Sylvain Carle is set to join financial management firm SecondMuse Capital as a senior director following his decision to step down from his venture partner role at Real Ventures earlier this year.
“My new role will enable me to take my personal convictions and put them into full practice.”
Carle is set to make the announcement today at Startupfest, which is taking place this year through a hybrid, digital and in-person model due to COVID-19.
SecondMuse Capital is the financial management arm of SecondMuse, which touts itself as an impact and innovation company.
SecondMuse works with governments, corporations, foundations, and startups to create programming. The company, with its global offices, focuses on areas of manufacturing, energy, capital, education, mental health, data, civic engagement, food, blockchain, disaster risk, and more. SecondMuse Capital invests in businesses and real estate that “help create new economies that are growing, resilient, and inclusive.”
Carle is set to join SecondMuse Capital to help scale the firm’s “ecosystem development approach” to climate impact investment. Speaking with BetaKit earlier this year, Carle expressed his growing passion for climate change and social impact investing – a passion that ultimately led to his decision to step down from Real.
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“What I want to do in my next chapter, for the next decade at least, has to be related to our current climate crisis,” Carle said at the time, noting that he was yet unsure what his next career move would be other than that it would be related to the climate change and social impact space.
“My new role will enable me to take my personal convictions and put them into full practice with the help and experience of SecondMuse and their global network,” said Carle of his new position. “I am confident we will be able to build on SecondMuse’s track record of building resilient, inclusive economies and increasing their momentum in bringing an ecosystem development approach to impact investing to make systemic, global changes to solve some of the most pressing challenges in climate change.”
In his new role, Carle will work with SecondMuse Capital to support climate impact entrepreneurs, with a focus on helping them scale rapidly. SecondMuse noted that these efforts are meant to address the gap between the idea stage and raising enough capital to bring ideas to market in order to create “real change.”
“We are changing the venture capital game by de-risking our investments through an approach that incorporates our experience in developing entrepreneurial ecosystems,” said SecondMuse founder and co-CEO Todd Khozein. “By combining Sylvain’s experience as a VC and our experience building ecosystems, we believe we are going to not only invest in the most innovative climate impact ventures focused on Quebec, but also put in place a network of support to ensure these ventures succeed.”
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Since it was founded in 2009, SecondMuse has designed and implemented programs around the world, claiming to have worked with more than 600 organizations, including NASA, The World Bank, and Nike. SecondMuse programs include The Incubation Network, which works with entrepreneurs that focus on ending plastic pollution; GET Cities, which works to accelerate female representation in the tech industry; and NASA Space Apps Challenge, which looks to address “real-world problems” on Earth and in space.
SecondMuse Capital’s portfolio includes US-based venture capital firm Lightship Capital Fund, which focuses on investing in BIPOC, LGBTQA+, and people with disabilities; Montreal-based Future Economy Lab; and ocean plastic waste-focused investor Circulate Capital.
Image courtesy Sylvain Carle. Photo by Maryse Boyce