Impact VC launches futures fund together to launch climate startups.

If there is an emergency, it is climate change. As he watches San Francisco's orange skies during the raging wildfires of 2020, such imaginary venture capitalist Craig Shapiro is battling climate change and doing so fast.

"We give them enough to get them up and running," said Shapiro, founder of the Collaborative Fund, a New York-based seed and venture capital fund that funds technology startups focused on creativity and shared consumption.

Shapiro's interest in sustainability is also fueled by his experience in collaborative investing in consumer goods. The company manages more than $500 million in assets across five funds. "We are starting to understand how the consumer economy needs to change if we are to meet our climate goals," he said.

However, the immediate inspiration was a grant fund set up by many philanthropists in the early days of the pandemic to fund the work of scientists focused on finding solutions. These are called Quick Grants and provide applicants with $10,000 to $500,000 with a decision made less than 14 days.

"I think it's a great initiative," said Shapiro. "And I realized there was a similar urgency to climate change. So instead of grants, why not give startups a small infusion in investments that can provide catalytic capital. "The first dollar is tough. You have to convince someone to bet on you," he said.

With that in mind, Shapiro reached out to investors earlier this year, and they built a platform based on the Fast Grants model and opened it to applicants in March. The fund invests $100,000 under a Simple Futures Unlimited Capital Agreement (SAFE) to fund $100 at the end of the year. Twenty companies have invested so far.