About

Rizoma is a specialty investment bank focused on providing innovative companies in a variety of sectors and situations with tailored capital raising and M&A solutions.

Rizoma has four key practices:

  1. Sustainability Tech & Services
  2. Advanced Materials
  3. Aerospace
  4. Healthcare & Biotech

We specialize in delivering seamless M&A and capital raise solutions with continuous, individualized support. You focus on your business while we handle the transaction process. Our services include:

  • Positioning your business in a compelling way via our offering materials.
  • Identifying and evaluating prospective buyers and investors around the world.
  • Maximizing value through a proactive marketing process designed to provide you with multiple strategic options.
  • Collaborating with your counsel to negotiate key legal terms and ensure the cleanest possible transaction.
  • Managing due diligence workstreams, including third-party advisors.
  • Protecting value through closing and delivering the best outcome for all stakeholders.

Team

Claire Veuthey

Claire has worked in sustainability product and investment roles at startups, scale-ups, and Fortune 100 firms for close to 20 years. She has experience in product, research, investment, and sales, and has advised private market investors on their sustainability strategies. Claire is responsible for sourcing and executing M&A transactions on behalf of Rizoma's clients, and takes pride in getting entrepreneurs a sustainability premium.

Claire earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley) and the Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) Credential. She is also a Terra.do fellow and Course creator, and the co-author of The Grassroots DEI Organizer Playbook. She speaks French and Spanish and has lived in 7 cities in 6 countries on 3 continents. Claire serves on the board of Turning Green, an environmental nonprofit working on changing our food systems.

Will Bower

Will Bower leads Rizoma's M&A practice and has 15 years of investment banking experience advising public and privately-held companies on a variety of transactions including healthy and distressed M&A, debt and equity capital raises, and restructurings. He has completed over 60 middle-market and early-stage transactions as exclusive financial advisor to his clients.

Prior to Rizoma, Will was a Managing Director at B. Riley Securities and FocalPoint Securities, where he advised middle-market companies in a variety of industrial and technology-related sectors including recycling, advanced materials, specialty manufacturing, fleet management / logistics, and a variety of business services niches. Will also works with venture-stage founders, investors, and operators, having advised on over 20 financing or sale transactions as either exclusive financial advisor or advisor to the Board of Directors. He graduated from the University of Southern California and has his Series 79 and 63 licenses.

Wesley Newburg

Wesley Newburg is responsible for originating and executing merger and acquisition transactions at Rizoma. He brings more than a decade of experience in software including sales, product, strategy, and investing work. Wesley manages our process while helping clients demonstrate the value of their technology to buyers and investors.

Wesley's data startup MediaHound was acquired by United Talent Agency in 2022. Wesley has advised a variety of startups and backed early-stage clean energy and mobility founders as the GP of a small venture capital fund called Helene Ventures. His academic affiliations include USC, Columbia University, and Terra.do.

Rob Kenny

Prior to Rizoma, Rob spent more than 10 years partnering with founders at high-growth, mission-focused healthcare startups in executive roles. He possesses deep operational experience in debt and equity capital raises, and restructuring processes.

He has helped founders raise more than $100 million in financing rounds ranging from a $4M Seed to a $33 million Series B. Rob successfully secured venture debt financing for Hello Alpha and drove the end-to-end process for Lemonaid Health's $400M acquisition by 23andMe.

Rob earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley as well as an MS and BS in Applied Mathematics from Queen's University Belfast. He is an avid sports fan and won a national collegiate championship in rugby in 2007.

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News

Asuene Enters U.S. Climate Tech Market with Acquisition of Carbon Accounting Startup NZero (advised by Rizoma)

Asuene Enters U.S. Climate Tech Market with Acquisition of Carbon Accounting Startup NZero

Asuene Enters U.S. Climate Tech Market with Acquisition of Carbon Accounting Startup NZero

Tokyo-based climate tech company Asuene announced the acquisition of carbon management and accounting platform nZero, marking an expansion for the company into the North American and U.S. greentech and corporate sustainability markets.

