LA Venture: FullCycle’s Kyle Adkins On Addressing the Climate Crisis Piece-by-Piece

As climate change forces industries to radically shift their approach, FullCycle Climate Partners’ Kyle Adkins is eagerly investing in the tech that can address the crisis.

On this episode of L.A. Venture, Adkins talks about the climate tech landscape and FullCycle’s innovative model, which focuses not only on investing in a given company, but also the projects it has in development -- including building large physical plants and infrastructure to support it.

"Because our model is not something that is widely seen in the market today, [our portfolio companies] might be looking to raise [up to] $40 million. But the vast majority of that is actually to fund that first commercial facility " said Adkins.

FullCycle’s investment into both the platform and the infrastructure enables the startups that they are funding to attract customers because often customers don’t want to take the risk of partnering until they can see the promised large-scale manufacturing in operation.

"It’s caught in this ‘chicken or egg’ dynamic where you can't build the facility unless you know that the commercial demand is there. But then you can't get the commercial demand if you don't have the facility," said Adkins.

One of FullCycle’s recent deals was with fashion industry disruptor, Evrnu. The company takes textile waste, breaks it down and regenerates it into new fibers and pulp for new textiles. Its clean process has attracted collaborations with companies including Levi's, Target and Adidas.

Adkins says he likes to invest in companies like this because the fashion industry is a significant contributor of carbon emissions.

Instead of attempting to address global warming’s likely impact over the long term, Adkins said the investment firm focuses on the coming 20 years.

"If you can tackle those short lived climate plans, you're going to get a higher return on investment in a shorter timeframe in terms of your climate impact," said Adkins.

dot.LA Engagement Intern Joshua Letona contributed to this post.

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