Lachlan Nixon: Betting on the Future

Despite what some global political figures might suggest right now, the urgency of climate change has never been more acute. While there has traditionally been inertia when it comes to capital support for those working on the challenges, there is hope in a new wave of investors and venture capitalists with an ambitious focus on both the problem and the opportunity.

Lachlan Nixon is one of them.

“The world’s on fire, but we’re still investing in things that, in the grand scheme, don’t really matter.”

For Nixon, the conversation needs to shift away from business as usual and toward investments that directly support decarbonisation.

And that is exactly what his fund, Motion Capital, was built for.

“We’re focused solely on backing technology companies that help the world cut emissions.”

This isn’t a philanthropic or impact fund approach but a VC lens with a focus on real, commercially viable solutions that can fundamentally reshape industries like energy, transport, food production, and manufacturing. Motion Capital’s thesis is built on the premise that climate tech can be both a smart financial bet and a force for good. Whether through groundbreaking materials, next-gen energy systems, or bold new business models, Motion Capital is betting on a future where doing the right thing isn’t just necessary – it’s lucrative.

“We see the commercial opportunity in this transition of the global economy toward sustainability,” Nixon says. “Climate change is the greatest investment opportunity of the 21st Century.”

Growing up as an expat Kiwi in Hong Kong, Bahrain, and Australia, Nixon developed a global perspective that would later shape his approach to business. That multicultural exposure helped shape a worldview that not only reimagines New Zealand’s venture capital landscape but also its place in the world.

“If I was going over to the US with a large language model that we invented in Christchurch and trying to convince the Americans that we’ve cracked it, it’s just not credible. I’m trying to be self-aware of what kind of business the world expects from New Zealand. I think it’s clean, green sustainable ventures. They are more credible coming out of New Zealand.”

That awareness is backed up by Motion Capital’s portfolio, which includes Zincovery, working to decarbonise zinc dust recycling; Aspiring Materials, developing advanced carbon capture technology to reduce industrial emissions; Miruku, pioneering animal-free dairy as a sustainable alternative to traditional dairy production; and Supa, which is focused on developing smart micro-grids to improve the integration of renewable energy into local communities.

“All of our companies are world-class Kiwi climate tech companies that originated in New Zealand but are taking on global opportunities, and all of them have some kind of breakthrough technology that we think enables the economic decarbonisation of a large global industry. And that’s really our sweet spot. We like technology companies; we like technology development, particularly when they’re able to drive down the cost that some of these large corporates need to pay to decarbonise. One of our core investment philosophies is investing in companies that make it cheaper to save the world than to destroy it.”

Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, has also joined Motion Capital in funding one of the world-class kiwi climate tech companies Aspiring Materials. Breakthrough Energy describing Aspiring Material as being one of the “next generation of world-changing ideas”.

After high school, Nixon studied law and music at Otago University, an unusual combination that left him caught between two very different worlds.

“The music students didn’t take me seriously because I was also doing law, and the law students didn’t take me seriously because I was also doing music,” he says, clearly amused by the experience.

Still, this dual track of creative and analytical thinking would eventually serve him well when it came to making unconventional decisions, like leaving a promising legal career behind for the world of venture capital.

Nixon spent a decade in venture capital at another fund before launching Motion Capital.

During those years, Nixon came to the realisation that climate change was going to be the defining issue of the next several decades, and the companies best positioned to address it were also going to become some of the world’s most valuable.

“Over the last number of years, I’ve become exceptionally passionate about climate change,” he says, pointing out that he was increasingly frustrated with the lack of capital being deployed into climate solutions. “I was frankly finding pretty much everything else boring and increasingly out of touch.”

At Motion Capital, Nixon teams up with two seasoned partners, Chris Harris and Ralph Chang. Harris, who co-founded the hugely successful gaming company Ninja Kiwi, brings deep experience in building and scaling tech businesses. After selling Ninja Kiwi for several hundred million dollars, he shifted gears to focus on investing and mentoring new ventures. Chang, who joined in 2024, has a strong background in banking and green finance. Before coming on board, he was the CEO of Power Finance, where he used technology to connect debt instruments with real environmental impact.

