Find your people. Fund the future.
E8 members evaluate early-stage companies together, conduct shared diligence, and back the companies building a thriving planet.
Choose how you want to invest.
E8 Angels
Direct angel investing in companies building a thriving planet. Members work together on diligence and invest directly in the companies they choose.
Decarbon8
Open to anyone, accredited or not. Each year we choose a focus area and use tax-deductible contributions to back companies working in that sector.
E8 Annual Fund
Open exclusively to E8 members. Each year, a new fund backs the same companies members can invest in directly. Fund members vote as a group on each investment.
Membership, in specifics.
Deal Flow
We screen 500+ companies and hear over three dozen pitches each year. The companies pitching to membership are selected by our member-led screening committee.
Diligence
You choose which companies to dig into. Four weeks of testing assumptions, working alongside experienced members. The work is shared, but the decision to invest is yours.
Investment Pathways
Invest directly in a company, join E8's Annual Fund, or use philanthropic dollars through Decarbon8. More than one path may fit how you want to invest.
Member Meetings
Monthly virtual member meetings bring our community together around emerging technologies, investment opportunities, and shared learning.
Learning Labs
Topics are based on member interest, ranging from emerging technologies to investor insights. Sessions are led by members and experts who work in the field.
Community
180+ members across dozens of regions: operators, scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors who bring what they know to the work.
How to join E8.
Tell us you're interested, meet the team, and decide whether the community feels right for you.
Interest FormTell us you're interested
Share what draws you to E8 so we can prepare for a useful first conversation.
- Tell us why E8 caught your attention
- Share what you hope to learn or contribute
- Give us context for our first conversation
Membership conversation
A brief call with our team to learn how E8 works, ask questions, and see whether the community feels right.
- Meet with E8 leadership
- Ask the questions that matter to you
- Get a clear picture of membership before deciding
Join the community
Welcome to a community of 180+ members who learn by doing the work together.
- Join learning labs led by members and sector experts
- Work alongside other members on screening and diligence
- Learn from investors, operators, scientists, and entrepreneurs
Start investing
Invest in companies from Pre-seed through Series A, at the pace and level that fit you.
- Choose the deals that interest you
- Invest as much or as little as you want
- Take your time and wait for the right opportunity
Your questions, answered.
Yes. E8 is a community of accredited investors, so membership follows the SEC's accredited-investor rules. The good news is that this is usually a lower bar than people expect, and it isn't a title you apply for or a certificate you have to earn.
You already qualify if any one of these is true for you:
- Income: over $200,000 on your own (or over $300,000 with a spouse or partner) in each of the last two years, and you expect the same this year.
- Net worth: over $1,000,000, not counting the home you live in.
- Professional standing: you hold a Series 7, 65, or 82 license, or you're a knowledgeable employee of a private fund.
If you're not sure where you land, we're glad to talk it through before you join.
Yes, and it's one of the more affordable ways to get serious about impact angel investing.
Annual membership dues are modest, and they cover everything E8 does: monthly deal flow from companies that clear our member-led screening, hands-on diligence teams, learning labs led by members and experts, monthly member meetings, and the full community of investors backing early-stage climate companies.
We're happy to walk you through current dues and exactly what's included before you decide.
There are three paths, and many members use more than one:
- E8 Angels: Direct angel investing. You choose which companies to dig into, collaborate with other members on diligence, and write your own checks on the deals you believe in.
- E8 Annual Fund: Our pooled, member-led fund. Members contribute to a shared pool at the start of the year and vote together on which companies to back, so a single commitment gives you diversified exposure across a full season of diligence-vetted deals.
- Decarbon8: Our philanthropic fund, open to everyone whether or not you're accredited. Tax-deductible donations become catalytic investments in early-stage climate companies, organized around a new focus area each year, with contributions starting as low as $25.
Every company goes through the same member-led screening and diligence, so wherever you invest, you're backing companies E8 members have already dug into together.
We invest across the full cleantech spectrum. What ties it together isn't a single sector, it's impact: companies whose success has a significant positive effect on the environment.
In practice, that spans clean energy generation and storage, the grid, transportation and mobility, the built environment, regenerative agriculture and the food system, water, ocean health, carbon, and the industrial systems behind them.
If a company is helping build a thriving planet and is early enough for angel capital to matter, it's in scope for E8.
No; every investment decision at E8 is entirely yours.
Membership gives you is a steady stream of opportunities we hope you'll want to act on: early-stage climate companies that have already been through member-led diligence, and the context to judge them well. Some members invest through the Annual Fund, some direct-invest in several companies a year, and some take their time and back one or two. You can wait for the right opportunity for as long as it takes.
Members contribute in different ways: through capital, time, or expertise. How you show up is up to you.
As much or as little as you want. There's no attendance requirement, and you can shape your membership around your availability. Some members mostly follow along, dropping into the monthly member meeting when a company catches their eye. Others get deep in the work: joining diligence teams, driving diligence calls with companies, leading learning labs, and helping shape where the community looks next. Both are full membership.
The more you put in, the more you get out of it, but the pace is yours to set.
Emphatically yes!
Many of our members joined without ever having made a direct investment before.
The reason it works is the community. You learn by doing the work alongside people who have been at it for years: reading a pitch deck together, running diligence as a team, comparing notes on what to look for, and watching how experienced investors think through a decision. Our members are generous with what they know, and the learning is built into what you're joining.
You don't need a finance background or a track record to start. You need curiosity about the companies building a thriving planet and a willingness to learn in good company. If that's you, you'll fit right in.