Technology is changing the world. Dan Fitzgerald wants to make sure it’s for the better. His company, ReGen Ventures, invests in regenerative tech startups with the potential to transform the fight against climate change – if they can get off the ground.
There are few garages as famous as the one in Los Altos, California where Steve Jobs is said to have co-founded Apple Computer in 1976. The story of a few geeks masterminding a global tech empire from a windowless suburban room has become the stuff of legend (and several Hollywood films). The reality is likely less movie-worthy.
In a 2014 interview, co-founder Steve Wozniak said: “The garage didn’t serve much purpose, except it was something for us to feel was our home. We had no money. You have to work out of your home when you have no money.”
Half a decade and three trillion dollars later, Apple is a household name, and its products have profoundly changed the way we live.
Aha moment
While not all groundbreaking ideas emerge from a garage, they face a common obstacle: a lack of funding. According to Silicon Valley Bank, 29% of startups fail in the early stages because they run out of money. To put that in context, creating a minimum viable product typically requires between $50,000 and $250,000. For startups with a viable product that are preparing to grow, the amount needed can range from $10 million to $15 million.
Enter ReGen Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage tech startups – specifically climate tech start-ups – to ensure that game-changing solutions get the support they need to go from concept to real-world impact. Importantly, ReGen Ventures aims to back solutions that are regenerative. That means they go beyond sustainability to not only minimize environmental harm but to actively restore planetary and human health. This approach is built on the belief that we need to do more than slow down climate change, we need to reverse it, says Dan Fitzgerald, the company’s founder and managing partner.
“I wasn’t adding a whole lot of value to the world, moving numbers around on a screen”
Dan Fitzgerald

A former investment banker who “pretty quickly realized [he] wasn’t adding a whole lot of value to the world, moving numbers around on a screen,” Fitzgerald says he wasn’t sure how to use his skills in a positive way “short of joining the Nature Conservancy or a non-profit”.
His ‘aha moment’ came in 2010. He was reading papers by former US vice president Al Gore and veteran investor David Blood which argued that making money and saving the planet can go hand in hand. (Gore and Blood’s sustainability-focused investment management firm has generally performed well over its 20-year history, so they may be on to something.)
Fitzgerald also credits his daughter Frankie, whom he describes as “a wildlife warrior”, as a major source of inspiration. “[She] taught us how to care for creatures and how to align what we cared about with the work that we did. And then I think the third [motivator] was a unique moment in time where the technologies were ready to create these regenerative solutions, not merely sustainable solutions.”
“Audacious” tech startups
Headquartered in Byron Bay, Australia – where incredible beauty is “in your face every day” – ReGen Ventures has attracted a team of climate and industry heavy hitters. Former Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario joined the firm as a partner while serial entrepreneur Seth Godin and free solo rock climber Alex Honnold are among those on the advisory board.
“The company’s goal is to invest $1 billion in regenerative technologies by 2030”
In its first funding round in 2021, ReGen Ventures raised $50 million from like-minded entrepreneurs and institutional investors for what Fitzgerald calls “audacious” startups focusing on three areas: regenerative food systems, bio-based products and materials, and nature-based carbon removal.
The company’s goal is to invest $1 billion in regenerative technologies by 2030. “This isn’t a lifestyle business for us,” Fitzgerald explains, adding that we need to cut 45% of carbon emissions by 2030 and 100% by 2050 to avoid dangerous global warming. “We want to build a new way of doing venture [capital], like a paradigm shifting venture firm that invests in regenerative technologies and does so in a regenerative way. We feel like by doing so with significant scale – moving $1 billion this decade – that we demonstrate that this is the best way to invest, and that these companies will become the generational companies of the next 30 years.”
He believes this is where the returns on investment lie too. For him, returns on investment can then be reinvested, injecting more capital back into as many of these transformative companies as possible. “I think right now we have to show, rather than tell, but after that, we want to build a wave of capital.”
Alternative leather from food waste
ReGen Ventures currently has 18 companies in its portfolio. One of the first to receive funding was PACT. In its lab in Cambridge, England, PACT makes a cow-free and plastic-free alternative leather from industrial food waste. It does this by upcycling collagen extracted from discarded fish. A waste product from the fishing industry becomes a valuable material for the fashion industry, which is one of the biggest polluters in the world.

