Amy Duffuor's guest appearances

Amy Duffuor

My Climate Journey

The Wharton Current

Entrepreneurs for Impact

Kiran Bhatraju

Mark Lewis

Andrew Beebe

Bill Nussey

Shreya Dave

Abe Yokell

Julia Collins

Aaron Ratner

Kentaro Kawamori

Amy Francetic

Stacy Kauk

Jacqueline Patterson

Benji Backer

Alicia Barton

Mona Dajani

OwlTail

There's never been a better time to be a climate tech entrepreneur. Over the course of 2021, more than 70 new climate-dedicated investment funds were set up to deploy $35B+ to climate tech solutions. In this episode, co-hosts Thomas Obermeier and Nick Van Hollen sit down with Wharton grad Amy Duffuor, Managing Director at Prime Impact Fund and General Partner at Azolla Ventures, to learn about Prime Impact Fund’s pioneering investment model, the evolving role of “catalytic capital”, and investment opportunities with gigaton-scale climate impact. They also discuss Amy’s journey from Wharton to Prime and keys to success for MBA students looking to attract early-stage funding for their own ventures or make a career transition into climate investing.

There's never been a better time to be a climate tech entrepreneur. Over the course of 2021, more than 70 new climate-dedicated investment funds were set up to deploy $35B+ to climate tech solutions. In this episode, co-hosts Thomas Obermeier and Nick Van Hollen sit down with Wharton grad Amy Duffuor, Managing Director at Prime Impact Fund and General Partner at Azolla Ventures, to learn about Prime Impact Fund’s pioneering investment model, the evolving role of “catalytic capital”, and investment opportunities with gigaton-scale climate impact. They also discuss Amy’s journey from Wharton to Prime and keys to success for MBA students looking to attract early-stage funding for their own ventures or make a career transition into climate investing.

Climate Tech Investments & Catalytic Capital - Amy Duffuor, General Partner, Azolla Ventures

Today's guest is Amy Duffuor, Principal at Prime Impact Fund.Prime Impact Fund, an investment initiative of Prime Coalition, is an early-stage VC fund dedicated to investing in technology companies with the potential for gigaton-scale climate impact.Prior to Prime Impact Fund, Amy was a renewables and power investment banker at Bank of America. There, she worked with CEOs of public and private companies to raise investment capital, including the IPO of Sunnova, a residential solar company initially valued at approximately $1 billion. Before her stint on Wall Street, Amy ran early-stage social venture accelerators around Southeast Asia for a Singapore-headquartered impact investing firm called Impact Investment Exchange. Earlier in her career, Amy was a management consultant at State of Flux, a London-based consulting firm specializing in supply chain and procurement. In addition, she serves as a board member for Prime Impact Fund portfolio companies Clean Crop Technologies and Noon Energy and is on the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) board. I was looking forward to catching up with Amy because I've interviewed some of her colleagues early on in the My Climate Journey days. It was exciting to hear how Prime Impact Fund has grown since 2018 and learn about Amy's role at the company. She walks me through her climate journey, what led her to work at Prime Impact Fund and the firm's investment strategy. We also talk about the differences between catalytic capital and concessionary capital and the importance of climate impact-aligned investing.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded August 4th, 2021For more information about Prime Impact Fund: https://www.primeimpactfund.com/For more information about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/episodes/amy-duffuor

Today's guest is Amy Duffuor, Principal at Prime Impact Fund. Prime Impact Fund, an investment initiative of Prime Coalition, is an early-stage VC fund dedicated to investing in technology companies with the potential for gigaton-scale climate impact. Prior to Prime Impact Fund, Amy was a renewables and power investment banker at Bank of America. There, she worked with CEOs of public and private companies to raise investment capital, including the IPO of Sunnova, a residential solar company initially valued at approximately $1 billion. Before her stint on Wall Street, Amy ran early-stage social venture accelerators around Southeast Asia for a Singapore-headquartered impact investing firm called Impact Investment Exchange. Earlier in her career, Amy was a management consultant at State of Flux, a London-based consulting firm specializing in supply chain and procurement. In addition, she serves as a board member for Prime Impact Fund portfolio companies Clean Crop Technologies and Noon Energy and is on the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) board.  I was looking forward to catching up with Amy because I've interviewed some of her colleagues early on in the My Climate Journey days. It was exciting to hear how Prime Impact Fund has grown since 2018 and learn about Amy's role at the company. She walks me through her climate journey, what led her to work at Prime Impact Fund and the firm's investment strategy. We also talk about the differences between catalytic capital and concessionary capital and the importance of climate impact-aligned investing. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jjacobs22" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@jjacobs22</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/mcjpod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@mcjpod</a> and email at <a href="mailto:info@myclimatejourney.co">info@myclimatejourney.co</a>, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests. Episode recorded August 4th, 2021 For more information about Prime Impact Fund: <a href="https://www.primeimpactfund.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.primeimpactfund.com/</a> For more information about this episode, visit: <a href="https://myclimatejourney.co/episodes/amy-duffuor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://myclimatejourney.co/episodes/amy-duffuor</a>

