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Learn which startups Propeller VC invests in, what size check sizes they write, and who their partners are (e.g. ).
Propeller is an early-stage venture fund dedicated to investing in climate-tech startups operating at the intersection of ocean and climate. The firm strategically identifies and backs companies developing innovative solutions that leverage the ocean's potential to address global climate challenges. Their investment approach focuses on accelerating scientific advancements and fostering new technologies aimed at protecting marine ecosystems while mitigating the broader impacts of climate change.
The fund was founded in 2022 by Brian Halligan and Devdutt Yellurkar. Their foundational insight recognized the critical role the ocean plays as a powerful force in climate regulation, perceiving it as a "climate superhero" with the capacity to significantly reduce and potentially reverse climate change effects. This perspective underpins Propeller's mission to identify and support ventures aligned with enhancing and preserving this vital planetary asset.
Propeller primarily serves founders and early-stage climate-tech companies whose work directly impacts the ocean-climate nexus. The firm’s long-term vision is to drive substantial progress in climate mitigation by catalyzing innovation that safeguards marine environments and harnesses their restorative power. They aim to accelerate the development of solutions capable of addressing the most pressing environmental challenges of our time.
Key people at Propeller VC.
Propeller VC was founded in 2015 by Cameron Yuill (Founder & Managing Partner).
Propeller VC was founded in 2015 by Cameron Yuill (Founder & Managing Partner).
# Propeller VC: Ocean-Climate Innovation at the Intersection of Venture Capital and Environmental Impact
Propeller VC is an early-stage venture capital fund headquartered in Boston that invests in climate-technology startups operating at the ocean-climate nexus.[5] The firm's mission centers on identifying and backing transformational leaders building solutions to address climate change through ocean-based innovation. Founded in early 2022 and formally announced in October 2022, Propeller raised a $117 million fund (Propeller Fund I) with commitments from high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and institutional capital.[3]
The fund's investment philosophy is deeply rooted in recognizing the ocean's critical role in climate regulation—the ocean absorbs approximately 93% of anthropogenic warming, captures about one-third of annual greenhouse gas emissions, and stores roughly 60 times more carbon than the atmosphere.[3] Rather than pursuing broad climate tech investing, Propeller has carved out a specialized niche focused on three primary sectors: carbon technologies (particularly marine Carbon Dioxide Removal), industrials applications (energy, shipping, automation, materials), and organics innovation (food, feed, fertilizer, and aquaculture).[5] This focused thesis allows the firm to develop deep domain expertise while supporting founders building solutions in massive, underserved markets.
Propeller emerged from a deliberate effort to create a dedicated venture fund at the intersection of ocean science and climate innovation. The founding team recognized a significant gap in venture capital's attention to ocean-based climate solutions, despite the ocean's outsized importance to global climate dynamics. In early 2022, the founders began gathering capital commitments from investors aligned with this vision.[3]
A pivotal moment in the fund's development came with the creation and execution of the first Ocean MBA at MIT, which helped the team build conviction around deal flow and refine their investment thesis.[3] This educational initiative demonstrated the founders' commitment to building institutional knowledge and establishing credibility within the ocean-science community. The fund's formal announcement in October 2022 marked the transition from capital-raising to active deployment, with first investments following in fall 2022.
Notably, Propeller operates through a formal multi-year partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the world's leading independent oceanographic research organizations.[6] This partnership provides direct access to cutting-edge scientific research, institutional IP, and a network of world-class scientists—a structural advantage that few venture funds can claim and one that fundamentally shapes the firm's ability to evaluate technical feasibility and market potential in ocean-climate solutions.
Unlike generalist climate-tech funds, Propeller has built its identity around a specific thesis: that the ocean represents the most promising avenue for safely and permanently capturing and storing global emissions through marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR).[3] This conviction-led approach attracts founders working on ocean-specific problems and allows the fund to develop genuine expertise rather than spreading capital across disparate climate verticals.
The formal partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution creates a structural moat. This relationship provides Propeller's investment team with access to peer-reviewed research, emerging scientific insights, and a talent pipeline of PhD-level scientists and engineers who might become founders or advisors. Few venture funds can credibly claim this level of scientific infrastructure.
Propeller's sweet spot is $500K–$2M per check, with willingness to write both larger and smaller checks depending on round dynamics and syndicate composition.[4] The fund also reserves capital for pro-rata participation in follow-on rounds, signaling long-term commitment to portfolio companies. This sizing is well-calibrated for pre-seed, seed, and Series A companies, where capital efficiency and founder-friendly terms matter most.
The investment process emphasizes conviction and relationship-building over rigid screening. Partners socialize deals internally, conduct thorough due diligence, and present to an Investment Committee comprising six partners before making decisions.[4] The fund explicitly encourages founders at the idea stage to reach out, recognizing that many ocean-climate innovators begin with grant-funded research before spinning out commercial ventures.
Propeller operates within a broader awakening in venture capital to climate technology's investment potential, but it does so with unusual specificity. While climate tech as a category has attracted significant capital over the past five years, most funds remain generalist, investing across renewable energy, carbon capture, sustainable materials, and other verticals. Propeller's decision to focus narrowly on the ocean-climate nexus reflects a sophisticated understanding of both climate science and venture dynamics.
The timing of Propeller's founding—2022—coincided with growing recognition that carbon removal, not just emissions reduction, would be necessary to meet climate targets. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had increasingly emphasized the role of carbon dioxide removal technologies in climate scenarios, and marine-based approaches were gaining scientific credibility as a potentially scalable solution. Propeller positioned itself to capture this emerging wave of founder interest and investor capital.
The fund also benefits from structural tailwinds: regulatory momentum around carbon markets, corporate net-zero commitments creating demand for verified carbon removal, and increasing venture capital allocation to climate solutions. Additionally, the ocean economy itself is experiencing renewed attention from policymakers and investors, creating favorable conditions for ocean-adjacent businesses in shipping, aquaculture, and marine resource management.
By anchoring itself to Woods Hole and building a portfolio across carbon, industrials, and organics, Propeller is helping to establish the ocean-climate nexus as a legitimate venture category. This positioning influences how other investors think about climate investing and validates the thesis that some of the most impactful climate solutions will emerge from ocean-based innovation.
Propeller VC represents a disciplined, thesis-driven approach to venture capital in an era when many funds chase broad trends. The firm's conviction that the ocean is central to climate solutions—combined with its scientific credibility and institutional partnerships—positions it well to identify and back the next generation of transformational ocean-climate companies.
Looking ahead, Propeller's influence will likely grow as marine carbon removal matures from scientific curiosity to commercial reality. The fund's portfolio companies will serve as proof points for the viability of ocean-based climate solutions, potentially attracting larger institutional capital to the space and validating the ocean-climate nexus as a distinct venture category. As corporate and governmental climate commitments intensify, demand for verified, scalable carbon removal solutions will increase—playing directly to Propeller's thesis.
The key question for the fund's evolution is whether it will maintain its focused thesis or broaden its mandate as the ocean-climate space matures. Given the founders' demonstrated conviction and the success of their specialized approach, maintaining focus while deepening expertise across portfolio companies seems the more likely path. This positioning—as the leading venture fund at the intersection of ocean science and climate innovation—could establish Propeller as a category-defining investor over the next decade.
Key people at Propeller VC.