PACT has developed a collagen-based biomaterial that mimics leather. Photo courtesy of PACT
The resulting biomaterial, which they call Oval, is a supple, high-quality leather alternative that requires none of the harsh chemicals and heavy metals used in conventional leather production. It also eliminates the emissions associated with livestock farming. PACT currently works with major luxury fashion brands and is looking to expand into furniture and car upholstery.
Protein that eats carbon
Also lab-based is Arkeon, an Austrian biotech company whose protein products may soon be on a supermarket shelf near you. If lab food sounds unappealing, it’s worth considering the impact of what we currently eat. Typically, we’ve relied on animal-based sources such as eggs, meat and milk for protein, but they come at a steep environmental cost. The livestock supply chain accounts for around 14.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock farming also contributes to deforestation.
“With global demand for livestock products expected to double by 2050, the implications of viable alternative proteins are massive.”
Arkeon is sidestepping animals entirely, using fermentation technology that converts carbon dioxide (CO2), a major contributor to global warming, into a scalable, high-quality protein source. The process is not dissimilar to beer production. A naturally occurring microbe called archaea feeds on carbon dioxide and excretes amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.
With global demand for livestock products expected to double by 2050, the implications of viable alternative proteins are massive. Arkeon says its technology can produce carbon-negative alternative proteins up to two times cheaper than existing sources. The technology can also be programmed to duplicate the taste, texture and characteristics of animal products.
“It’s a pretty interesting area,” says Fitzgerald. “I think [microbe-derived foods] might be a necessity more than a choice. But they still have to be better, more delicious, more nutritious and at a price point that is accessible to a huge portion of the population to entice consumers away from animal products.”
Carbon removal using sunlight and seawater
While Arkeon converts CO2 into other products, Banyu Carbon focuses specifically on removing CO2 from the atmosphere, using sunlight and seawater.
Seawater naturally concentrates CO2 at higher levels than are found in the air. However, rising CO2 levels means oceans are becoming saturated, wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems.

The ocean surface acts like a sponge for CO2. Banyu Carbon aims to remove this CO2 from seawater, so it is then able to absorb more. Photo: Narai Chal / Getty Images
Other methods of carbon removal already exist, but they generally require a lot of energy – which often comes from fossil fuels. This makes them expensive and limits their effectiveness.
Banyu Carbon believes it has cracked both these issues. Based in Seattle, Washington state, the company’s tech relies on molecules called reversible photoacids. When the molecules are exposed to sunlight, a chemical reaction occurs. This causes CO2 to be released from seawater as a gas that can be removed and stored. The decarbonized seawater is then pumped back into the ocean, ready to soak up more CO2. As the reversible photoacid is relatively cheap to make and reusable, the decarbonization process is also cheaper than other methods.
In addition, since only a small amount of sunlight is needed for the chemical reaction, the rest is used to generate solar electricity to power Banyu Carbon’s pumps and machinery. The released CO2 can be stored in geologic formations or recycled into industrial products such as sustainable aviation fuels.
There are still several unknowns around this technology, such as any unintended effects that the photoacid may have on the seawater and the long-term safety of CO2 storage. But scientists broadly agree that carbon removal and cleanup are an urgently needed part of cooling the planet, in addition to ensuring we emit less CO2 into the atmosphere to begin with.
Fitzgerald acknowledges these unknowns, but notes that cost will be an important deciding factor when it comes to scaling up the technology and getting companies and other organizations to sign up to use it.
Banyu Carbon plans to establish a pilot program in Washington state this year that will remove tens of kilograms of carbon from seawater. If that is successful, the company has a contract with the Frontier fund to remove 360 metric tons (almost 400 tons) of carbon by the end of 2026.
Positive trend
Ultimately, says Fitzgerald, ReGen Ventures is in the business of finding technologies that don’t yet exist or are “ten times better than the current solution” and helping them scale.
With 2030 only five years away, is he hopeful we can get where we need to be? “I don’t know if we’re going to get to where we need to be by 2030, but I feel like that between 2030 and 2050 we certainly can. I think capital is accelerating, I think technologies are accelerating. Who knows whether awareness and political systems are accelerating in which direction, but I think the underlying trend is positive… We get to meet the smartest people in the world every day who are working on solving these problems, and it can’t help but fill you with hope.”
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