Ep. 172: Amy Duffuor, Principal at Prime Impact Fund

Co-led by Principal Amy Duffuor, the Prime Impact Fund invests catalytic capital into early-stage technologies with the capability to have a gigaton scale impact on carbon emissions.  Amy noted Prime Impact Fund's differentiated approach to venture capital saying, "Prime Impact Fund is a $50 million early-stage fund focused on pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds for companies with the potential to create gigaton-scale carbon emission reductions. All of our capital from limited partners is structurally more patient and flexible, or what we call “catalytic capital,” which gives us an advantage and opportunity to approach the problem a little differently." Amy highlighted some of Prime's early investments saying, "We have invested in 13 companies to date, and they really run the gamut. The first company that we invested in was Lilac Solutions, which is an extraordinary company that is doing great work in the lithium extraction space. Another portfolio company is Clean Crop Technologies that creates unique ionized gasses to increase food safety, reduce crop loss, and address food waste. This is important since agriculture is responsible for over 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and food waste alone is responsible for about 6% of emissions. The last one that I will mention here is Noon Energy which is a long-duration energy storage provider. Their low-cost battery is a carbon-oxygen battery driven by a proprietary catalyst that could replace peaker plants." Here is the transcript summary of the podcast. -- Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change. We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential. Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members. To request more information on membership, click here. Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/entrepreneurs-for-impact/message

Co-led by Principal Amy Duffuor, the Prime Impact Fund invests catalytic capital into early-stage technologies with the capability to have a gigaton scale impact on carbon emissions.  Amy noted Prime Impact Fund's differentiated approach to venture capital saying, "Prime Impact Fund is a $50 million early-stage fund focused on pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds for companies with the potential to create gigaton-scale carbon emission reductions. All of our capital from limited partners is structurally more patient and flexible, or what we call “catalytic capital,” which gives us an advantage and opportunity to approach the problem a little differently." Amy highlighted some of Prime's early investments saying, "We have invested in 13 companies to date, and they really run the gamut. The first company that we invested in was <a href="https://www.lilacsolutions.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lilac Solutions</a>, which is an extraordinary company that is doing great work in the lithium extraction space. Another portfolio company is <a href="https://cleancroptech.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Clean Crop Technologies</a> that creates unique ionized gasses to increase food safety, reduce crop loss, and address food waste. This is important since agriculture is responsible for over 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and food waste alone is responsible for about 6% of emissions. The last one that I will mention here is <a href="https://www.noon.energy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Noon Energy</a> which is a long-duration energy storage provider. Their low-cost battery is a carbon-oxygen battery driven by a proprietary catalyst that could replace peaker plants." Here is the <a href="https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com/blog-interviews/amy-duffuor-of-prime-impact-fund" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">transcript summary</a> of the podcast. -- <a href="https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Entrepreneurs for Impact</a> is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change. We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential. Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Here are <a href="https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com/mastermind-benefits-features" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">membership benefits</a>, and these are <a href="https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com/our-members" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">sample members</a>. To request more information on membership, <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqD6NWT6Uip3gRiit3zIG7EbNZ4f9YOhXJ-bOZRNdTKWlTWw/viewform" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">click here</a>. Peer groups are led by <a href="https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com/about-us" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dr. Chris Wedding</a> who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.--- Send in a voice message: <a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/entrepreneurs-for-impact/message" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/entrepreneurs-for-impact/message</a>

Climate Tech Investor: $50M+ of Catalytic Capital — Amy Duffuor, Principal of Prime Impact Fund