Sonam Velani is the co-founder and Managing Partner of StreetLife Ventures, a venture capital firm making investments in climate solutions to transform urban areas, based in New York. Velani’s journey to venture capitalism did not start and end with experience in finance. Velani navigated young adulthood by listening to a much deeper, intrinsic calling: to pay homage to the people, places, and policies that helped shape her life.
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With a career — spanning 15 years — connecting the dots between cities, climate, and capital, Velani has cemented her position as a leading climate warrior. She has leveraged her background in climate-smart infrastructure finance, policy, and operations to build partnerships and bring climate solutions to the communities that need them the most. But few know of her humble beginnings and the struggles of being an undocumented immigrant that precede her success, and ultimately drive her motivations.
In this candid interview, we dive deep into Velani’s origin story and what inspired her to focus on a career in climate. We explore the role her culture and her identity played and chart the evolution of her approach bridging public and private sectors, and what she hopes to pass on, specifically to the South Asian community and the women within it.
Morning run to explore #StreetlifeSolutions!@PUBsingapore hosted us at the Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant in #Singapore – 30M gallons of drinking water is produced below these gardens everyday.
A marvel of #greeninfrastructure, #climatetech, & #waterinnovation!
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— Sonam Velani (@sonamvelani) May 5, 2023
You’ve had an interesting career spanning finance, international development, government, and now venture capital. Can you summarize your career path and what motivated your various moves?
I started my career in infrastructure finance at Goldman Sachs where I learned the importance of technical skills and networking early on. This exposed me to projects improving transit, water, and energy systems. I then joined the World Bank to work on urban resilience projects across Asia, witnessing the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities, firsthand. This made me realize I wanted to be a direct decision-maker, so I joined the New York City Mayor’s Office. There, I worked on major affordable housing, economic development, and infrastructure initiatives, all with a climate lens and how we as a city can get to ‘net zero’ by 2050. The best part of the job was seeing big, transformational projects come to fruition in my own streets and neighborhood.
Later, I joined Zipline, a startup using drones to deliver lifesaving medicines, and where I saw the potential of blending capital models to scale growth. Given all these experiences, and a much bigger focus on climate solutions today than when I started my career in this space, I wanted to double down on these efforts and bring them all together. This inspired me to launch Streetlife alongside my partner Laura Fox, focused on investing in the $5 trillion market opportunity at the intersection of cities and climate. As a part of our strategy, we also help founders access non-dilutive capital and deploy and de-risk their technologies through our partnerships with real-world urban test beds with cities, real estate developers, and infrastructure groups (the coolest one being this 300-acre WWII ship-building facility that ‘s been turned into an advanced manufacturing hub in Brooklyn). It’s all about bringing wildly successful, scalable, and profitable solutions, to the communities that need it most.
As a VC now, what motivated you to start Streetlife Ventures and how do you feel your experience across sectors is an asset to the project?
Almost nobody in the local government goes off and starts a VC fund. But they should, because climate is a heavily regulated space and rubber hits the road at the local level. We always talk to founders who want to start an EV charging company, but nine out of 10 of them have no clue who owns which part of the sidewalk, or how to get the electricity connection from Con Ed to their equipment, or the fact that the Public Design Commission has to approve all “street furniture” in New York City. There are all of these nuances of complex urban environments that have a huge impact on climate change, and have a huge impact on startups that are trying to try to address climate change. So you need to have expertise on the regulations, operations, and capital stack, in addition to a deep rolodex of potential clients and partners. This is what we offer at Streetlife, and how we work with startups from day one to ensure their long-term success. Furthermore, you need to have a partnership with cities as asset owners and regulators, as well as operators within a city, be it real estate developers or infrastructure groups. It’s really an ‘all hands on deck’ approach.
While climate doom and gloom often makes the headlines, I believe agency and optimism are the keys to transforming our society. We are focused on deploying cutting edge technologies, implementing innovative business models, and bringing together a variety of public and private stakeholders to scale these solutions. I am passionate about paying it forward, and it is in our streets and neighborhoods where we can build resilient, sustainable, and equitable places we call home.
Can you tell us more about the Climate Tech Cities community that you helped shape?
Core to our success is our community of over 10,000 climate founders, operators, technical experts, policymakers, and talent. Climate Tech Cities is our community platform where we partner with 25 different groups across the climate tech ecosystem including household names like SOSV, Activate, My Climate Journey, Terra.do, Venture for Climate Tech, and more.
In addition, our weekly newsletter is distributed to 10,000+ members in eight cities, putting us in front of readers — 40% of whom are building startups and call us as soon as they start ideating. Furthermore, this is an ongoing source of talent, with 88% of our network working in climate or keen to transition. We put on topical events each month, host happy hours, and really focus on how to break down the barriers between climate tech, policy, and justice.
The annual loop around the sun, literally! ?????
Proud to share a birthday w/ @CitiBikeNYC, and it’s extra special today! ?
PSA: For every $1,300 NYC invests in bike lanes, residents benefit from the equivalent of a full year of life. Cheers to many more! #StreetlifeSolutions ? https://t.co/tRcPAIT9lL pic.twitter.com/EAhoU7EyR9
— Sonam Velani (@sonamvelani) May 27, 2023
What about Parachute; your creative storytelling platform?
