🌊 Currents #3 – Building Bold, Scaling Deep
Welcoming a New Chapter and Doubling Down on Hardtech.
This edition marks a major milestone for Sunna as we welcome Luisa Sucre to the team as General Partner and Managing Director. With deep experience across top venture firms and a track record of backing bold, high-impact founders, Luisa joins us to co-lead our investment strategy and shape the next phase of our fund’s evolution.
We’re also midway through a year marked by continued focus on industrial decarbonization and hardtech innovation. From new portfolio additions like Gravis Robotics, Terrablaster, and Magnefy to seed-stage milestones and ecosystem events across the Americas, this edition reflects the momentum we’re building at the intersection of climate and industry.
Let’s build the future together – One investment, one innovation, and one bold step at a time. 🚀🌱
⭐️ Team Update
Luisa Sucre has joined the team as General Partner and Managing Director, marking an exciting new chapter for our fund.
Luisa brings over a decade of experience in venture capital, having held key roles at Collaborative Fund, Softbank, Revolution, and GCM Grosvenor. Her track record in backing bold founders and scaling transformative companies is unmatched, and we couldn’t be more excited to have her on board. As we continue to invest in climate and industrial decarbonization globally, Luisa will co-lead our investment activity and help shape the next phase of Sunna’s growth. Welcome, Luisa!
💼 Portfolio News and Highlights
In the second half of 2025, our portfolio continues to advance our core thesis: backing technical teams developing category-defining solutions for industrial decarbonization. We focus on companies addressing emissions, inefficiencies, and reliability gaps in legacy infrastructure and heavy industries.
Our latest investments—Gravis Robotics, Terrablaster, and Magnefy—reflect this mission. From automating construction safety to optimizing agricultural nutrient management and enabling predictive monitoring for grid-critical transformers, each is building a cleaner, more resilient industrial future.
🏗️ Gravis Robotics
Gravis Robotics is transforming construction and heavy equipment operations through advanced robotic control and remote teleoperation. Its modular retrofit kits automate and remotely operate existing machinery, improving safety, utilization, and efficiency without costly new equipment. Applications span infrastructure, mining, and disaster response.
By removing operators from hazardous environments and reducing idle time, Gravis improves safety and helps cut emissions. The system also addresses skilled labor shortages, enabling less experienced workers to perform complex tasks with greater precision and consistency.
Led by a world-class technical team from ETH Zurich, Columbia, and Princeton, the company combines deep expertise in robotics, automation, and construction. Gravis is well-positioned to bring scalable innovation to one of the world’s most critical and carbon-intensive sectors.
🚜 Terrablaster
Terrablaster is developing the intelligence layer for climate-smart agriculture with field-deployable LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) sensors that deliver real-time, lab-grade soil nutrient analysis directly from tractors. By replacing costly, delayed, and inconsistent lab testing, it enables precision nutrient management at scale, applying exactly what is needed, exactly where it’s needed.
The technology can cut fertilizer use by up to 70%, reduce emissions from fertilizer production, and lower nitrous oxide release and nutrient runoff, while improving soil health and increasing Soil Organic Carbon. Designed to integrate with variable-rate fertilizer applicators, Terrablaster is reshaping global cropland management.
The founding team combines exceptional technical depth with a proven track record of scaling breakthrough ag-tech. They built and sold Blue River Technology to John Deere for $300M, then led John Deere’s autonomy and automation division. Their experience spans ag robotics and LIBS research at NASA, CSA, and SETI—bringing unmatched expertise, commercial acumen, and vision to transforming the future of sustainable farming.
⚡️ Magnefy
Magnefy improves grid reliability with an advanced condition monitoring platform for high-voltage transformers, among the most failure-prone assets in today’s power infrastructure. Its high-frequency electromagnetic sensing and AI analytics detect faults such as partial discharge and bushing degradation early, enabling a shift from reactive maintenance to predictive strategies.
The clamp-on, non-invasive sensor installs in minutes without downtime, making it suitable for new builds and retrofits across utilities, OEMs, and industrial users. By preventing outages, extending asset life, and increasing grid capacity, Magnefy supports uptime, resilience, and decarbonization as electrification accelerates.
The team combines deep expertise in power systems, sensing, and AI with a record of developing and commercializing advanced industrial technologies, positioning Magnefy to lead the $15B+ global condition monitoring market and become foundational infrastructure for modern, climate-resilient grids.
PortCos Highlights
Unblock Computing announced its $8M seed round, co-led by Goldcrest and Collaborative Fund, with participation from Sunna Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Giant Ventures, and others. The round will support its expansion across Latin America, where it’s repurposing flared gas to power high-performance computing, transforming an environmental liability into critical infrastructure.
Gravis Robotics exhibited its technology at Bauma, the world’s leading trade fair for construction and mining equipment. Their presence highlighted the growing demand for retrofit autonomy and safer, more efficient jobsite operations across the heavy equipment industry.
💰 Market Perspectives
🤖 Industrial Automation: Smarter, Leaner, Cleaner
Industrial automation is emerging as a key driver of decarbonization, efficiency, and resilience amid labor shortages. Technologies spanning robotics, AI analytics, and sensor networks are streamlining manufacturing, logistics, and construction by augmenting decision-making, reducing waste, and improving system reliability.
In emissions-heavy sectors like mining and construction, remote operation, real-time monitoring, and process optimization cut fuel use and idle time. The global industrial automation market is projected to exceed $300B by 2032, driven by demand for solutions that deliver both cost savings and climate benefits. As decarbonization accelerates, automation is also creating new opportunities in energy efficiency, predictive maintenance, and digital twin technology.
🌎 Networking
SF Deep Tech Week – June
Sunna joined San Francisco Deep Tech Week, a weeklong gathering of founders, investors, and researchers pushing the boundaries of what’s possible across sectors like robotics, advanced materials, energy, and space. The team engaged in conversations about commercializing hard science, scaling breakthrough technologies, and building infrastructure for industrial innovation. Deep Tech Week offered valuable insights into emerging frontiers that align closely with our thesis around industrial decarbonization and automation. Events that the team attended included "The Future of Subsurface Mining", "Fusion Business Landscape", "Lowercarbon's Energy and Carbon Night" and "The Physical AI Startup Showcase."
Mining of the Future Seminar – July
Sunna attended the Mining of the Future Seminar organized by MIT and Antofagasta Minerals in Antofagasta, Chile. The event brought together mining executives, researchers, and local tech providers to explore how new technologies are transforming operational efficiency, workforce dynamics, and environmental practices in the mining sector. As a high-emissions industry central to Latin America’s economy, mining presents both decarbonization challenges and opportunities that align with our industrial thesis.
🔜 Upcoming
NY Climate Week – September
We’re heading back to New York for Climate Week, one of the world’s leading gatherings for climate action and innovation. From energy transition to resilient infrastructure and climate finance, the week brings together founders, investors, policymakers, and partners working on bold solutions to the climate crisis.
For us, it’s an incredible opportunity to meet with founders, fellow investors, policy experts, and ecosystem partners.
If you’ll be in town, let’s connect. Whether you’re building, investing, or exploring new ways to support climate innovation, we’d be happy to grab a coffee, join an event together, or talk about what’s ahead. See you in New York!