Zinc VC’s Podcast: Oli Barrett Episode

Environmental health threats pose a grave danger to human health and well-being, causing suffering to individuals and communities worldwide. These threats, which include chemical pollution, climate change, and biological hazards, cause acute and chronic diseases and exacerbate existing health conditions.

To protect those we care about, we must tackle the causes of environmental degradation, shield people from the consequences of environmental harm, and, where protection fails, we must mitigate the health impacts they suffer.

This demands action to improve all aspects of our environment: soil, food, air, water, and the built environment. It requires us to focus on every aspect of human health to reduce suffering.

Entrepreneurship and technology are powerful means to tackle these challenges. That’s why we are backing 70 founders to build innovative companies addressing this mission.

Many people have been suffering a cost of living crisis  for decades. This year, that crisis has spread to most of  the population, causing a major shock across the developed world.  

Whilst the immediate issues of rising energy costs and  the COVID pandemic have tipped a lot of people over  the edge, the underlying economic insecurities have  been building for a long time.  

Even before the energy and COVID crises, 100m people in Europe and 90m in the US were financially fragile.  They wouldn’t be able to pay an unexpected bill today of $400, access $2000 within 30 days if they need it, or  pay for food and basics if they’re out of work for 8 weeks.

In this mission, we want to empower middle-aged people to turn uncertainty into opportunity, to seize  technology and make it work for them, to reinvent  their lives (not be reinvented by others) and to achieve the financial security they need to navigate their own way through a changing and uncertain world.