Meet Alex Behar, Partner at Buoyant Ventures

We often use this space to spotlight the incredible founders and portfolio companies building the future of climate-tech. But this month, we’re turning the mic on ourselves. Meet Alex Behar, the “newest” member of the team who joined in early 2024. He’s got a unique blend of experience in climate and innovation that complements the rest of the team. 

Tell us more about your experience in impact, climate and related industries prior to getting into climate-tech?

My experience in climate stems back to my curiosity about the agriculture sector. At university I published two papers on agricultural markets, one related to adoption of new seed technology and one related to farmers’ use of derivatives to manage price risk. As an economics consultant at RBB Economics I worked on several projects in agriculture (fertilizer markets) and energy (petroleum and derivative markets), where I learned the fundamental market dynamics of industries that are core to climate. I also worked on some more obscure markets – ask me about carbomethyl cellulose!

When I joined Deloitte in 2014, I was able to more directly focus on driving sustainability and impact in these sectors, from the perspective of government, non-profits and private sector. Most notably, over the course of two years, I helped to established a CVC for a mining company looking to expand into agriculture, energy and water. This involved validating and landscaping the market opportunity, setting up processes to evaluate investment opportunities as well as sourcing and diligencing deals. The CVC’s investments included an insect farming company in South Africa and an industrial energy efficiency company in Silicon Valley.

Why did you move to Chicago from South Africa?

It’s my wife’s fault – she was offered a research position as a paleontologist at the Field Museum, which was an offer she couldn’t refuse. It made a lot of sense for me too because Chicago and the Midwest are a hub for agriculture and food manufacturing, where I had a lot of experience. We’re seven winters in and still here! And now, my four- and two-year-old correct my accent 🙄

Why venture?

My experience setting up a CVC had given me a taste for venture and the impact potential of working with startups. I also wanted to be in a role where I had skin in the game – if founders succeed, we succeed. Soon after moving to Chicago, I was lucky to join one of the city’s leading venture firms, Sandbox Industries, as an investor on the food & agriculture team (Cultivian Sandbox), a pioneer in early-stage food & agriculture investing. 

Tell us more about your experience at Sandbox

My time there between 2019 and 2023 saw some dramatic changes in venture and climate-tech. In the early period through 2021 and early 2022, we saw a ramp up in hype and valuations, where we had to show disciplined investing. This was followed by a sharp pull back in funding (especially for late-stage VC and growth), and focusing on helping portfolio companies extend runway so that they had the choice not to raise in a challenging environment. This experience drove home two fundamentals of venture investing: i) invest in companies based on the belief that they can be sustainable businesses in the long-term as opposed to chasing mark-ups and ii) cash is a startup’s #1 KPI – no other KPI matters if you run out of cash. We had a portfolio company with an 8-figure contract from a big tech company that didn’t make it because of a short-term cash crunch.

Sandbox is where I cut my teeth as a venture investor:

• Sourced and evaluated 100s of early stage startups
• Diligenced four companies that led to an investment, and passed on many more
• Served as board observer for Nuritas and Copper Cow Coffee, and supported many other portfolio companies indirectly
• Evaluated follow-on investments in multiple portfolio companies
• Led fund initiatives related to portfolio construction, KPI management, impact measurement and thesis development
• Built a strong network of venture investors, corporates and startups

Overall, I loved the dynamism of speaking with 100s of founders each with a unique approach to solving big problems. I also learned to appreciate the discipline required to align investment opportunities with a fund’s strategy and constraints related to portfolio construction and financial returns expectations.

This has continued at Buoyant where I’ve been able to continue engaging with pioneering founders and get back to some of the industries beyond agriculture that I worked in during my early career.

Proudest investment?

Debut Biotech. We co-led their Series A at Cultivian Sandbox in 2021 and they’ve gone on to raise a Series B and establish partnerships with several large companies. Josh Britton is the definition of a scrappy founder (in the early days, he drove an Uber to cover lab costs and would pitch his passengers, landing a 6-figure check during a ride!). The Series A was a competitive deal to get into, and we got in because I had built a relationship with Josh before he was actively raising and tracked them closely leading up to the Series A.

How has your view of climate investing evolved over time?

I have always believed that investing in addressing climate change made sound financial sense since it is a long-term trend that influences every aspect of our economy. However, I have come to appreciate the need to match the appropriate capital to the appropriate opportunity, particularly as it relates to the time to scale. A 10-year VC fund should not be investing in companies that will take 10+ years to show their commercial viability. There was a time where I (and many others!) thought that climate companies could follow a similar path as pharmaceutical companies by getting acquired early in their commercialization path. We’ve unfortunately seen a lot of failures (especially in the synthetic biology space) due to this assumption. Now I believe that investing in companies that can scale and be viable standalone businesses in a 5-7 year time frame is a better fit for the VC asset class.

What excites you most about the future of Buoyant?

Topics like energy policy, AI and extreme weather are on prime time like never before. We’re working on the biggest issues of our generation and we have an investment strategy to meet the moment. Our focus on software and AI that can drive meaningful impact in the short-term is needed more than ever, and it’s a privilege to play my part in supporting founders driving this impact.