![Adapt[us]](https://aucap.vc/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/adaptus-logo-neg-wine-RGB.png){kind=logo}
Backing climate [adaptation] ventures
We invest in and build companies that profitably fulfill demand in a 2.5°C+ world while improving human quality of life.
Our [thesis] in 2 minutes
We are a venture capital [fund] and venture [builder]
Venture capital fund
We back what we help build
From pre-seed to Series A
Global scope. Western launch
Venture builder
Remote delivery. Real results
World-class builders, startup budgets
True co-owner mentality
Weather volatility is becoming predictable. This creates [investable] opportunities.
In a hotter, more volatile world, the demand shifts are clear: water, cooling, resilient housing, food, health, and infrastructure. These are increasingly predictable demand drivers, and one of the largest development opportunities of our time.
We back early-stage founders who are solving adaptation problems with scalable, profitable businesses. We invest where customers act out of self-interest adopting solutions to protect assets, recover post event, and live a comfortable life.
Through our venture builder, we partner hands-on: supporting strategy, scaling, and go-to-market so companies can reach their full potential.
Adaptation is inevitable. The real choice is what kind of adaptation we choose to build.
The [beliefs] driving our thesis
1. Climate change is likely
A 2.5°C+ world is our base case. To hedge against this future, we must act now: backing companies built to thrive as climate stress intensifies.
2. Creating predictable demand
Climate shifts are reshaping basic needs. The result is a rare opportunity: long-term, high-growth markets we can forecast and act on now.
3. Self-interest will prevail
People buy based on self-interest, not ideals. This won’t change soon. Solutions that are better, faster, or cheaper will win.
4. Promoting tangible solutions
AI is eroding digital moats. We invest in companies connected to the physical world, where real assets and operations drive lasting value.
5. That create shared value
The strongest returns will come from ethical businesses that create shared value: aligning core profit drivers with solutions that improve quality of life in a warming world.
Media highlights
Resilience Constellation
Darren Clifford was included in Resilience Constellation’s Top Voices shortlist for 2026. The list brings together investors, scientists, policymakers, commodity strategists, and field-level practitioners.
Climate Leadership podcast
A conversation between Amber Garg, from Imperial College London, and Adapt [us] managing partner Darren Clifford about the role of private capital in adaptation.
Invested in Climate
Jason Rissman and Darren Clifford speak about the three different categories of adaptation tech, the unique challenges they face, how they’ll make the future more livable.
Keep Cool
Adapt [us] founder and CEO, Darren Clifford, joins Nick van Osdol to discuss the fund’s approach to investing and building companies at the intersection of climate adaptation and scalable, profitable businesses.
The Adapt
Will Everill sat down with Adapt [us] founder, Darren Clifford, for a quick interview to explore his playbook for finding returns in climate adaptation tech.
Emerging Manager Monthly
Adapt [us] founder Darren Clifford shares how intellectual honesty led to a simple thesis: bet on a warmer world, and build the companies humanity will need to live well in it.
Darren Clifford is a global speaker and subject matter expert on [climate adaptation investing], known for his pragmatic and data-driven perspective on how markets will evolve in a +2.5°C world. Drawing on two decades of experience in venture building, finance, and strategy, including [over a decade at McKinsey & Company], he helps investors, founders, and policymakers understand where climate change creates predictable shifts in demand and how capital can be deployed to build resilience and improve human quality of life.