Supporting them is an advisory team made up of the who’s who of experts in climate innovation, including Dr. Finn Ross, founder of Climate Action Company; Dr. James Pope, a geochemist with deep technical knowledge assess how different materials and processes can be used to tackle climate change; Dr. Maya Benami, an R&D consultant and microbiologist specialising in the technical side of food, fermentation, agriculture, and water-tech innovation; and Mariko Mura Davidson, an expert in electric mobility and sustainability.

And while the VC capability is growing for the sector, there is also increasing deal flow. Nixon suggests that climate is a strong area of entrepreneurship and research in New Zealand.

“We hosted an event at the St. James Theatre in Wellington last year. Over 500 people attended. Interestingly, over 150 of those people were students. I’ve never felt more popular. I stood up and spoke about what we’re doing and afterwards in the lobby, I had a queue of students asking, how do I get into climate tech? How do I have a career with purpose? How do I spend my time to help the response to climate change? And that gives me real hope. I don’t think there’s a climate tech sector in New Zealand that’s going to be smaller than it is today in ten years. In fact, I’m confident it will be several times larger.”

Motion Capital supports early-stage companies that are developing the technologies and innovations needed to lower emissions across industries. These are companies that can make a genuine dent in the climate crisis while also delivering strong returns.

“We are very focused on the commercials,” Nixon says, making it clear that the fund is about more than just doing good – it’s about making serious money, too.
Lachlan is betting on a future where climate solutions are both profitable and scalable. The focus is on tech companies that can help decarbonise large industries, from energy to manufacturing, agriculture to transport.

While Motion Capital is raising a $20 million fund, which is on the smaller end of the spectrum, they are punching well above their weight when it comes to leading investments, securing follow-on funding, and providing active support to the companies they back.

Lachlan is quick to differentiate between being active and being activist.

“We’re pretty careful when we get involved. We’re not looking for control, but we are looking for alignment. We’re a passenger on someone else’s bus, they’re firmly in the driver’s seat. But we like to know in what direction we’re heading and we’re in the passenger seat with the map.”

He sees his role as helping companies refine their strategy without taking over.

Being a lead investor requires a significant amount of work, particularly in due diligence and investment structuring. Many emerging funds leave this heavy lifting to larger firms, preferring to follow rather than take the lead. But for Nixon, it was crucial that Motion Capital establish itself as a leader in the climate tech sector.

“There’s a lot of talk about climate. You have a conference. There are a whole lot of people there and there’s lots of opportunity, but someone has to stand up and lead. We’re very happy to do the work, and I would say with a lot of these investments we’ve actually been leading with our work, not necessarily our cheque size; and I’m really proud of the deals that we’ve put together and the investors that have followed us.”

By taking the lead, Motion Capital has helped bring in larger, more generalist funds to support Kiwi climate tech. It’s not just about their own investment – it’s also about the time and effort they put into validating opportunities.

“Many of Australasia’s top general VC funds have invested in a Kiwi climate tech company because we’ve led the investment, brought it to them on a platter and said, ‘Hey, what about this one?’ We’ve made it easy for them to invest in climate. So that’s been a really purposeful strategy.”

This hands-on, leadership-driven approach has given Motion Capital a depth of expertise that sets it apart.

“There’s real benefit in being specialised and focused. At Motion Capital, we consider ourselves to be climate tech experts. We’re experts on what’s happening out there in terms of the climate – the climate of climate, if you like. You can give me any large industry, I can tell you its carbon emissions profile and five technologies in development to decarbonise it and whether they’re credible. So it’s that specialisation and focus that we think is going to deliver bright returns for our investors but also enable us to support our companies really meaningfully.”

Yet, as much as specialisation is important, climate investing is a vast field – one that demands the ability to connect the dots across industries.

One of Nixon’s favourite books, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein, challenges the notion that deep specialisation is always the key to success. Epstein argues that generalists – who draw from diverse experiences and disciplines – are often better equipped to solve complex, unpredictable problems.
It may seem contradictory to advocate for both specialisation and generalisation, but Nixon sees this as a necessary balance in a space as dynamic as climate technology. He also highlights that climate investing, perhaps because of the urgency and shared mission behind it, is inherently collaborative.

“It’s a very collaborative sector and it’s a wonder to work in because everybody will help out, particularly in New Zealand if they can. These companies are trying to do great things in the world, for the world, and they’re worth supporting and need all the help they can get. It does feel like everyone’s serving a bit of a higher purpose, and it’s not just out to make money in business. We can do good with our time and our money.”