The science is real. The market is forming. We've been in it.
We invest at Seed and Series A in climate-tech and sustainable-materials companies where deep technical expertise is the competitive moat.
Biological materials at industrial scale.
Petroleum-derived materials — plastics, foams, synthetic leathers, industrial fibers — are being replaced by mycelium composites, chitin-based foams, bioengineered proteins, and engineered living materials. The technical foundations have been laid in university and corporate research labs over two decades. The question now is industrial scale, not scientific viability.
Market timing is converging from multiple directions: regulatory pressure in the EU and increasingly in US states is closing off petroleum-derived packaging and single-use plastics; corporate sustainability commitments at Tier 1 consumer goods companies are creating real procurement pull; and a generation of materials scientists who trained in research labs during the 2000s and 2010s are now spinning out companies with genuine technical depth.
We look for companies where the biological process IS the IP — not just a green wrapper on a commodity product. The distinction is visible in diligence: does the company's competitive advantage vanish if you remove the bio prefix? If so, we pass. If the biology is the manufacturing process, the cost curve, and the barrier to replication — we lean in.
Agricultural inputs that regenerate rather than deplete.
Biological crop inputs — nitrogen-fixing microbes, microbial seed treatments, biological pest management — and soil-carbon measurement and monetization infrastructure represent a $270B global market where incumbent products were designed in the mid-20th century. The agrochemical industry's dominant products were engineered for yield maximization in an era when soil depletion, water quality, and atmospheric carbon were externalities. They are no longer externalities.
New microbial and regenerative approaches are backed by decades of soil science research now reaching commercial viability. University extension programs at Illinois, Purdue, Iowa State, and Michigan State have produced the academic foundations; a wave of scientist-founders is now translating that science into products. The regulatory pathway for biological inputs is faster than synthetic chemistry, and adoption is accelerating as row-crop farmers face yield pressure from degraded soils.
We evaluate biological ag inputs through Dr. Zhao's lens: does the biology work at field scale, not just in a controlled trial? The controlled-trial-to-field performance gap has killed many promising biological products. We require multi-year, multi-geography field data before we invest in this category — and our network across USDA research stations and land-grant extension programs gives us access to that data independently.
Precision technology for climate measurement.
Carbon market integrity depends on measurement. Agricultural soil carbon is one of the most promising large-scale carbon drawdown pathways, but it is only credible if the measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) infrastructure is rigorous. We back the companies building that infrastructure layer — soil carbon measurement platforms, satellite-assisted remote sensing combined with ground truth, and robotic tools that enable consistent data collection at field scale.
We also look at robotic and AI-augmented tools for agricultural precision more broadly — selective harvest robotics, precision application of biological inputs, crop sensing and anomaly detection. The underlying theme is: the more precisely we can measure and respond at the field level, the lower the input cost, the higher the yield, and the more verifiable the climate outcome.
Founder-facing from day one.
Technical diligence first.
We evaluate biology and materials science before market size. Three partners who built in these industries do primary diligence — not outsourced to advisors.
Seed to Series A.
Lakefusion Fund I deployed $25M across early Seed investments. Lakefusion Fund II ($40M, currently deploying) follows-on into Series A for the strongest performers and co-invests with specialist climate funds.
Chicago base, national reach.
Chicago gives us direct access to the Midwest agricultural supply chain, research university spinouts (University of Illinois, Purdue, Iowa State, Michigan State), and industrial manufacturing partners.
Building in climate tech or sustainable materials?
We're always interested in early conversations. Send us a brief note — what you're building and why you're the team to do it.
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