Me and my investor: Bloom Impact Investing and Cyan Ta’eed

When Camille Socquet-Clerc and Bertrand Caron founded Bloom Impact Investing back in 2019, they were well aware of the confluence of tech trends they were tapping into.

By January 2021, when they went full-time on the business, those trends were ramping up. And they weren’t the only ones to see the size of the opportunity.

The startup recently joined the EnergyLab Climate Solutions Program and closed its first funding round, securing $675,000 from EnergyLab and a group of climate-conscious angel investors.

Among those angels were Cyan and Collis Ta’eed, co-founders of tech giant Envato.

The Ta’eeds built Envato from scratch into what is now likely a $1 billion business, although no one truly knows.

Cyan also ran ethical chocolate business Hey Tiger until earlier this year, and founded social media startup Milkshake.

SmartCompany Plus caught up with Camille Socquet-Clerc and Cyan Ta’eed to take a look at this cash injection from both sides, learning what makes a startup attractive to an angel, and vice versa.

A perfect storm of tech trends

Bloom Impact Investing is designed to make impact investing more accessible to everyday Aussies, allowing them to invest as little as $500 into a diversified portfolio of clean tech and clean energy companies.

It’s currently operating in beta mode, with a full launch planned for December. And there’s more than $3.5 million pledged in investments on the waitlist.

That’s testament to an increased interest in sustainability in general.

Socquet-Clerc notes that we’re also seeing a generational transfer of wealth, with potentially trillions of dollars soon to end up in the hands of millenials — people who want their money to work for the greater good, and who are used to doing everything online.

At the same time, more and more solutions are emerging around retail trading and democratisation of investment.

This means that more young investors are putting their money to work for causes they believe in, and climate change is high on their agenda.

“They don’t want to make any compromise,” Socquet-Clerc explains.

Impact investment is also a buzzy space right now, with more VCs and angel investors committing their capital to businesses making positive change.

Socquet-Clerc was well aware of all of these trends. She was also frustrated, personally, as she tried to invest her own money sustainably.

“When I realised that there was no trade off for returns and impact, I realised the potential of the idea and just went all in.”

Hitting that perfect storm of trends paid off when it came to raising funds.

Bloom was able to attract impact investors who are passionate about sustainability, but also those who simply saw the growth potential — the Ta’eeds. 

The best businesses are those that help customers get started on something they want to do, but don’t quite know how to, Ta’eed explains.

“If you give people a way to make their savings and investments count, they will do it,” she says.

What draws an investor to a business?

Ta’eed also has a few things she looks for in an investment.

Impact is “the single most important criteria”, she says, but she also wants to see a clear connection between the business model and the impact it is creating. She’s looking for businesses creating impact simply through their day-to-day operations.

She also asks herself whether she really cares whether the founders succeed or not. This helps her clarify whether she’s ready to back the people behind the business.

After all, startups tend to pivot, she says.

“I want to make sure that I’m backing people who are going to pivot in the right ways.”

Ta’eed also wants to see a pathway to scale. Climate change is a big problem that requires big solutions, she explains, and businesses with true scalability have the best chance of moving the needle.

Startups are, by definition, high risk. Even if the commercial and social opportunities are solid, there are countless things that can go wrong.

When it came down to it, Ta’eed was drawn to Bloom’s team, and its “fantastic mix of marketing, product, software and investment talent”.

When the inevitable challenges arise, having that talent on board is “the best insulation”.

What draws a founder to an angel?

Socquet-Clerc calls Cyan and Collis “super angels”. When the founder set out to raise funds, she also had quite strict criteria in mind.

The first was alignment with the Bloom vision.

“We could only onboard people with a genuine intent to deliver a positive impact, because that’s core to our company,” she says.

She also had a preference towards people who have built businesses before.

Cyan and Collis “absolutely” hit these criteria, and also brought the type of experience Socquet-Clerc was looking for.

Envato is customer-centric, Socquet-Clerc explains, something that is also “really dear” to her and her business.

She also has that scalability in her sights. Cyan and Collis took Envato international, a feat Camille is hoping to replicate.

Getting the relationship right

Startup investments are more than just a business deal. So even when everything looks right on paper, it’s important for an investor and founder to ‘click’ on a personal level.

“Our relationship is one of trust and collaboration,” Socquet-Clerc says.

The Bloom team shares regular updates and welcomes questions or feedback. But it’s also a human partnership.

Socquet-Clerc says you can quickly tell whether someone truly supports your vision, and will continue to in the long run.

Part of it is gut feeling, she explains. But when she met Cyan and Collis, she found they had a whole lot of connections in common — the couple came with people who could vouch for them.

Cyan looks to back founders she feels passionate about; those who are in it for the right reasons and have “a natural combination of humility and confidence”.

If that all lines up, generally the ‘click’ is there too.

“Those founders can come in all shapes and sizes, backgrounds and dispositions,” she explains.

“What’s essential for me is that common view of the world — that it’s a place where people are fundamentally good, where the future can be positive, and where each of us has personal and individual responsibility for our part in it all.

“When I see that, I just want to be involved.”