We invest in the nuts & bolts of sustainable cities.
Our Manifesto
Cities have always been humanity’s greatest engines of opportunity, invention, and community. Home to more than half of humanity today, the world’s cities will add another 2.5 billion people by 2050. Cities are critical to our past, present, and future.
The rapid growth of cities in an ever-warming world is the biggest challenge we face. From coastal floods in New York, to red skies in San Francisco, to killer heat waves in Mumbai, climate change is no longer theoretical. It’s now impacting our streets and neighborhoods, the places we call home.
As we adapt to and mitigate the consequences of this changing reality, our cities are at the forefront of the race against climate change. Approximately 75% of the urban infrastructure of 2050 is yet to be built, representing a $5 trillion market opportunity. How we design our built environment - our buildings, transportation systems, waste management processes, food chains, power grids, and public spaces - will have a profound influence on the livability of our communities.
At Streetlife Ventures, we are the ultimate optimists and are excited to work with founders and policymakers to build the future we want to live in.
We focus on 5 urban climate sectors.
Mobility & Logistics
Mobility is the largest source of emissions globally, and the fastest growing (with 80% growth since 1990). These startups are reducing our reliance on larger emitting vehicles like cars, electrifying our fleets and infrastructure, creating new management and measurement systems, and more.
Buildings
Buildings are typically the largest source of emissions in dense cities, with nearly two-thirds of those emissions coming from ongoing building operations like heating and cooling systems and electrical use. These startups are working at the intersection of building materials, building systems, and consumer behavior to lower emissions while creating more sustainable spaces to live, work, and play.
Water & Waste
Growing populations – paired with a changing climate – are set to nearly double our waste outputs over the next 30 years, and are making our water systems more scarce, unpredictable, or polluted. These startups are working on solutions to deliver clean water and sustainable waste systems for residents and businesses.
Energy
The ways that we produce, store, manage, and deploy energy has dramatic implications on energy emissions, cost, and availability. These startups are innovating on on energy production, from offshore wind to urban solar, grid management, battery storage, and more.
Adaptive Infrastructure
Only 7% of climate finance today is funneled into adaptation, but climate change is here and now. Adaptation startups are innovating on tomorrow’s infrastructure by creating more sustainable materials, rethinking urban systems, and building with climate-resiliency in mind.
We bring 30+ years of urban climate experience.
This is our life’s work.
Sonam has worked across the world and across the public and private sectors, connecting the dots between cities, climate, and capital.
Prior to co-founding Streetlife, Sonam financed $10 billion of transportation, energy, and water infrastructure projects at Goldman Sachs, helped build coastal protection and water systems in Asia at the World Bank, launched drone mobility solutions in Africa at Zipline, and developed New York City’s $15 billion Green New Deal at the NYC Mayor's Office.
Sonam is a strong believer in paying it forward and loves being active in her community. She has received the National President’s Volunteer Service Award, launched the Climate Tech Cities community to foster collaboration across climate tech, policy, and justice groups, runs the Parachute creative storytelling platform on climate solutions and investment opportunities in cities globally, and volunteers with the Aga Khan Development Network, the Women's Impact Alliance, and the Girl Scouts.
Sonam enjoys sharing ideas about urban development and has spoken at the UN COP Climate Summits, C40, and more. The first in her family to go to college, Sonam attended Harvard University on a full scholarship and received a BA in Government, Economics, and Visual and Environmental Studies.
Fun fact: Sonam has traveled to 60+ countries around the world, Mongolia and Uzbekistan included!
Sonam Velani
Co-founder & Managing Director
Laura has focused her career on improving quality of life in cities, and is an operator and strategist with a passion for growth; she’s led functions from revenue and marketing to operations and product at startups and Fortune 100 companies.
Prior to co-founding Streetlife, Laura was the General Manager of Citi Bike for Lyft, building it into a $100M+ ARR business that serves 1.5 million riders and is one of the largest transportation systems in the United States. She previously led diligence on urban climate tech companies at Sidewalk Labs, launched new mobility products with Boston Consulting Group’s digital ventures team, advised Bloomberg Philanthropies on their urban investment strategy, and edited a book on entrepreneurial approaches to urban growth.
Laura also teaches MBA strategy courses at NYU Stern, and is on the alumni board of BCG and on the board of directors of Governors Island, which will be the test-bed for climate innovation in New York City.
Laura speaks on climate-finance, mobility, and city topics globally, from The New York Times to climate conferences like The Drop. She is also on the ‘Transportation Power 100’ and ‘Top Women in Mobility’ lists. Laura received a full scholarship for her MBA at NYU Stern, and a scholarship for her BA from the University of Notre Dame.
Fun fact: Laura’s friends call her ‘20 Questions’ - and she's given a TED Talk on the topic.
Laura Fox
Co-founder & Managing Director
We live by 6 core values.
We invest in products and services that advance our cities and climate, but never forget who the real end customers are: people and the places that they call home.
People at the center
We do not look like typical VCs and neither do the founders that we invest in. We believe that diversity drives cities and returns, and we seek it out.
As diverse as our cities
We are outliers in an opaque industry - establishing a new standard for transparency. We’re creating open entrepreneurship in our streets, literally.
The street is our laboratory
To create systemic change, we need financial, social, and environmental impact, all at once. We bridge the public and private sectors to find outsized returns.
Returns & impact
Cities in the real world are messy and complex; it makes them compelling and dynamic, but also creates unique challenges. We seek entrepreneurs and solutions that embrace this truth.
Embrace the chaos
We’re former operators and policymakers who like being in the trenches. We work side-by-side with our founders and city partners.
Hands-on & knee-deep
It takes a community to change the world.
We’re creating a movement for open entrepreneurship in our streets, literally.
Climate Tech Cities is a community platform that aggregates events across the climate ecosystem through weekly newsletters, hosts site visits to climate infrastructure projects, and convenes climate talent for connection, idea exchange, and impact.
We share what works in cities across the world.
Parachute is a research and storytelling platform, and aims to surface creative climate solutions from cities across the world – what works, what doesn’t, and why. We scour media and literature, collect data on-site, and interview the folks in the trenches – the entrepreneurs, policymakers, community members, and nonprofits bringing early-stage climate innovations out of PDF reports and into their streets and neighborhoods.
We love big ideas
We support pre-seed and seed-stage founders with unique visions for building the nuts and bolts of sustainable cities.
We love working with founders who embrace the messy, complex nature of the places that we call home – and leverage our expertise, networks, and operating experience to help accelerate your success.
Join the movement
Are you looking to build a career in climate?
From engineers and scientists to lawyers, project financiers, policymakers, and more, the founders that we work with need a staggering array of skills to make this world-changing transition. Tell us about your background to get discovered by founders in our network.
