Accelerating Maritime Decarbonization Through Innovation
Zero Wake Fund is a Founder to Pre-Seed fund investing in innovations accelerating maritime decarbonization. We target better/cheaper/faster/higher utility innovations that are better for the environment than current solutions. Our vision is a vibrant and profitable maritime industry with a dramatically lower carbon footprint and impact on natural ecosystems.
Our Why
Our Why
Zero Wake Fund emerged from our industry partners telling us they want to decarbonize both their operations and this supply chain, but in a thoughtful and profitable way that recognizes the unique structure and needs of the industry.
For this reason, we believe Maritime Decarbonization represents a massive, global industrial transformation, creating both venture scale investment opportunities while positively impacting the maritime industry’s relationship with our natural environments.
In pursuit of this strategy, we are focused on 5 specific areas of innovation: Maritime, Carbon Capture, Enabling Tech, Services, and Mobility. We approach each of these sectors with a foundational ethos of “Replace where we can, Transition where we must, and Mitigate where we can’t.” In each case, we seek innovations that are venture scale, help the industry maintain growth, performance and profitability, and help our natural ecosystems thrive.
Our Focus Areas
Maritime
Services
Enabling Tech
Mobility
Carbon Capture
Our Team
Our Team
Brock Mansfield, Managing Partner
Brock has made first round investments in multiple emerging environmental market leaders across such sectors as Waste To Value (Tidal Vision, Bloom Labs) Cell-based Seafood (Blue Nalu), New Materials (Algenesis, Tom Tex), E-Commerce (Public Goods), Circular Economy Brands (Hilos, Simplifyber, Oddli) and Enabling Tech (Matter, Blumen Systems).
He is also founder of EnVest, a collaborative global community of early stage environmental funds committed to working together to accelerate capital behind compelling innovations. As Chairman of EnVest, Brock identifies and selects the companies for the annual EnVest EnVision cohort, which collectively have gone to raise more than $2.0 billion in follow on financing. These selections include market leaders such as Gradient, Carbon Upcycling, Lingrove, Lilac Solutions, Cruz Foam, Terviva, and Moleaer.
Brock is highly engaged in the Stanford climate innovation ecosystem, where he helps accelerate climate and environmental startups coming out of Stanford Climate Ventures, the TomKat Center for Sustainability and the GSB Startup Venture Studio, while also funding post-grad climate innovators as a judge for the $600,000 Doerr School’s Eco-preneurship grant program. He splits his time between the Bay Area and Seattle.
Jean-Noel Poirier, Managing Partner
Jean-Noel is a seasoned climate tech investor and former executive. He has played a pivotal role in investing in early-stage ventures within the climate and sustainability space, initially as an Executive Managing Director at Clean Energy Venture Group and a Venture Partner at Clean Energy Ventures, and later as a member of E8, a top cleantech investor network. He focuses on a broad spectrum of sectors, including clean energy, and aims to drive positive environmental impact through strategic investments and active support.
Before investing, Jean-Noel held leadership roles globally, including co-founding Inventec Performance Chemicals USA and serving as an officer at Global Solar Energy. He also spent seven years at Honeywell International in strategic and leadership positions.
Jean-Noel obtained his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, has a lifelong passion for oceans and sailing, and he currently resides in Seattle with his family.
Maritime Blue is the largest maritime industry innovation cluster in the U.S., uniting over 130 industry, regulatory, and government partners dedicated to accelerating innovation. Our industry-focused Accelerator program offers early-stage startups mentorship, pilot programs, and scale-up support, ensuring early traction and rapid growth.
Maritime Blue works with industry partners to identify strategic priorities, and helps identify innovative solutions to industry needs. Maritime Blue exclusively provides Accelerator services to Zero Wake Fund portfolio companies, giving them an accelerated path to becoming tomorrow’s leaders in maritime decarbonization.
Washington Maritime Blue, Strategic Partner
Contact Us
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