Page 29 - BusinessWest May 30, 2022

“They introduced me to Chris Sims. Chris and Alchemy were the first institutional capital com- mitment on Clean Crop’s seed-round raise.”
Alchemy helped Clean Crop create a battle plan to turn what it had, something that works in academic papers, into a working product — while also providing insight into how to bring it to customers. In the course of doing so, Clean Crop was able to do complete two rounds of major funding, both of which Alchemy partici- pated in, from several investors, including the MassMutual Catalyst Fund.
“Chris is an extended part of the Clean Crop
knew back in 2018.
“There’s some real validation to what we
believed would happen,” said Brett Gearing, another of the founders. “We’re actually seeing and witnessing what we envisioned. It’s exciting for us for sure.”
Indeed, a lot has happened at Alchemy over the past years. For starters, its founders have launched two funds to invest in early-stage start- ups outside of the tech hubs of Boston and New York — with a focus on Western Mass. It has deployed all of the capital in the second fund, and will commence fundraising for its third fund
are expensive, so by operating in Western Mass., Alchemy has been able to seize opportunities of the same caliber as those in major tech hubs for just a fraction of the cost.
Opportunities like Clean Crop, which has developed technologies that some are calling game-changers within the food industry.
“By definition, they are pushing the boundar- ies of something that hasn’t been done before,” said Sims, adding that as portfolio companies like Clean Crop grow and evolve, they attract top talent to the region.
“If you look at the folks we’re drawing into these companies, it’s not just the number — we’re creating a type of employment that literally didn’t exist here before,” he went on. “Now we’re saying you can go work at Clean Crop and help make Holyoke Massachusetts a stop on the road to the next green revolution.”
The seed-round raise White referred to was a start-up fundraising event in 2020 where Clean Crop Technologies raised $3 million — which was followed by a $6 million seed round in 2022, just two years later. He went on to explain that even before that commitment, Alchemy worked with Clean Crop for months to help sharpen its business strategy and target milestones in order to maximize its ability to raise capital.
This is an example of how the fund’s menu of services to portfolio companies extends beyond providing needed capital.
Similar to the way a sports coach would help out an up-and-coming athlete, Alchemy helps its clients upgrade their business model, assign vet-
Alchemy Fund
Continued on page 48
“Chris is an extended part of the Clean Crop family; he has helped us sharpen our strategy at key intervals, and provides executive coaching and advisory office hours twice a month with our leadership team. He consistently helps sharpen our focus and prioritize resource deployment to the most relevant questions at that moment.”
soon.
“Within two years we
will definitely have our third fund raised,” said Chris Bignell, Alchemy partner. “There might be some geographic expan- sion, and there might be a different mix of compa- nies that we would invest in.”
Geographic expan- sions, yes, but Alchemy is keeping its focus local. Sims explained that in
family; he has helped us sharpen our strategy at key intervals, and provides executive coaching and advisory office hours twice a month with our leadership team,” White explained. “He con- sistently helps sharpen our focus and prioritize resource deployment to the most relevant ques- tions at that moment.”
There are several emerging success stories like Clean Crop in the Alchemy Fund portfolio, and together they confirm what the fund’s partners
places like Boston or New York, venture capital- ists typically end up chasing the same two deals as everyone else — in other words, they have an abundance of capital with a shortage of deals.
The reverse is true for Western Mass. Alchemy has run into what could be called a potentially good problem here — a situation where many companies are chasing a limited amount of capital. Competed deals like those in Boston
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