This year’s COP was a sea change for the growing recognition of the role and speed of innovation in climate tech, and especially in the oceans. Multiple pavilions and a “start-up village” in the Green Zone drew attention to the ways private capital is scaling up broader climate solutions. And the opportunity for public-private financing of truly transformative approaches was at its most palpable. A new $250M Ocean Resilience and Climate Alliance (ORCA) fund was announced, encompassing a portfolio vital to planetary stabilization. In addition, hallway conversations featured the concept of a global “Innovation Fund” to match the scale of scope of what is needed to drive tech solutions that partner with the Global South at inception.

Ocean Pavilion Partners Unveil COP28 Dubai Ocean Declaration in Advance of UN Climate Conference

Propeller Ventures announced four new partnerships with leading ocean science institutions, Oregon State University, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, University of California San Diego and University of Rhode Island. These partnerships build on initiatives to accelerate climate solutions with founding partner, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Working together with new partners in the West, Northwest, Northeast and Pacific regions, Propeller will further expand efforts to identify commercializable opportunities across these institutions, all of which are working at the frontier of ocean science innovation.

At Propeller, we constantly seek opportunities to inspire ocean-climate innovation and entrepreneurship. Our Hackathons help identify opportunities for research teams from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to solve problems faced in the market and uncover connections between industry and academia.

We’re excited to share that Rodrigo Prudencio has joined Propeller as our Managing Partner.

A year ago this month – World Ocean Month – Propeller saw a need for a mini business bootcamp for ocean founders and built v0 of the Propeller Ocean MBA. We just wrapped our third cohort of the program, and the feedback makes us think we’re onto something…

Happy World Ocean Day from everyone at Propeller! It’s been a busy start since we got going about a year ago, and in honor of World Ocean Day, we thought we’d share some progress thus far!

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) has been a hot topic lately, as many sustainability experts look beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions for mitigating climate change.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend The World Ocean Summit hosted by Economist Impact as part of my ClimateCap Fellowship and on behalf of Propeller as their MBA Venture Capital intern. A few weeks later, I’ve now had time to reflect on my experience at the Ocean Summit, and look back on main takeaways from the keynote speeches, panel discussions, and meet and greet conversations. In doing so, I have pulled together the key themes I feel were central to the summit and are critical to achieving a sustainable blue economy.

Propeller and WHOI have deepened their collaborations through the direct funding of projects that have high commercializable value to the wider world. In addition, the Ocean MBA program helps project scientists consider the needs of markets and customers, and imagine themselves as risk-takers in the entrepreneurial realm. Peter de Menocal, President & Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution kicks off the Ocean MBA Propeller guest mentors work in breakout sessions with WHOI researchers Propeller fielded the unique program, an “Ocean MBA”, for WHOI scientists and engineers on site January 17-18. The event kicked off with a case study by Propeller founding partner Brian Halligan to introduce a common lexicon and share the journey of HubSpot. It served as an icebreaker to provide new perspectives to ocean researchers and bridge the worlds of startups and research. Viewing their technologies as vital pieces in a value chain that enables novel activities in the new blue economy resonated with the group. Guest Lecturer Susan Schofer presents on turning hard tech into product