Founded in 2019, Asuene, with some 10,000 clients worldwide, offers a variety of services supporting companies’ net zero targets, including CO2 emissions measurement, reduction and reporting, as well as greenhouse gas consulting services.

Nevada-based nZero, founded in 2021, offers a real-time carbon management and accounting platform, automating and streamlining energy data collection and using AI to optimize costs and emissions. The platform provides NGOs, government agencies and businesses with the ability to analyze, and manage carbon emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 on a granular level.

Asuene Founder and CEO, Kohei Nishiwada, said:

“Partnering with NZero marks a significant milestone in Asuene’s journey toward becoming the world’s leading climate tech company. As decarbonization becomes central to long-term strategy for businesses, our collaboration with NZero enables cutting-edge, data-driven solutions that support measurable outcomes. By uniting our capabilities across Japan and the U.S., we’re empowering businesses and governments with the tools they need to reduce emissions, optimize energy use, and meet regulatory and stakeholder expectations with confidence.”

The acquisition marks Asuene’s first venture into the North American market, the company said, providing it with opportunities to expand its reach. nZero’s solutions are already deployed across more than 20 cities and states, supporting energy-intensive sectors, including transportation, water, energy, communications, digital systems, and data centers, Asuene added.

Asuene noted that the acquisition comes as the greentech landscape in the U.S. “is marked by a sharp contrast between federal policies, regional and local initiatives,” with the Trump administration rolling back decarbonization efforts, while many states and citied advance on their emissions reductions efforts, and market forces continuing to pressure businesses to reduce emissions.

Josh Weber, CEO of NZero, said:

“This alliance allows NZero to accelerate GHG emissions measurement and the implementation of reduction measures in the United States and across Asuene’s global operations as a fully integrated partner. As climate change intensifies and global sustainability standards evolve, combining industry expertise and innovation is critical in equipping organizations with the tools needed to take accountable, measurable steps toward net-zero emissions.”

Read the Original Article Here

ISS Acquires Carbon Accounting Software Company SustainaBase (advised by Rizoma) - ESG Today

ISS Acquires Carbon Accounting Software Company SustainaBase

October 9, 2024

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) announced today the acquisition by its governance, compensation, sustainability, and cyber risk business ISS-Corporate of SustainaBase, a Florida-based provider of carbon accounting and data management software solutions for corporate sustainability reporting.

Launched in 2020, SustainaBase makes software that tracks company greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and data. As regulatory, competitive, and supply chain pressures to measure and track GHG emissions have increased, SustainaBase has been working with companies that need to deliver carbon data and reporting to their stakeholders. Many more companies are expected to require these services in the coming years, as new regulations, including California's recently passed SB 253 and the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), come online. Both these standards will require companies to report on their own direct and indirect (Scope 3) emissions.

With the acquisition, ISS-Corporate will offer its clients a platform to automate GHG emissions reporting and help users develop an organized infrastructure for their energy and activity data. The system will assist clients comply with regulatory issues on climate risk, strategy, target setting and reporting, ISS-Corporate said. Over the coming months, the offering will be integrated into ISS-Corporate's platform alongside other services to help clients with their climate and broader sustainability reporting demands.

Marija Kramer, head of ISS-Corporate, said:

"We are incredibly excited to welcome the SustainaBase team to the ISS-Corporate family and to rapidly integrate their offering into our growing suite of sustainability solutions. SustainaBase's SaaS platform will deliver a holistic carbon accounting solution to our clients, providing an additional pillar of support over the course of their sustainability journey."

SustainaBase's team, with extensive experience in carbon accounting, data collection, and reporting, will join ISS-Corporate and focus on the continued expansion of client engagement and product capabilities, ISS-Corporate added.

Gaida Zirkelbach, co-founder and CEO of SustainaBase, said:

"We are thrilled to partner with Marija and the entire ISS-Corporate organization to help thousands of companies develop, manage, report and act on their carbon footprint with credible, auditable data. With this exciting combination, companies will have precise GHG data they can count on to make informed business decisions, along with a full suite of solutions to meet growing regulatory and voluntary needs."

Read the Original Article Here