Parachute is our creative research and storytelling platform, where we’re investigating climate solutions in cities across the globe — what works, what doesn’t, and why. This helps us build our research and investment thesis, and we’ve seen dozens of solutions in action — from reflective pavements in Los Angeles to resilience hubs in Baltimore to micro-grids in Orlando. Our back-end database of 130+ startups and 90+ cities helps us match solutions and needs, supporting our founders in their business development and go-to-market efforts as we “deliver the customer” to our portfolio companies. Furthermore, our readers include over 30 climate-tech VC firms and we are regularly the “go-to ladies” for deep diligence questions given our climate expertise.
With our tools and extensive network, we aim to protect people from the effects of climate change they are experiencing here and now — moving solutions out of labs and PDF reports into every neighborhood and onto every street. Our comprehensive set of partnerships and resources will help entrepreneurs succeed, will help cities implement their climate agendas, and will launch a new generation of urban climate tech companies with diverse founding teams at the helm.
Tell us a little bit more about the work that you have done overseas, especially in your birth city Mumbai. What were some common elements you found between Mumbai and New York City while working in each of these cities?
I was born in Mumbai and moved to Chicago as a young child. It wasn’t until my senior year of college that I went back and, that too, to write my college thesis on the city’s urban redevelopment plans for Dharavi — one of the largest slums in the world (also made famous by Dev Patel and Slumdog Millionaire). It is a massive city with 20 million people, and the haves and have nots are in stark contrast like many other large cities around the world. It is here where I truly saw the challenges climate change can wreak on vulnerable communities with little to their name, often living in low-lying, flood prone areas on the city’s edge. So much of my work focused on how to build new, resilient infrastructure that didn’t fall apart in floods, hurricanes, or other natural disasters, and how to use data in those planning processes.
Fast forward to my time in the New York City Mayor’s Office, and those same challenges exist in one of the wealthiest metropolises of the world. We have over $15 billion of investments to help our city decarbonize and adapt to climate change, yet how that money is spent and which neighborhoods get much-needed investment is the same story that’s repeated here as in Mumbai. It takes both a policy imperative, as well as new technologies and solutions, to solve climate challenges around the world, and ensure that solutions are implemented in communities that need them most.
What facets of your childhood shaped your thinking today?
[As an undocumented immigrant], you don’t receive any services from the government — instead, you try your best to not get noticed by the government. To some extent, you are a shadow member of a functioning society around you. For some time, we lived in a basement apartment that would always be flooded because it was near a water plant. I remember my parents would turn on the stove to heat our home, because Chicago gets extremely cold. These are environmental injustices that a lot of people experience, but rarely speak about. These rarely make the headlines, but have a profound impact on people’s life and well-being. For me, this lived experience is what drew me to build my career in climate. It’s all about paying it forward and improving life for the next generation, particularly in a rapidly warming world.
When did you start sharing your story, and why?
I had been asked to speak about my work for my fifth-year Alumni Reunion at Harvard, and that’s the first time I started talking about my story of being undocumented. 90% of my classmates would not have guessed it. I was working at the World Bank at the time, and it was on a project for mapping communities and understanding their infrastructure needs. So I was mapping communities in India, and in Pakistan, which ultimately became a global effort called the ‘Open Data for Resilience Initiative.’ I realized that when I was mapping people living in slums, I could literally put them on the map. I was helping to give them an identity that they otherwise did not have — and that experience made me realize I should also put my own identity on the map. I should talk and be more vocal about this. Fast forward a few years, Trump came into office and that’s when my voice really went into overdrive!
All to say, there’s so much more activism today than there was 20 years ago — whether it’s about immigration, climate, social inequality, or much else. It’s not only okay to openly talk about these things, but it’s also celebrated as a part of your identity. I say the more the merrier — you don’t know anything about the person sitting next to you; you may come with many assumptions, but it’s not until you actually speak to them with curiosity and empathy that you’ll find out. We all have a story to tell.
What aspects of South Asian culture and environment have inspired you and influenced your journey to where you are?
My South Asian roots run deep — I’m lucky to be surrounded by family and friends who have always provided a sense of belonging, love, and support, in good times and bad. Like many immigrant families, my parents worked day and night to make sure I had what I needed to get a good education, build strong values, and become a strong, independent woman. They always said, “Anybody can take your physical possessions, but nobody can take your intellect.” That mantra has been part of my core ever since. To this day, I still have seven almonds in the morning just like my mom would give me every day when I went off to school — she claimed that it would keep my brain sharp! Apparently, President Obama shares this habit with all us Indian kids.
How has your upbringing, from family to friends to mentors, help shape your mindset today?
I’ll share a funny anecdote that is emblematic of the strong influence my family has had on me. My dad is an Uber driver — the really chatty kind — and he loves getting to know his customers. He can say hello to you in 100 different languages and will go through your entire life history during a 20-minute drive. Today, I have no shortage of LinkedIn messages and emails from my dad’s customers, many of whom say, ‘I was in your dad’s Uber and he told me to say hello!’ I’ve read everything from his customers’ college application essays to connecting them to their future employers!
We all got to where we are because someone looked out for us — they gave us shelter when we had little, they put a hot meal on the table, they answered a cold email, they made an introduction, or they even gave us a glowing review when we were applying for a new job or exploring a new opportunity. My family has received so much from so many, and we’ve “made it” thanks to the generosity of others. Paying it forward is part and parcel of our values, and I am lucky to be able to do so.
