SecondMuse

While the bulk of emissions in most cities across the US is caused by transportation, 68% of New York's emissions come from buildings, and with the new city rules, building owners are staring down an average fine of $100,000 a year if they don't cut their carbon footprint. That's where Ashlawn Energy comes in. Founder Norma Byron and her team built VanCharg, a non-flammable battery that charges from solar, wind or the grid, then discharges during peak hours. Each battery can cut a building's emissions by 34 metric tons of CO2 a year and slash electric bills by more than half. Since joining Scale For ClimateTech's fourth cohort, Ashlawn Energy has: 🔋 Captured five battery projects in New York City ⚡ Completed major product designs and earned UL testing and approvals 📍 Relocated to the Xerox Webster Campus, bringing 20 new jobs to the region Click the link in our bio to read their journey.

🌟 Exciting news! We're thrilled to be partnering with CIV:LAB for the 2026 Purpose Summit, where purpose-driven leaders and organizations will gather to explore how AI can strengthen communities, unlock new pathways for capital, and drive more place-based innovation. Mark your calendars for May 12, 2026, and come connect with us at Civic Hall! 📍 New York | 🗓️ May 12, 2026 🔗 Secure your spot here :/purpose-summit

This week, SecondMuse brought together over 50 innovators, funders, community organizations, Tribal leaders, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem builders in Portland for the Oregon Climate Innovation Ecosystem (OCIE) Community Design Session. Over the past year, we've been partnering with The Lemelson Foundation, alongside The Collins Foundation and The Kijani Collective, to support a statewide process grounded in research, #ecosystemmapping, stakeholder engagement, and collaborative design. The goal: better understand where Oregon's #climateinnovation ecosystem is working, where gaps persist, and what it will take to build stronger pathways from ideas to implementation. One theme came through clearly during the session: Oregon has strong ideas, strong leadership, and strong community-rooted innovation, but there is still significant work to be done to better connect funding, infrastructure, commercialization support, #workforcedevelopment, and long-term investment opportunities. Participants explored real initiatives across sectors, including clean energy, forestry, food systems, connective infrastructure, and the built environment, to identify more collaborative opportunities to increase access to the capital, partnerships, and support that are needed to scale real, innovative climate solutions. A major focus of the conversation was investment: not only how to attract more capital into Oregon's climate economy, but also how to ensure that investment strategies are aligned with community priorities, local ownership, long-term resilience, and equitable economic opportunity. At SecondMuse, we see ecosystem building as long-term, collaborative work. It requires trust, coordination, and sustained engagement across sectors to create the conditions where innovation can move more effectively from idea to impact. Thank you to The Lemelson Foundation, The Collins Foundation, Kijani Collective, Seeding Justice, and all of the participants and partners who helped make this convening possible and are contributing to the future of Oregon's climate innovation ecosystem.

Tomorrow, our Senior Program Manager, Mikhail Hutton, will be speaking at the Catalyze Series Webinar on "How Regional Manufacturing Leads the Transition to Clean Industries" . The clean industrial revolution isn't just a national conversation. It's happening right now on factory floors and in local communities. As Head of our Scale For ClimateTech program, Mikhail works at the heart of this shift, connecting climate tech startups to the resources, infrastructure and manufacturing partners they need to grow. He'll be joined by Sandra Sassow from SEaB Energy, and moderated by Iana Aranda from ASME, for a conversation about the role of policy, investment, supply chains and workforce in building regional manufacturing ecosystems. Come say hello and join us on April 29 from 11:00 AM ET. Learn more about the event at /webinars/

Earth Week feels like the right moment to pause and take a look at what Scale For ClimateTech's community has built since 2018. Thank you to the 121 S4C companies who are doing the hard work of building a better climate future! #climatetech #earthweek #climateinnovation @nyserda @secondmuse @nextcorps

Brain capital is gaining traction as an investment priority, but momentum alone doesn't build a market. The brain economy is built across a lifetime of work, education, and community. It spans food, housing, healthcare, and social connections at every stage of life. No single sector owns that complexity, and no single investment can shift it. That is the gap SecondMuse Capital Senior Director, Natalia Arjomand, and our Head of Well-Being, David Ball, are writing about in our latest blog, drawing on research from McKinsey Health Institute, @worldeconomicforum and insights from Harris Eyre of the Global Brain Economy Initiative. They make the case for what it will take and why a whole-of-economy approach is the foundation we need to build. Click the link in our bio to read the full piece.

