Our portfolio spans a diverse selection of companies, largely Montana based, including everything from software to lighting to agriculture. Our interest is in investing in those businesses with a strong leadership team, an innovative business concept or technology, and the potential to make a real difference.
Competing in a global commodity marketplace makes the financial end of ranching quite difficult. Yet ranchers are place-based and ranching dictates a lot of the large open landscapes of Montana. Ranchers Original was created by ranchers to create a profitable cull cow grass-fed beef business grounded in a long term commitment to ecological, social, and economic health.
Timeless Natural Foods was established to provide an outlet for Montana organic farmers for their pulse crops, part of their nitrogen fixing rotation. The company is known nationally for its high quality, certified organic cereal grains, pulse crops, and edible seeds.
A group of investors formed Berkeley United, LLC as a holding company to acquire and develop an old industrial site in Missoula as a sustainable building center. At the core of the center is Home Resource, Inc., a Missoula non-profit dedicated to re-using building materials and keeping them out of our landfill while employing at-risk and transitioning employees to accomplish its mission. The Missoula Urban Demonstration Project, also a non-profit, has moved its operations, including an extensive tool lending library, to the project.
Clearas manufactures and operates wastewater treatment systems. The Clearas solution is an advanced non-chemical treatment that significantly reduces levels of multiple constituents – including phosphorus by a factor of 10 and nitrogen by a factor of 3 – and other harmful contaminants in wastewater. The result is clean water, an increase of up to 40% dissolved oxygen, and no harmful by-products to dispose of.
Hestia In-Home Support is a woman-owned enterprise offering the flexibility of a complete support system delivering healthcare directly to customers in their own homes.
Kindkudos is an easy-to-use messaging app for sharing, saving, and spreading kindness, happiness, and appreciation. Kindkudos allows you to keep your most meaningful messages in one easily accessible place. Imagine seeing and hearing kind thoughts from the people you care about anytime you want a boost.
MeetMindful is changing the dating scene by being the first online dating site to serve a mindful lifestyle. For those ready to meet other singles who value healthy living, personal development, sustainability, spirituality, yoga, meditation, self-awareness, authentic connections, and more, this is your place.
Rivertop is a renewable chemical company that has invented a platform process to produce non-toxic, biodegradable chemicals. These chemicals will differentiate single-use products by improving their performance and sustainability profile at a competitive cost.
Satic is committed to the design, development, and manufacturing of energy-saving products that make home appliances, electronics and office equipment run better and last longer.
The Natural Baby Company of Bozeman MT, a woman-led business, provides innovative and modern solutions for diaper disposal. The company currently manufactures industry-leading GroVia Modern Cloth Diapers and Ovolo Wrap. The company is a Certified B Corporation that has been recognized for its earth-friendly products and forward-thinking business practices.
Funds
Equilibrium Capital Group is a platform of asset managers who focus on real asset sectors impacted by resource constraints and sustainability. They are active in sectors including real estate, integrated land management, water and wastewater, agriculture, and distributed energy.
RSF Social Finance (RSF) is a pioneering non-profit financial services organization dedicated to transforming the way the world works with money. In partnership with a community of investors and donors, RSF provides capital to non-profit and for-profit social enterprises addressing key issues in the areas of Food & Agriculture, Education & the Arts, and Ecological Stewardship.
Renewal2 provides an opportunity for investors to participate in the development of business at the forefront of social and environmental innovation.
Next Frontier capital is the first venture capital fund in Montana. Its focus is on investing in technology companies.
Back to the Roots makes fun and innovative products that teach people how to grow their own healthy, organic food in their own homes.
TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. With over 50 products available at major retailers, like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, OfficeMax, Petco, and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the fastest-growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world. The Company strives to eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for materials others deem garbage.
Inspired stories from the B Corp blog and other B the Change team members out there in the interweb. These are people, organizations, and other businesses that are using the power of business as a force for good.
The Audience Awards is a woman-led business that provides a platform for documentary filmmakers to tell stories. The Audience Awards hosts short film competitions where the film with the most votes wins a cash prize, often for significant amounts. The Audience Awards has built a community of filmmakers and the audiences who love them and provides great content to forward-thinking and progressive brands.
Bija Body is a line of natural beauty products and teas made without the use of any unnecessary ingredients, harmful chemicals or GMOs. Ingredients are from fair trade, organic and sustainable sources whenever possible. Bija Body supports women run, and women owned agricultural cooperatives in impoverished regions of the world through their sourcing policies and as a founding member of RootedinBeauty.
Goomzee provides cloud-based mobile and web technology to real estate professionals. Its mobile text messaging and QR code marketing tool delivers requested property information to a prospective purchaser’s mobile device and instantly notifies the listing agent of those who are interested in a property.
House Design Studio offers sustainable furniture, furnishings, and interior design services from Missoula MT. House has created a private label collection built from reclaimed, reused, and beetle kill pieces from around the state.
Lunera Lighting is a technology innovator leading the transformation of traditional lighting to environmentally friendly, digital LED technology. They design, assemble and test high-performance commercial LED lighting fixtures that replace common fluorescent fixtures. Their application of digital lighting technology improves the quality of light for commercial building occupants, lowers the operating cost for building owners, enhances worker productivity, and reduces the carbon footprint for all who inhabit the planet.
Montainer provides unparalleled value to clients by taking the hassle, complication, and uncertainty out of buying a container home. They design, permit, manufacture, deliver, and install repurposed shipping containers.
NeighborWorks Montana works with local service partners throughout the state to provide homebuyer education, homeownership planning, foreclosure prevention, one-to-one housing counseling, loans for a down payment and closing costs, due-on-sale loans for “gap financing” and financing for the development of affordable rental housing.
Rocky Mountain Biologicals, Inc. develops, manufactures, and sells specialized blood serum and derivative products, in particular cell culture growth factors and diagnostic test materials, to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Submittable is a B to B software as a service that provides a clean interface for companies to accept and manage digital content.
Upstream Research is a “big data” company focused on the detection, prediction, and prevention of chronic diseases in human populations.
Frontier Angel Fund II is a Montana based Angel fund that invests in companies with a desire and plans to scale and exit. It strives for low overhead and administrative costs while structuring good deals where both the investor and entrepreneur thrive.