Recently, the Chinese American CPA Association invited Andrew Chung to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic and its many challenges. Chung, the founder and managing partner of 1955 Capital, provided remarks helpful to listeners both in China and the United States. The talks covered everything from health concerns to business strategies as related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Andrew Chung on How Startups Should Adapt to COVID-19
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a drop in startups which has reduced employment opportunities across a variety of industries. Many businesses have been forced into budget cuts and employee furloughs because of the harsh economic times. After a virtual portfolio meeting with several company CEOs to discuss COVID-19 challenges, Andrew Chung, founder of 1955 Capital, provided the following takeaways for how startups can adapt to this new reality.
Andrew Chung Speaks at “This is Climate Tech” Greenbiz Webcast
Andrew Chung, the founder and managing partner of the venture capital firm, 1955 Capital, has one of the strongest track records as a proponent of green businesses. In particular, Chung’s focus has long centered around the renewable energy and sustainable food and agriculture sectors. Over the past 15 years, Chung has invested in a number of these climate tech industries and supported entrepreneurs behind the green tech revolution.
Ideamensch: Interview with Andrew Chung, Founder of 1955 Capital
Andrew Chung is the founder and managing partner of 1955 Capital, a venture capital firm founded in 2017 to invest in and help promote companies that address the developing world’s most pressing challenges, especially as they relate to energy, healthcare, food, agriculture, education and sustainable manufacturing. Chung has more than 15 years of experience in investing, including stints at Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed. He has served on a White House roundtable on advanced manufacturing and has advised global leaders on energy policy. Chung has served on the board of or advised more than 20 companies.
Andrew Chung & VCs Assess COVID-19’s Impact on the Business Sector
The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting many businesses in ways we could not have imagined even just a few weeks ago. Even with most states partially or fully reopened, shelter-in-place laws have slowed our economy, due to the shuttering of retail stores, restaurants, startups, and other businesses.
In some cases, these businesses have already failed or are on thin ice and unsure whether they can survive this extreme downturn. Andrew Chung has been here before
How Startups Should Adapt to COVID-19: Lessons from 1955 Capital CEO Roundtable
Recently, the 1955 Capital team organized a virtual portfolio company roundtable with 11 CEO’s discussing the current challenges in the COVID-19 environment, the need for strong leadership in this unprecedented crisis, and response strategies that they have undertaken.
It takes a village to succeed in climate tech
Solving climate change depends, to some extent, on technological innovation.
The world’s leading climate authority, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published a landmark 2018 report highlighting the urgency of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The report outlines four potential pathways for reaching that goal. The pathways are vastly different, but one thing they have in common is a central role for new technologies, all of which fall under the growing category known as climate tech.
Amara Raja Partners with Gridtential for Silicon Joule Bipolar Technology
Amara Raja Batteries Limited and Gridtential Energy Inc, the inventor of silicon Joule bipolar battery technology, announced that they have entered into an agreement to collaborate on bipolar battery technology.
Under the technology evaluation agreement, Amara Raja Batteries and US-based Gridtential Energy will assemble and test silicon Joule bipolar reference batteries using the former’s active material to determine improvements in cycle life, energy density, battery efficiency, charging rates and manufacturability.
Andrew Chung, Founder of 1955 Capital, to be Featured on "This Is ClimateTech" Webcast from GreenBiz Group
Heather Clancy of GreenBiz Group will host "This is ClimateTech," a webcast featuring Andrew Chung, the founder and managing partner of 1955 Capital.
Jack Ma, Bill Gates, and 1955 Capital’s Andrew Chung Invest in Nature’s Fynd
Food technology company Nature’s Fynd has secured a new round of funding led by 1955 Capital, Andrew Chung’s global venture capital firm. Generation Investment Management, LLP, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures also made substantial contributions to the $80 million in new funding
GreenBiz: This is Climate Tech
Agfunder: Agri-foodtech VCs assess Covid-19’s impact on the sector and portfolios
Agfunder: Nature’s Fynd rebrands from Sustainable Bioproducts raising $80M Series B to launch new protein food products
Sustainable Bioproducts, the startup that’s using a microbe discovered in Yellowstone National Park to manufacture alternative protein food products, has rebranded to Nature’s Fynd and raised $80 million in Series B funding. Nature’s Fynd is set to release a range of food products from breakfast and lunch through to snacks and dinner made from its proprietary microbe-produced protein, dubbed Fy, which contains all nine essential amino acids, as well as dietary fiber, calcium, and vitamins.