Last week, our Program Manager, Naya Shim, took the stage as a panelist at the Climate Scaling Summit we hosted alongside @laincubator at BATWorks. Naya was joined by an incredible group of panelists from American Manufacturing Futures Institute, Popwheels and SBIDC, for a candid conversation about what it actually takes to grow climate solutions beyond the pilot stage. The conversation surfaced something we at SecondMuse know well: capital alone doesn't scale climate companies. Coordinated ecosystems do--manufacturing partners, workforce pipelines, policy alignment and supply chain infrastructure, all engaged early and intentionally. The post-pilot gap remains one of the biggest bottlenecks for hardware startups. The missing link isn't just financing. It's operational infrastructure, physical space, and trained labor. We're proud to be part of these conversations and grateful to LACI and BATWorks for making it happen. More insights coming soon 👀 Click the link in our bio to subscribe to our newsletter and stay in the loop.

📍Up to €50,000 in grant funding available for Bengaluru-based ESOs. The Circular Economy Innovation Cluster (CEIC) is selecting up to 12 Entrepreneurship Support Organisations in Bengaluru to build and launch their own circular economy & social impact programs, and funding them to do it. 📅 Application deadline: 15th April 2026 HOW IT WORKS 1️⃣Step 1: Masterclasses (May 2026 –July 2026) Join a structured learning program covering circular economy principles, social impact frameworks, tools, and program design. You'll also connect and collaborate with ESOs in Nairobi for cross-city peer learning. 2️⃣Step 2: Grant program implementation (Sep 2026 - Feb 2027) After completing the Masterclasses, participants are eligible to apply for competitive grants of up to €50,000 to implement their own entrepreneurship program supporting circular economy and social impact ventures. WHAT YOU GET - Practical circular economy & social impact knowledge - Peer learning with ESOs across Bengaluru and Nairobi - Up to €50,000 in grant funding to launch your program - Tools and connections to design and run your initiative No prior circular economy experience required. Just a clear vision and drive to support impact-driven entrepreneurs. 👉 Apply now: https://bit.ly/40VZh7P CEIC is run by Climate KIC, GrowthAfrica, and SecondMuse, and funded by the IKEA Foundation.

We talk a lot about climate targets. We talk less about where those targets actually get built. The clean economy won’t scale without regional manufacturing capacity--the people, facilities, supply chains, and coordination that turn innovation into production. Across New York, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and the Great Lakes, the opportunity is clear: regions that align industrial strategy with climate ambition will capture the jobs, investment, and long-term competitiveness that come with it. This isn’t just about producing clean technologies. It’s about strengthening the industrial backbone that makes durable growth possible. Swipe through to see how these regions can lead. Building climate manufacturing ecosystems takes coordination. Let's keep the conversation going at [email protected]

Our Head of Consulting, Neisan Massarrat, was recently in Mérida, México for #FLII2026, one of the region's leading gatherings on impact investing, bringing together over 1,000 attendees from 70 countries. Neisan joined the panel "Catalyzing Change: From Philanthropy to Impact Investment" alongside leaders from Fundación Diez Morodo, Social Capital Foundation and Sistema B México. He brought SecondMuse's perspective as the architect of impact investment mechanisms, drawing on over 18 years of designing financial instruments utilized in more than 50 countries and, through SecondMuse Capital, catalyzing over $2B in follow-on funding with partners including the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and Empire State Development. The conversation focused on how foundations and family offices can co-invest, de-risk opportunities, and move beyond traditional grantmaking toward more catalytic funding mechanisms. The energy around catalytic capital, entrepreneurial ecosystems and cross-sector collaboration was unmistakable. We left with fresh ideas and a clearer conviction that the question for foundations is no longer whether to evolve, but how to evolve.

Youth mental health continues to be a growing challenge, with demand for care outpacing the available workforce. Meet Melinda Gong and Gun Young Lim, Co-Founders of @solhealth.co , a digital mental health startup supporting the next generation of therapists to expand access to care for young people. Through Sol Health, they’re addressing both the youth mental health crisis and the nationwide therapist shortage by connecting young adults with therapists-in-training who share their lived experiences. As part of our Headstream program's 2025 Accelerator Cohort, Melinda and Gun have worked alongside youth co-creators and advisors to refine Sol Health’s model, strengthen their brand and strategy and continue growing their impact. 🤝 👉 Click the link in our bio to read Sol Health's journey.

We spoke with our Head of Well-Being, David Ball, about the shifts shaping 2026. What is emerging is less about isolated trends and more about system alignment. The future of #wellbeing will not be defined by a single sector, but by how effectively we align workforce development, digital #health, youth systems, and capital with equitable outcomes. Swipe through to read more insights, and let's consider your role in your own ecosystem at [email protected]