Investor Profile: At One Ventures — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Founded in 2020 by Tom Chi, a founding member of Google X, At One Ventures is a climate-tech venture firm with a thesis most climate VCs do not share: while the market chases carbon cuts, the real white space is in air, water, soil and biodiversity. Its mission is to back the disruptive deep tech that makes humanity a net positive to nature.

The thesis

At One Ventures invests through what it calls the Triad: disruptive deep tech that delivers radically better unit economics paired with radically better environmental economics. The logic is simple — when the greener product is also the cheaper, better product, adoption friction disappears and industries upgrade because it is massively more profitable. The firm backs early-stage companies that reset the industries doing the most planetary damage: buildings and construction, energy and transportation, and food and agriculture.

Fund size and stages

The firm closed its $375 million Fund II in October 2023, raised from limited partners including GenZero, the World Wildlife Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, CalSTRS and the New Mexico State Investment Council, alongside mission-aligned family offices such as One Small Planet, Toba Capital and the Valhalla Foundation. Chi has said the firm has raised on the order of $800 million across its vehicles and was raising a third fund. It invests at Seed and Series A; public cheque sizes are not disclosed.

Notable portfolio

The portfolio includes battery recycler Ascend Elements, de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences, biodegradable packaging maker Cruz Foam, robotic indoor farming startup Iron Ox, automated ecosystem restoration firm Dendra Systems, low-emission HVAC company Gradient, 3D-printing construction startup Apis Cor and zero-wastewater textile dyeing company Alchemie Technology. Around 40% of its founders come from traditionally under-represented groups, and the portfolio is global: roughly 70% in North America, 15% in Europe and 15% across Africa, South America and Israel.

Who runs it

The firm is led by founding partner Tom Chi and partner Helen Lin, with an investment team drawn from the physical sciences, engineering, manufacturing and finance, plus full-time experts in talent, operations, marketing, IP strategy and manufacturing.

How to apply for funding

At One Ventures publishes no open application portal. The honest route in is a warm introduction or a direct approach through the firm's official website at atoneventures.com, where the team pages and contact channels are listed. Come armed with physics-first unit economics and a credible path to displacing an incumbent industry.