Greenbiz: Gore, Gates funds lead $80M round for protein startup born in Yellowstone hot springs
Many established alternative protein upstarts — including Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat — draw on plants as the feedstock for their innovations. Nature’s Fynd (formerly known as Sustainable Bioproducts) draws on a fermentation process linked to unique microbes that live in the geothermal hot springs of Yellowstone National Park.
SCMP: US alternative meat start-up Nature’s Fynd, backed by Jack Ma, Bill Gates, gets new funding from Al Gore as it targets Chinese market
Yahoo Finance: Andrew Chung's 1955 Capital Invests in Food Tech Innovator Nature's Fynd's Latest $80M Financing
1955 Capital, a global venture capital firm headed by Andrew Chung, has announced that it is making a substantial investment again in the food tech company, Nature's Fynd. The company announced today that it has raised $80 million in new funding with both Generation Investment Management LLP and Breakthrough Energy Ventures leading the round. Nature's Fynd, formerly Sustainable Bioproducts, was founded in 2012 with the mission of producing nutritional food products that are kind to the environment without using animals. Nature's Fynd will use the investment funds to scale its technology and operations in order to commercialize its products with minimal environmental impact.
The Need for Strong Leadership Through COVID-19
On behalf of the 1955 Capital team, I’m hopeful that you, your team, and your family are staying safe amid the minute-by-minute evolution of the COVID-19 crisis. Over the past week, we have been in close dialogue with our portfolio companies about the coronavirus situation. More specifically, how its unprecedented nature heightens the importance of solid leadership, good decision-making, and thorough scenario-planning through this crisis.
Having lived in Greater China and advised companies during the 2002–04 SARS outbreak, I know firsthand how a pandemic can dramatically slow businesses down and force a rethinking of their strategies. But I have also seen companies prepare themselves well and come out of a crisis stronger than before. By managing through the situation with prudence and calm, our hope is that companies will invent ways to emerge on the other side of this in an advantaged position relative to their competitors and be ahead of the curve when the market turns.
In taking stock of some of the challenges and opportunities in front of 1955’s portfolio companies, my team and I humbly suggest that our CEOs consider a few major points as they press on during these trying times.
Andrew Chung & 1955 Capital, a New Fund to Bridge China, U.S.
Crop Enhancement Raises $8m Series B
A little more than three years after raising an $8.5m Series A, San Jose-based Crop Enhancement has raised an $8 million Series B. The round brings new partners to the table including Spruce Capital and Xeraya Capital, which led the round, Davinia Investments, and Alexandria Ventures. Existing investors 1955 Capital, Phoenix Venture Partners, and Wilbur Ellis’ Cavallo Ventures also re-upped their investments.
“What makes Crop Enhancement distinctive is the elegance of the solution and wide application across multiple crop types. They’re the first company that 1955 Capital has seen with true potential to solve the holy grail problem of protecting and boosting crop yield—by as high as 20-30% in some trials—while reducing the need for synthetic pesticides or pesticide applications,” Andrew Chung, founder and managing partner of 1955 Capital wrote to AFN via email. “Conventional chemical inputs are facing extreme regulatory pressure and it is only a matter of time before safer, softer approaches like Crop Enhancement’s become the norm.”
1955 Capital’s Andrew Chung: Why ClimateTech Is Heating Up in Venture Capital
“Cleantech lagged because consumers and enterprises didn’t take climate change seriously enough for it to impact their spending,” Chung said. “Now that it is seen as an existential threat to the planet, there is more urgency about solving it by consumers, corporations, governments, and investors. It’s a perfect storm.”