Investing in Glow

We are investing in Glow’s Series A led by Union Square Ventures and Framework Ventures. This is our second investment into Glow having participated in their unannounced seed round in late 2023. Glow is our second portfolio company in Decentralized Generative Energy Networks (DeGEN) the emergent DePIN subsector having previously invested in Daylight. 

The crypto industry has been inextricably linked to energy from day one with Bitcoin’s massive energy consumption dominating the public conversation. By some estimates Bitcoin consumes around 0.5% of the world’s electricity today - a figure equivalent to the energy use of entire countries like Argentina or Norway. We are not here to bash Bitcoin’s energy usage, Bitcoin provides the world with a non-soverign store of value which is immensely valuable. What we are pointing out the incredible power of crypto to coordinate a group of people and entities all around the world, a coordination that can now consumer energy the size of nation states - but what if we could flip that model and go from energy consumption to energy production? That is where Glow comes in. 

Like all Bitcoin stories start with Satoshi Nakamoto, Glow begins with David Vorick. David is not anonymous, in fact David is easy to find - he’s the guy with the dyed bright red fluorescent hair. David has been at this crypto stuff much longer than most, he discovered Bitcoin in 2011 and beat Vitalik to mainnet with the Sia file storage project, launching in June 2015. To put it mildly David is an outlier in an industry of outliers. Through his experience at Sia, David realized the incredible power of tokens to coordinate a global community, in the case of Sia it was file storage but after leaving the project and wondering the desert of crypto disillusionment, he pondered the question of what else could tokens be used to coordinate and the idea for Glow began - a protocol coordinating the transition to 100% renewable energy via solar. 

What is Glow? 

Today, for solar installations participating in Glow’s network, participants pledge 100% of their electricity revenue (the "protocol fee") to the Glow protocol pool. This fee is calculated based on the projected 10-year electricity value. 

Participants in the Glow Network benefit from two main rewards:

- USDC Rewards: Proportional to carbon credits generated, which represent reduced CO₂ emissions based on the energy region (e.g. India). Farms in areas with "dirtier" energy sources (like coal) receive more USDC as their clean energy has a higher carbon impact.
- Glow Tokens: Are earned relative to the USDC contribution to the incentive pool. Large farms receive more tokens than smaller residential installations. Thus ensuring large farm participation.

Glow credits, or Glow Carbon Credits (GCC), are auctioned weekly and purchased with Glow tokens, which are then burned to reduce token supply. On the demand side, Glow seeks to overcome the challenge of monetizing solar credits, which traditionally lack "additionality" (a clear indication that the credits make a unique environmental impact). By incentivizing solar in non-traditional, carbon-heavy locations, Glow is able to argue for greater additionality, increasing credit value. Although the market is speculative, Glow’s on-chain, fully-traceable credits provide a uniquely crypto-native approach to carbon impact.

Glow is cooking. It has nearly 70 solar farms on the protocol producing nearly 50 megawatt-hours (MWh) per month. 50 MWh per month is a substantial amount of energy, roughly equivalent to the monthly consumption of around 1,500 typical U.S. homes. David and Glow are really just getting started, in September a single solar farm brought in $1.6M in protocol revenue with a carbon impact of 60,000 adult trees and the plans are only expanding as more solar installers around the world learn about Glow.

We believe Glow has the potential to be one of the most transformative projects in not just crypto but the world and we are thrilled to be backing them in their journey.

We are excited about the energy space, if you want to jam more about an idea for what you are building or get involved with Glow - please reach out to us.