Ventures can emerge from I4N’s Action Labs with a validated corporate need, direct engagement with potential customers, and a pathway to pilot or deployment. These companies may subsequently be assessed by Metastable Ventures for potential investment.
Ventures can emerge from I4N’s Action Labs with a validated corporate need, and may subsequently be assessed by Metastable Ventures for potential investment.
I4N’s Action Labs identify concrete corporate challenges, source and assess relevant nature-positive solutions, and support their path to pilots and deployment. Metastable Ventures may separately assess selected companies for investment and, where relevant, structure or syndicate capital around individual opportunities.
What we do
Convene the operators. Scout and screen through our thorough assessment methodology and independent expert jury.
What Metastable does
Underwrites the science, the pathways and the economics. Structures the opportunity and assembles the syndicate.
The line
Solution selection is ours. Capital is theirs. Neither of us takes part in the other’s decision.
Ports are among the most regulated, most capital-intensive and most risk-averse buyers on earth. A solution that clears a port’s procurement process has cleared the highest bar in its category. That is a de-risking event an investor cannot buy any other way.
The Ports and Coastal Infrastructure Action Lab is a cross-sector, structured platform designed to accelerate and deploy nature-positive solutions for sustainable port infrastructure.
Port operators name their own operational challenges across energy, materials, food systems, biodiversity and logistics. Scouting runs against a real budget line, not a theme.
The Lab convenes corporates, investors and partners together. A solution is showcased to the people who would actually deploy it, months before it would otherwise reach them.
Ports share infrastructure, regulation and suppliers. A pilot proven at one port is a credible reference at the next, which is what turns a single contract into a scalable business.
Under TNFD and CSRD, large companies have moved from disclosing nature-related risk to being asked what they are doing about it. A reporting obligation is turning into a buying decision, and Action Labs are where that decision gets made.
01
Define challenges
Port partners specify the operational problems worth solving.
02
Scout globally & assess
I4N searches its network and the open market against that brief, then runs its assessment on impact, business model and governance.
03
Pilot/deployment
The Action Lab partners deploy pilots with the selected solutions to test it in a real market.
04
Independent Metastable investment assessment
Metastable Ventures may conducts its own independent investment assessment of relevant ventures.
05
Potential financing
Metastable decides on capital deployment. Co-investors can join here.
Steps one to four are what a foundation can do and a fund cannot. Step five is the reverse. That division is the whole partnership.
Capital raised across featured solutions with 30+ named investors, incl. a16z, Lowercarbon, Pebblebed, Dalus Capital
Grants, awards and accelerators across featured solutions
Corporate pilots and partners incl. Coca-Cola, Nestlé, BMW, Henkel, Rio Tinto
Named investors & backers, incl. a16z, Lowercarbon, Pebblebed, Dalus Capital
Capital raised across featured solutions with 30+ named investors, incl. a16z, Lowercarbon, Pebblebed, Dalus Capital
Grants, awards and accelerators across featured solutions
Corporate pilots and partners incl. Coca-Cola, Nestlé, BMW, Henkel, Rio Tinto
Named investors & backers, incl. a16z, Lowercarbon, Pebblebed, Dalus Capital
Click here to access information about funding, market traction and impact across the I4N Award portfolio.
A material to replace, a water system to fix, a supply chain to trace. Not a theme, but a line item with a budget holder attached.
The I4N assessment shortens the corporate’s own due diligence, which is usually what kills an early-stage deal inside a large organisation.
A revenue line and a named client change what the company is worth and how fast it can move. That is the moment Metastable may invest and co-investors are brought in.
The company gets tested against market demand before it gets a valuation.
You get evidence before you write a cheque.
“Curated” usually means somebody liked them. The I4N process is elimination against published criteria, run by people who allocate capital for a living.
I4N independently manages the assessment and selection process for participation in its Action Labs.
The I4N Award cycles in 2024 and 2025 attracted over 800 applications, which 36 finalists were selected from, resulting in eight winners. Every assessment round companies against criteria published in advance.
In this initial assessment round, I4N focuses on evaluating the projected biodiversity impact of the solution over the next five years, alongside key business fundamentals.
I4N assessment round 2 tests market understanding, customer identification, competitive advantage, financial model, governance, adaptability and negative impacts.
An eleven-member independent jury spanning impact finance, academia, NGOs, government and industry sits the final pitch day. The scoring rationale travels with the company.
This is how the foundation and the fund stay separate:
