Convective Capital
Convective Capital is an investment firm.
ActiveVenture Capital
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Financial History
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Leadership Team
Key people at Convective Capital.
Convective Capital is an investment firm.
Key people at Convective Capital.
Convective Capital is a $35 million venture capital fund dedicated to solving the global wildfire crisis through technology innovation.[2][3] The firm's mission centers on backing ambitious startups developing FireTech solutions—technologies that work in concert with firefighters, land managers, homeowners, and community leaders to prevent, suppress, and manage wildfires more effectively.[2] Rather than pursuing traditional venture returns alone, Convective Capital operates with a mission-driven investment philosophy that treats wildfire mitigation as both a climate imperative and a compelling market opportunity. The firm focuses exclusively on the FireTech vertical, making it one of the most specialized climate-tech investors in the market. By concentrating capital and expertise on a single crisis domain, Convective Capital has positioned itself as a thought leader and connector within an emerging ecosystem of wildfire-focused entrepreneurs, influencing how the startup community approaches climate adaptation and resilience.
Convective Capital was founded by William Dominic Clerico, whose career trajectory reveals a deliberate pivot toward climate impact.[1] Clerico brings deep financial services expertise from roles at J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and WePay, combined with experience in emergency management through his work with the American Red Cross and U.S. Army CERDEC.[1] The fund itself was announced on October 7, 2022, and closed its inaugural fund at $35 million.[2] According to Clerico, the catalyst for launching Convective Capital came from recognizing that the wildfire crisis had reached an inflection point—both in severity and in the availability of capital to address it. As he explained, he "convinced [himself] that the opportunity was large enough and that the need was dire enough" to launch the fund professionally and back startups tackling this problem at scale.[3] This origin story reflects a founder who leveraged Wall Street credibility to redirect capital toward climate resilience, signaling a broader shift in how experienced technologists and financiers are approaching existential challenges.
Unlike generalist climate-tech funds, Convective Capital operates with singular focus on FireTech. This specialization allows the firm to develop deep domain expertise, build proprietary networks within fire agencies and land management organizations, and identify patterns across the wildfire technology landscape that generalists might miss. The fund's concentrated thesis also attracts founders who are serious about the problem rather than those seeking broad climate-tech capital.
Convective Capital bridges the gap between impact investing and venture returns. The firm doesn't sacrifice financial discipline for mission alignment; instead, it operates on the premise that solving wildfires represents a genuine market opportunity. This positioning attracts both impact-oriented LPs and traditional venture investors who see climate adaptation as economically defensible.
The firm goes beyond capital deployment. Convective Capital hosts the Red Sky Summit, a premier gathering of wildfire thought leaders, and provides founders with a toolkit for building in the FireTech space.[5] This operating infrastructure helps portfolio companies navigate the unique challenges of selling to government agencies, managing field operations in remote areas, and scaling technologies in high-stakes environments.
With 16 investments across the wildfire value chain, Convective Capital has built a portfolio spanning detection (Pano), suppression (Rain), prevention (BurnBot, Overstory), risk assessment (Delos, Stand), grid resilience (Rhizome, Gridware), and community adaptation (Fire Aside).[4] This breadth creates network effects—portfolio companies can partner with one another, and the fund can facilitate ecosystem-level solutions rather than point solutions.
Convective Capital arrives at a critical inflection point in climate tech. Wildfires have grown in frequency and severity over the past two decades, driven by climate change, drought, forest management practices, and development patterns.[3] Traditional fire agency responses—largely unchanged for decades—are proving inadequate. This gap between crisis scale and institutional response capacity has created a genuine market opportunity that venture capital is now recognizing.
The fund's emergence reflects a broader maturation in climate-tech investing: the shift from viewing climate solutions as purely philanthropic to recognizing them as venture-scale opportunities. By concentrating $35 million on a single crisis domain, Convective Capital signals to the broader ecosystem that FireTech deserves serious capital and talent. This focus also influences how other climate-tech funds think about specialization versus diversification, and whether deep vertical expertise or broad horizontal coverage drives better returns.
Convective Capital's emphasis on selling to government agencies and utilities—rather than direct-to-consumer models—also shapes the broader startup ecosystem. It demonstrates that venture-scale returns are possible in B2G (business-to-government) climate tech, which historically has been seen as slower and less attractive than consumer or enterprise SaaS. This reframing opens new pathways for founders and investors who want to tackle systemic problems through institutional channels.
Convective Capital is positioned to become the defining investor in FireTech, much as Lowercarbon Capital has become synonymous with carbon removal or Breakthrough Energy Ventures with climate solutions at scale. The firm's $35 million fund is modest by venture standards, but its focus and conviction are outsized.
The near-term trajectory will likely involve deepening portfolio company relationships, demonstrating that FireTech startups can achieve meaningful scale and returns, and potentially raising a larger second fund. As wildfire seasons intensify and government agencies increasingly allocate budgets to technology solutions, Convective Capital's portfolio companies will have tailwinds. The firm's success will partly hinge on whether it can help portfolio companies navigate the slow sales cycles and regulatory complexity of government procurement—a challenge that has derailed many well-intentioned climate startups.
Longer term, Convective Capital's influence will extend beyond capital deployment. By hosting thought leadership forums, publishing research, and building community among FireTech founders, the firm is establishing itself as an intellectual hub for wildfire innovation. If the fund can demonstrate that FireTech generates both impact and returns, it will likely inspire follow-on funds and attract top talent to the space. The firm's ultimate success will be measured not just in portfolio returns, but in whether the startups it backs materially reduce wildfire risk and accelerate the transition from reactive firefighting to proactive prevention and resilience.
Key people at Convective Capital.
