Investment Highlight: The Infrastructure Bill’s Opportunity for Startups

Good morning and welcome to our Tuesday investment highlight. We usually look at an investor making big money moves and the trends surrounding those moves, but today we’re looking at the political directives that will shape those investments. We’re deciphering the writing on the wall in the $1.2TN infrastructure package to ask which startups and investors stand to gain from the whopping investment. Let’s break it down by industry:

Water, sewage, and the electrical grid, oh my!
$120BN is earmarked for better utilities. Tech startups are lining up to answer the call for better connectivity and digital mapping. The plan includes $65BN to ensure all Americans have access to reliable, high-speed Internet (some up & comers in the space listed here) and funding to safeguard against sewage defects, replace lead pipes in waterways, and more.

Internet Police
Of all the threats facing our nation, cyber security is high on the list. Alongside climate change, data breaches and ransomware attacks have had disastrous and costly consequences this year. Threat protection will receive a $50BN influx of taxpayer investment. Companies whose ears are perking up are San Francisco-based Vanta, a platform for automating security monitoring and compliance. Balbix out of San Jose has developed a predictive breach risk and resilience platform to identify threats.

EVs and Climatetech
Bill Gates is getting a piece of the pie. His nuclear power startup TerraPower will receive $1.5BN from the infrastructure bill to help replace a coal-fueled power station with a Natrium power plant in Wyoming. 

EV companies in all forms can expect to see their valuations climb. Monarch, an EV tractor company, just raised $61MM to fuel its agtech ambitions. WeaveGrid is creating vehicle-grid integration (VGI) smart charging solutions for a better EV grid.

Meanwhile, the Build Back Better bill was passed on Friday. The $3.5TN spending plan boasts social spending promises like universal pre-K and even more climate action funding.