One Earth Capital

# One Earth Capital: Strategic Investment in Real Assets and Impact Technologies

High-Level Overview

One Earth Capital is a venture capital firm with a dual mission: to accelerate innovation while building generational wealth through strategic investments in real assets and transformative technologies[2]. The firm operates with a clear investment philosophy centered on impact and financial returns, targeting entrepreneurs and operators committed to excellence and creating measurable change.

The firm's investment focus spans agriculture, water, and energy sectors—domains where technological innovation can drive both environmental sustainability and economic value[5]. By concentrating on these verticals, One Earth Capital positions itself at the intersection of climate-critical infrastructure and venture-scale returns, appealing to a new generation of investors seeking both financial performance and positive impact.

Origin Story

One Earth Capital was founded in 2007 by Chris Berkner and Joe Hudson[5], establishing itself during a period when impact investing was still nascent within venture capital. The firm's founding reflected an early recognition that real asset sectors—particularly those addressing resource scarcity and energy independence—represented significant investment opportunities.

The firm's evolution has taken it from its initial base in the San Francisco Bay Area to broader geographic expansion[6]. Over nearly two decades, the founders have built institutional expertise in evaluating complex technologies within agriculture, water, and energy, sectors that require deep domain knowledge and long-term conviction to navigate successfully.

Core Differentiators

Sector Specialization and Domain Expertise

One Earth Capital distinguishes itself through focused expertise in real asset sectors rather than pursuing broad software or consumer technology investments. This specialization allows the firm to develop proprietary deal flow, deeper technical evaluation capabilities, and meaningful operational support tailored to the unique challenges of agtech, water technology, and energy innovation.

Geographic Focus and Regional Strength

The firm maintains concentrated investment activity across the Mountain West and Pacific regions, including Idaho, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah[2]. This geographic focus enables the firm to build strong regional networks, understand local regulatory environments, and support portfolio companies with hands-on operational guidance in markets where real asset businesses often require deep community relationships.

Impact-Aligned Returns Model

Unlike venture firms that treat impact as secondary to returns, One Earth Capital integrates impact generation into its core investment thesis. The firm explicitly markets itself to investors seeking "generational returns" alongside measurable environmental and social outcomes, positioning impact not as a constraint on returns but as a driver of long-term value creation.

Energy Independence Principle

The firm was founded on the principle of delivering energy independence without directly risking invested capital[3], suggesting a sophisticated approach to structuring investments that balance risk mitigation with exposure to transformative energy technologies.

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

One Earth Capital operates within a critical inflection point for climate and resource technology investment. As global water scarcity intensifies, agricultural productivity demands increase, and energy transition accelerates, venture capital focused on these sectors has moved from niche to mainstream. The firm's early positioning in these domains—founded in 2007, well before climate tech became a crowded category—has allowed it to establish deep relationships and pattern recognition that newer entrants lack.

The firm's focus on real assets rather than software-as-a-service reflects a broader maturation of venture capital's understanding of where transformative value creation occurs. While software companies scale rapidly, the most consequential innovations often require hardware integration, regulatory navigation, and long-term capital deployment—precisely the domains where specialized venture firms create outsized returns.

By concentrating on underserved geographies and sectors, One Earth Capital influences the broader ecosystem by demonstrating that venture-scale returns are achievable outside coastal tech hubs and consumer-facing software, potentially redirecting capital toward infrastructure and resource challenges that affect billions of people globally.

Quick Take & Future Outlook

One Earth Capital represents a maturing thesis within venture capital: that the most significant returns over the next decade will come from solving fundamental resource constraints rather than optimizing digital experiences. The firm's expansion efforts signal confidence in this positioning and suggest growing institutional demand for disciplined, sector-focused investment in real assets.

Looking forward, the firm's influence will likely grow as climate and resource pressures intensify, making agriculture, water, and energy technologies increasingly central to institutional investment mandates. The key question for One Earth Capital will be whether it can scale its operational support and capital deployment while maintaining the specialized expertise that has defined its early success. In a landscape where generalist venture firms are increasingly adding climate and impact verticals, specialized firms with deep domain knowledge and regional networks will likely command premium returns and attract the most ambitious entrepreneurs in these sectors.