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

Minnie Ingersoll
Minnie Ingersoll is a partner at TenOneTen and host of the LA Venture podcast. Prior to TenOneTen, Minnie was the COO and co-founder of $100M+ Shift.com, an online marketplace for used cars. Minnie started her career as an early product manager at Google. Minnie studied Computer Science at Stanford and has an MBA from HBS. She recently moved back to L.A. after 20+ years in the Bay Area and is excited to be a part of the growing tech ecosystem of Southern California. In her space time, Minnie surfs baby waves and raises baby people.
FullCycle Climate Partners' Kyle Adkins

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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LA Tech ‘Moves’: Mapp Gains New CPO and CTO, Prodoscore Taps Boeing Exec

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Mapp Gains New CPO and CTO, Prodoscore Taps Boeing Exec
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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This Week in ‘Raises’: GITAI Lands $30M, Steno Gains $15M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local space robotics startup raised fresh funding to expand the flight model manufacturing facilities throughout the U.S. and increase employment, while a remote litigation platform raised more funding to continue growing its footprint in new markets across the country, develop service channels for its clients and continue expanding its tech team.

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Gitai Raises $30 Million to Expand Manufacturing Footprint in Los Angeles

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Gitai Raises $30 Million to Expand Manufacturing Footprint in Los Angeles
\u200bPhoto: Gitai

Space robotics company Gitai raised a $30 million Series B extension this week, bringing the total value of the round to roughly $47 million.

The funding will be used to further develop Gitai’s suite of space robots as well as build out its manufacturing footprint in Torrance. Previously Gitai announced it raised a $17.1 million Series B in March 2021; this additional raise is still part of that round.

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