$REGEN Venture Studio

Need

Engage more entrepreneurs, economists, and financial specialists to participate in the Regen Network and economy.

Solution

A Venture Studio that incubates or accelerates cohorts of various types of organizations focused on key opportunities for regeneration in the bioregion and key needs to build resilience according to the Bioregional Regeneration Strategy.

What is Regen Venture Studio?

A non-profit, public benefit corporation, co-operative, steward-owned entity, or DAO that supports the development of a cohort of synergistic regenerative organizations to drive systems change. These organizations provide dealflow for investment companies (Cerulean…).

It can provide exposure to innovation from the edges of the system and from the resurgence of Indigenous knowledge systems — both critical for building resilience in the years to come.

The purpose of a Venture Studio is to take an ecosystemic view of a bioregion:

Understanding the resources (what is abundant, what can grow, what can be harvested, what can be manufactured)
The skills, capacity, and expertise of residents, organizations, and initiatives
The broader world conditions (what is in demand, how technology is changing, how the climate is changing)

…in order to identify critical projects, initiatives, and companies required to achieve the Bioregional Regeneration Strategy.

A Venture Studio can simultaneously or sequentially incubate cohorts of entrepreneurs, creating synergistic organizations that, together, push key levers for systems change in a bioregion.

The Studio can support a range of different regenerative organizations with diverse legal structures: Indigenous economic entities, perpetual purpose trusts, DAOs, Natural Asset Companies (NACs), commons management organizations, co-operatives, self-sovereign ownership, and multi-species governance.

Capital Raising

Philanthropic grants (Regen Foundation, Biome Trust…)
Public sector grants (subnational, national, or multilateral)
Supply chain finance
Concessional capital

Capital Allocation

Invests in and incubates cohorts of early-stage organizations that work together to change a specific system and generate cascading benefits.

References

Hawai’i Investment Ready Initiative — accelerator for social enterprises in Hawai’i
ProjectTogether — open social innovation accelerator in Germany
Fresh Ventures — Dutch venture studio for circular and regenerative food systems
Nature-based Climate Solutions Accelerator
ValleyDAO — open global community for synthetic biology research

Impact Measurement

Strategic: Ministry for the Future

Behavioral:

Project Dev — attract resources
Investors/Fund mgrs — invest
Nations (UN) — adopt practices

Experiential:

1:1s / mentorship
Circle calls
Reports / newsletter

Transactional:

of participants
$ of funds raised
Project outcomes

Plan: Funding Projects with High Potential

Q3 2024: Assembly

Objective: Announce, team engagement

Activities:

Market trend research: What are the drivers and blockers for regen business models?
Project database: comprehensive database of projects with high potential, categorized by geography and credit type
Access to investors & industry experts: networking events (BFF, UN/COP Biodiversity, Climate Week NYC, Katapult, Capital Institute)
Guidance and mentorship: mentorship program pairing experienced investors with startup founders

Program modules:

Intro to Regenerative Business Models — overview, case studies, group discussion
Designing Regenerative Business Models — business model canvas, brainstorming, peer review
Prototyping and Testing — guidance, user testing, iteration
Pitching and Next Steps — pitch prep, panel session, feedback

Key Deliverable: Knowledge base — reading materials, toolkits, access to mentors

Q4 2024: Program