MaSa Partners Year in Review

At MaSa Partners, we invest in early-stage, mission-driven companies that are delivering transformative and scalable solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

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peaking at the youngStartup Venture Summit in March, MaSa co-founder Max Duckworth was quoted,

“I believe we can improve the planet and people’s lives without sacrificing economic well-being. ... I’m confident we can overcome our greatest challenges, such as climate change and adaptation, cost-effectively by investing in people, fostering innovation, and increasing access to capital for early-stage companies.” 

We’re happy to report that many of our portfolio companies made quite a splash in 2022.

 

The inaugural winners of the Earthshot Prize, Coral Vita became a household name this year as they continued their critical work restoring the world's dying coral reefs. “Earthshot has really helped launch us into a whole new level … and we also got to take Prince William and Princess Kate to plant corals [during their tour of the Bahamas in March],” said Sam Teicher.

Coral Vita also scooped up the Verizon Climate Resilience Prize in April and in August opened their doors for the first time to the public to become one of the must-see visitor attractions on the island of Grand Bahama. Musical artist Adam Beyer donated all the income from his 2022 track ‘Dirty Lagoon‘ to Coral Vita and the company’s Adopt-a-Coral program became a surprise hit as a gift for Father’s Day.

2022 was a whirlwind of a year for James Roberts and the team behind the mOm Essential Incubator, which in late 2021 achieved its first clinical use and received regulatory approval and coveted CE marking in the Spring. Over the summer, the incubator was deployed to the Ukraine, where it had an immediate impact addressing the sharp increase in preterm birth rates due to the trauma and stress of war. The BBC and UK press reported how the portable incubators provided care and life-saving intervention for up to 100 babies per week.

“The original inspiration for the mOm Essential Incubator came from a documentary that focused on providing neonatal care in challenging environments. Helping the situation in Ukraine is confirmation that we are doing the right thing,“ said James.

Later in the year, mOm was named the Midlands winner of The Spectator and Investec Economic Innovator of the Year Awards and also awarded £100k from the NHS for an innovation that reduces maternal health inequalities.

Arcadia continued its extraordinary growth and progress as the data provider to combat the climate crisis. They received $125 million in new funding, on top of the $250 million raised earlier in the year to acquire the largest utility data provider in the world, Urjanet.

Another portfolio company that continuously trended throughout 2022 is The Farm Project, whose Lettuce Grow Farmstand was the Number 1 Christmas Gift this year based on Google searches. Their mission to empower consumers to lead the transition to a sustainable food system received a considerable boost in May when the Farmstand was onboarded at Costco, the fifth-largest retailer in the world. Lettuce Grow came in at No.183 of Inc. Magazine's #inc5000 2022, a list of the "The Most Successful Companies in America". We're also looking forward to watching co-founder Zooey Deschanel's new reality show about healthy eating, “What Am I Eating?“ which debuts in early 2023 on Discovery+.

Talking of leafy goodness, Crop One Holdings, the vertical farming pioneers, opened the largest vertical farm in the world in Dubai. Craig Ratajczyk, CEO of Crop One, said of the 330,000 square foot facility, “Size does matter in the food production space. … When you’re talking about something this large, the economics work out well ... so it turns out to be a very profitable farm.” In December, they announced their second U.S. farm in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, which will occupy more than 316,000 square feet, grow 7 tons of produce per day, and create around 40 local jobs once the farm is up and running in 2024. In addition, the company just received a grant of $1.5 million to help scientists grow high quality, plant-based protein more cost-effectively in a controlled indoor environment.

Milwaukee-based Agricycle Global continued to transform rural food loss across Sub-Saharan Africa into economic mobilisation for thousands of remote, smallholder farmers through their brands, the circular economy, and its partnership with the United Nations FAO. In December, founders Josh Shefner & Jacob Foss were named to Forbes magazine’s 2022 30 Under 30 list as trailblazers in North America.

Also providing plenty of reasons to believe that tomorrow will be brighter than today are West Virginian solar experts, Solar Holler. Throughout 2022, they continued to drive a new energy industry for West Virginia. With the dynamic Dan Conant at the helm, and a dedicated, unionized team, the company passed the 1,000 customer milestone over the Fall. Recently, they equipped a West Virginian poultry farm with 1,400 solar panels, the largest such system to date in the state.

MediCardia Health have been successfully evolving their smart digital medicine platform, releasing a new mobile app in August that connects patients to the sources of their health records and data, and announcing collaborations with Caerus Strength, Human Longevity Inc, OptimizeEp and Encompass Remote,

MaSa Partners also added to its portfolio in 2022, making investments in WATTMORE™, David Energy and Sunairio, three companies that have real promise to make significant contributions to the energy transition. 

Another MaSa portfolio company in the energy sector, the software-enabled retail electricity provider David Energy, closed a $20.5 million Series A round of funding in March, and have been successfully working to scale their bundled offering.

Goods Unite Us, who are on a mission to empower people to become political consumers and investors ‘So that we can all collectively put an end to corporate political donations’, did some digging into top ESG funds and uncovered some eyebrow-raising things.

EdTech pioneers Beereaders continued on their mission to boost literacy around the Latin world with their innovative platform that helps kids fall in love with reading.

Also, in 2022 Restorative Botanicals continued to expand their offering of organic CBD.

MaSa proudly invests in the fund of Rethink Impact - the largest impact venture firm in the U.S. focused on female tech entrepreneurs. With leading female CEOs they have mobilized $1B of investments into female-led, impact companies. We have been inspired by these leaders this year. Among them Ketos, Aclima, ReGrowAg, Guild, Immunocologie, Incredible Health, CancerIQ, Neurotrack, Ellevest, Winnie, CareAcademy, Culina, Spring Health, Eleanor Health, Defunkify and Morty.

At MaSa Partners, we are grateful for the inspiring progress made and resilience shown by our portfolio companies in 2022 against a multitude of challenging macroeconomic conditions. We look forward to these companies delivering more impact in 2023 as they continue to solve the world’s most vexing problems.

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