Simmons & Simmons has launched a new GreenTech Fund, which will support start-ups focused on using technology to mitigate the climate and biodiversity emergencies.
The fund will award £100,000 (US$136,126) worth of legal advice from across the firm’s network to four businesses that are innovating to try and avoid, or limit, the worst effects of the climate crisis.
The GreenTech Fund is now open to applications from businesses, who seek to utilize technology to restore environmental balance and biodiversity, and to tackle climate change.
Applicants are invited to share their entries via video from November 2, 2021 until December 31, 2021. Eligibility criteria and the application process can be found on the Simmons website.
The initiative is being led by members of the firm’s environmental sustainability network (the green room), and involves a collaboration with a number of investors, accelerators and incubators who have a particular focus on sustainability, including Techstars, Entrepreneur First and Illuminate Financial.
The GreenTech Fund is an evolution of the FinTech fund that Simmons launched in 2016 to support early stage FinTech businesses navigate the legal problems faced by many fast growth companies in their early years. Marshmallow, one of the UK’s most recent FinTech unicorns, is a testament to the initiative’s success.
“In common with many organizations, Simmons is looking for ways to maximize its positive impact, and the GreenTech Fund is an attempt to achieve that by sharing our skills with businesses that are actively seeking solutions to the crisis in which we find ourselves. We will need multiple solutions and we firmly believe that collaboration is our best hope,” said Ali Crosthwaite, co-lead of the green room.
Rezso Szabo, partner at Illuminate, also commented:
“We are seeing early stage climate and sustainability technology companies starting to catalyse real change. As a VC fund backing several of such start-ups, we are delighted to be collaborating with Simmons on the GeenTech Fund initiative, aiming to support businesses in this critical space.”