# Marc Tarpenning

> Marc Tarpenning is a Series A investor at Spero Ventures backing Renewable Energy and CleanTech. See 15 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Spero Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/spero-ventures)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 15
- Last investment: Apr 2026
- Lead investor: 53%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marctarpenning/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/mtarpenning
- Website: https://x.com/mtarpenning

Marc Tarpenning is a Series A investor at Spero Ventures in San Francisco focused on Renewable Energy and CleanTech. Marc Tarpe is based out of Redwood City, California and serves as the Venture Partner of Spero Ventures and also serves as the Board of Director of Wattch. Marc previously served as Co-Founder of Tesla. Marc attended the University of California, Berkeley.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $1.5M–$6M |
| Series A | $5M–$36M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Renewable Energy | 4 | 27% |
| CleanTech | 3 | 20% |
| Automotive | 3 | 20% |
| Electric Vehicle | 3 | 20% |
| Drones | 2 | 13% |

28 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 6 | 40% |
| Seed | 5 | 33% |
| Series D | 1 | 7% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 7% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 1 | 7% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 10 | 67% |
| France | 1 | 7% |
| Denmark | 1 | 7% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sora Fuel | Sora Fuel makes jet fuel from just air, water, and renewable energy. Sora Fuel combine carbon capture and utilization into a single process, dramatically reducing the amount of energy required to produce SAF, enabling a truly affordable, carbon-negative drop-in solution. | $14.6M | Venture - Series Unknown | Apr 08, 2026 |  |
| Telo Trucks | Telo Trucks manufactures cleverly designed, compact electric vehicle trucks for city dwellers and weekend adventurers. | $20M | Series A | Sep 23, 2025 |  |
| Wattch | Wattch is a software development company that offers scalable energy data analytics platforms for the renewable energy industry. It enables observability, intelligence, and control for any renewable energy system. | $6M | Seed | Aug 05, 2025 |  |
| Artelize | The world of performing arts in one platform. We're using AI aggregated data to create the informational backbone (infrastructure) for the performing arts industry. (IMDb-style) The platform makes this underserved industry more visible and more accessible for millions of fans and professionals worldwide.The AI driven data aggregationpowers a freemium platform (marketplace) for B2C subscriptions plus ticket referral, and B2B Saas tool for arts organizations and artists for enhanced visibility, marketing, and talent discovery. | $1.5M | Seed | Jul 23, 2025 |  |
| Corvus Robotics | Corvus Robotics make indoor drones for warehouses Inventorying. They provide an advanced inventory & inspection solution for warehouse and manufacturing facilities. | $18M | Series A | Oct 08, 2024 |  |
| Hylight | Hylight inspects energy infrastructures and provide solutions that makes societies resilient to the effects of climate change. | $3.9M | Seed | Apr 15, 2024 |  |
| Telo Trucks | Telo Trucks manufactures cleverly designed, compact electric vehicle trucks for city dwellers and weekend adventurers. | $5.4M | Seed | Mar 13, 2024 |  |
| Wattch | Wattch is a software development company that offers scalable energy data analytics platforms for the renewable energy industry. It enables observability, intelligence, and control for any renewable energy system. | $3.5M |  | Jan 11, 2023 |  |
| Wattch | Wattch is a software development company that offers scalable energy data analytics platforms for the renewable energy industry. It enables observability, intelligence, and control for any renewable energy system. | $3.5M | Seed | Jan 11, 2023 |  |
| Singularity Energy | Singularity is a Harvard spinoff building real-time carbon tracking and decision-making solutions to help climate regulators, sustainability directors, and cleantech product directors meet ambitious targets with confidence and transparency through a combination of data and artificial intelligence.The company was founded in 2018 by Wenbo Shi andis based in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. | $4.5M | Seed | May 24, 2022 |  |

10 of 15 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [10X Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/10x-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Awesome People Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/awesome-people-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [DBL Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dbl-investors) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Gaingels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gaing) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Neo](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/neo-innovation) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Ring Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ring-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Spero Ventures

VC Fund · Redwood City, United States

Spero Ventures makes venture investments in the things that make life worth living - wellbeing; sustainability; learning, work, and play.

5 contacts available at Spero Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Andrew Parker | General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andrew-parker |
| Brandon Walker | Investor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brandon-walker-6806 |
| Marc Tarpenning | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/marc-tarpenning |
| Sara Eshelman | Principal | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sara-eshelman |
| Shripriya Mahesh | Co-Founder and General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/shripriya-mahesh |

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## FAQ

### What does Marc Tarpenning invest in?

Marc Tarpenning invests primarily in Renewable Energy, CleanTech and Automotive startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 15 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Marc Tarpenning's check size?

Marc Tarpenning typically joins rounds of $1.5M–$6M at Seed and $5M–$36M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Marc Tarpenning participates in.

### When did Marc Tarpenning last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Marc Tarpenning closed in Apr 2026. Shizune tracks 15 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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