and Impact In All Its Forms

We always say that we’re a non-impact fund making a big impact. We recognize that businesses with diverse leadership and inclusive practices are better positioned to tackle today’s most challenging needs. Companies that prioritize impact meet the ethical demands of the market and position themselves for resilience in an ever-evolving business landscape. Our investment focus areas—Food & Water, Sustainable Manufacturing, Transportation & Mobility, Underrepresented Healthcare, Biomanufacturing & Sustainable Products, Robotics, AI & AR and Data Storage & Security—map directly to 12 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We believe there is opportunity across these verticals to drive not just outsized financial returns, but also undeniable impact in addressing our most urgent global challenges.

Our B Impact Assessment Score continues to increase and puts us well above most impact funds which is a direct reflection of the measurable impact our companies are making towards the meaningful problems they are working to solve and the diversity of our team and founders.

Introducing Fund III

Fund III is a testament to the groundwork we’ve already laid. At $352M, it will enable us to take stronger ownership stakes in our companies while maintaining our unique hands-on approach to company building.

Our firm has also grown since our last fund announcement. We have expanded the size of our core team with partners who are all technically trained and operationally experienced and have hit the ground running in helping build our portfolio companies. We are also proud of the key leaders we have attracted to our extended team. Our newest Operating Partner Paul Deninger joins Operating Partner Mark Little. Both bring decades of experience in technology and leadership. Paul is a retired investment banker, most recently with Evercore, and Mark is the retired Chief Technology Officer at General Electric. They are providing invaluable advice and counsel to our entrepreneurs and our team.

We are also pleased to share that Former Congressman Joe Kennedy III and Theresa Peterson have come on board as Senior Advisors. Joe will help our portfolio companies partner with government programs and navigate legislature processes. Theresa, who has spent most of her career leading Government Relations at GE, will identify sources of non-dilutive funding that are aligned with our company’s missions. They are both tremendous resources that will enable our founders to make even more of an impact in this changing regulatory landscape.

We are proud to say we have added even more world-class Limited Partners to the Material Impact family in Fund III. These leading university endowments, foundations, family offices, and fund-of-funds join existing Limited Partners from Fund I and Fund II. We’re honored to have them on this journey with us.

We believe that the future of earth and humankind depends on material science and deep tech innovations. We’re more excited than ever to partner with the entrepreneurs and founders who are pushing us forward. We can’t wait to see what we accomplish together.

Adam Sharkawy

 

Carmichael Roberts

Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Material Impact