The climate challenge has become the defining issue's of our era, unlocking trillions of dollars in climate finance and creating an unprecedented opportunity for bold ideas. But how capital is deployed and the types of founders it backs will determine whether we see systemic change or just incremental improvements.
That’s where Cerulean Ventures comes in.
Co-founded by Matthew Stotts, Cerulean is a pre-seed venture capital firm investing in founders applying AI and advanced technologies to build exponential solutions for nature.
Rather than chasing status-quo climate investments or one-off moonshots, Cerulean seeks leverage points where software, data, and fintech can radically transform entrenched systems.
I recently sat down with Matthew to dive into his journey, Cerulean’s unique investment lens, and the transformative startups reshaping everything from agriculture to renewable energy.
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From Education Innovator to Climate Investor
Matthew’s career began at the intersection of technology and impact. Straight out of Berkeley, he co-founded a school in Washington, DC, designed to keep at-risk students from dropping out.
It was here that he saw firsthand how technology could bend the arc of opportunity, a lesson that has shaped his work ever since.
He later moved into Silicon Valley, building a boutique agency that supported dozens of software startups and venture funds through IPOs. Along the way, he became an angel investor and eventually a professor at UC Santa Barbara, teaching technology management and helping students commercialize their innovations.
But it was the urgency of the climate crisis—and the growing wave of engineers and entrepreneurs wanting to dedicate their careers to planetary challenges—that ultimately led Matthew to co-found Cerulean Ventures.
“We largely cracked the code on digital communication between humans. But we’re still falling short on digital communication with the planet itself. There’s so much white space in understanding our ecosystems, our resources, and our natural capital.”
A Different Approach to Climate Investing
While climate venture capital has grown rapidly, Matthew believes much of it still follows conventional playbooks: backing niche green premiums or slow-burn moonshots that may take decades to scale. Cerulean takes a different path.
The firm focuses on systemic leverage points where unique data, compute, and AI can unlock new markets and value nature in ways we’ve never done before. These include:
- Mining and niche manufacturing
- Soft tropical commodities like cacao, coffee, and palm
- Pharma and global supply chains
- Natural capital and biodiversity markets
The goal is to fund software and infrastructure that doesn’t just improve existing systems, but creates entirely new markets where protecting nature becomes profitable.
Portfolio Highlights: Scaling Nature as an Asset
Matthew shared several examples of startups in the Cerulean portfolio that embody this vision:
- EarthBank – A vertically integrated platform restoring degraded lands and coastlines through biodiverse reforestation. By making nature an investable asset, EarthBank is helping create long-term value for both communities and ecosystems.
- Meridia – Providing land titling and mapping services to smallholder farmers in the tropics. With accurate data and secure land rights, farmers gain assets and generational wealth, while global buyers gain supply chain transparency.
- Abeyya – Connecting cacao farmers in West Africa directly with markets through mobile technology, cutting out opaque middlemen and ensuring fairer prices at scale.
- Asoba – A decentralized energy company building demand-response and micro-grid solutions across Southern Africa. By digitizing energy usage and generation, they’re helping leapfrog outdated infrastructure and enable renewable adoption.
The full Cerulean portfolio list can be found here.
These companies illustrate Cerulean’s thesis: meeting people where they are with advanced, yet accessible, technology that scales globally while improving livelihoods locally.
Carbon, AI, and the Future of Climate Tech
Our conversation turned to the evolving carbon markets and the role of AI in accelerating climate solutions.
On carbon, Matthew sees promise but cautions against over-reliance:
“Carbon is a great measurement. Whether it’s the right market is still unclear. What matters is building the technology to validate projects, eliminate greenwashing, and underwrite financing so nature-based solutions can scale.”
On AI, he’s optimistic. Far beyond chatbots, AI models can now analyze ecosystems, weather, and agriculture with unprecedented precision—transforming Earth information technology.
From forecasting microclimates to modeling soil health, these tools will enable farmers, communities, and businesses to make smarter, faster decisions.
“If you can reliably predict whether it will rain in a microclimate two weeks from now, that changes how millions of farmers grow food. That’s exponential impact.”
Why It Matters
Cerulean’s work is about more than returns. It’s about investing at Earth scale—backing founders who combine technical brilliance with deep purpose to build solutions that regenerate ecosystems, protect livelihoods, and reshape global markets.
Matthew closed with a vision that captures this perfectly:
“When you intersect technology and impact, you’re able to change the world at speed and scale. We look for investments that may seem like a small wedge at first, but have the power to shift entire markets. That’s what excites us at Cerulean Ventures.”
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