# Michael Smith

> Michael Smith is a Series A investor at Regeneration.VC backing Software. See 9 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Regeneration.VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/regeneration-vc)
- Location: Santa Barbara, United States
- Total investments: 9
- Last investment: Nov 2025
- Lead investor: 56%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ponvalley/
- Website: http://www.regeneration.vc

Michael Smith is a Series A investor at Regeneration.VC in Santa Barbara focused on Software and Information Technology. Michael is a General Partner at Regeneration.VC, a venture fund that invests capital in the founders and teams forging paths toward a fully circular economy. He has founded and operated media and real estate businesses and enjoyed an extensive career as a global touring DJ. He led numerous environmental initiatives and has been an active investorin early to later stage impact companies.Starting in the late 90s, Michael ran marketing and digital platforms for Smith Broadcasting, a group of 20 network TV stations, which eventually sold to Boston Ventures. Shortly thereafter, he followed a lifelong passion in becoming a touring DJ, performing alongside Guns N Roses, Rihanna, and Diplo. In 2006, Michael launched and scaled The Playlist Generation, a leading background music provider to over 10,000 retail locations. In 2010, he co-founded Creative Space, an adaptive reuse real estate firm responsible for 80 projects in LA & SF.In 2015, he formed Ponvalley, an environmental initiative with philanthropic, research, and impact investing practices. Within two weeks following the 2016 election, Michael assembled an emergency climate summit with Former VP Al Gore, Gen. Wesley Clark, the Dept. of Energy, and Harvard leadership. He currently serves on the boards of PVBLIC Foundation, the American Renewable Energy Institute, and the Sustainable Change Alliance. He is a founding advisor to Salk Institute’s Harnessing Plants Initiative and served as a Venture Fellow at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School.Michael is a graduate of Northwestern University. He resides in Santa Barbara with his wife and two kids.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 3 | 33% |
| Information Technology | 3 | 33% |
| B2B | 2 | 22% |
| Recycling | 2 | 22% |
| Communities | 2 | 22% |

26 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 4 | 44% |
| Seed | 2 | 22% |
| Convertible Note | 1 | 11% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 1 | 11% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 4 | 44% |
| Canada | 1 | 11% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 11% |
| The Netherlands | 1 | 11% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| TULU | TULU is a smart platform and amenity services provider to over 10,000 people in 50 buildings across the United States, Europe and Israel. Founded in 2019, TULU provides urban tenants with on-demand access to hundreds of brand name appliances, grocery staples, micro-mobility and entertainment devices, and more. TULU’s IoT-based modular units arecustomized to provide the most necessary and useful items, while leveraging advanced machine learning tools to analyze behavioral patterns, optimize usage, refine inventory, and create a personalized experience for our users. The outcome is a new way of living, encouraging more responsible consumption, reducing the cost of living in the city, and consistent with the trend to smaller and smaller living spaces. | $17M | Series A | Nov 19, 2025 |  |
| Neutreeno | Neutreeno is a deep tech spinout from the University of Cambridge that engineers an intelligent decarbonization system. | $5M | Seed | Oct 02, 2024 |  |
| Meridia | Meridia is a mobile platform that provides smallholder farmer families with documentation of their land. We also provide them a profile with which they can access inputs and financial services that are precisely tailored to their circumstances. | $5.6M | Series A | Apr 23, 2024 |  |
| Greyparrot | Greyparrot (greyparrot.ai), the leader in AI waste analytics, is applying AI to globally scale recycling and save millions of tonnes of waste from landfills and incinerators. By providing deeper, more intelligent insights about waste stream composition and value, Greyparrot is helping the waste sector recover more value from waste processing linesand reduce the environmental impact of waste.The company’s waste intelligence platform, including Greyparrot Analyzer and Greyparrot Sync (API), reveals real-time insights on over 111 waste categories across seven layers of data, including financial value, brand, and GHG emissions, captured at multiple locations across a recycling facility. In 2025, Greyparrot analysed over 52 billion waste objects helping drive efficiency to save hundreds of thousands, to millions, of dollars per facility – while diverting millions of tonnes of waste away from landfills, oceans, and incinerators.Using Greyparrot insights, recycling professionals, plant builders, packaging producers, and FMCG brands can make decisions to help them increase recycling efficiency, comply with recycling regulations, and improve recyclable packaging design.Greyparrot is recognised as: UK Green Business Awards 2026 \| Awards for Excellence 2026 \| TIME Best Inventions 2025 \| Fast Company Most Innovative Companies 2025 \| Fast Company World Changing Ideas 2025 | $1.6M | Venture - Series Unknown | Feb 17, 2023 |  |
| Cruz Foam | Cruz Foam develops structural foams intended to help end the global issue of plastic pollution from oceans. It produces bio-benign foam and eco-friendly EPS-alternative solutions that powers key industry leaders to be the catalyst for a cleaner environment. The company's products are produced from naturally sourced biopolymers that create ascalable, compostable alternative using the existing supply chain and at a similar cost. Current industry partners include consumer electronics, appliances, shipping, and consumer packaged goods. Cruz Foam was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California. | $18M | Series A | Oct 28, 2022 |  |
| TULU | TULU is a smart platform and amenity services provider to over 10,000 people in 50 buildings across the United States, Europe and Israel. Founded in 2019, TULU provides urban tenants with on-demand access to hundreds of brand name appliances, grocery staples, micro-mobility and entertainment devices, and more. TULU’s IoT-based modular units arecustomized to provide the most necessary and useful items, while leveraging advanced machine learning tools to analyze behavioral patterns, optimize usage, refine inventory, and create a personalized experience for our users. The outcome is a new way of living, encouraging more responsible consumption, reducing the cost of living in the city, and consistent with the trend to smaller and smaller living spaces. | $5M | Series A | Sep 20, 2022 |  |
| SmarterX | SmarterX helps companies know more about consumer products to make, market and move them better. Our customers are the places you shop everyday like Costco and Albertsons, as well as brands like Lysol, Miracle-Gro and Colgate. They use our product intelligence to identify how to best handle regulated consumer products across the supply chain toremain compliant, avoid fines and reduce their environmental impact. We have brought together a passionate team of math nerds, chemistry wizards and retail pros. We work smart and we get stuff done. Because when we know more, we do better. | $7M | Series A | Aug 01, 2022 |  |
| CleanO2 | CleanO2 Carbon Capture Technologies is set to change the heating industry. In 2007, the founders of CleanO2 CCT began developing technology that would have a positive impact in the industry. Now, 9 years later, the company have deployed the residential carbon capture device in Alberta, Canada and have expanded the technology on a global scale.Thecompany has developed an aggregated commercial carbon capture device called CARBiNX, a sleek, carbon munching addition to businesses. Reducing energy demands through heat recovery and using the carbon capture process to create a valuable by-product.CleanO2 Carbon Capture Technologies was founded on 2013 and is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. | $2.1M | Seed | Jul 11, 2022 |  |
| Cruz Foam | Cruz Foam develops structural foams intended to help end the global issue of plastic pollution from oceans. It produces bio-benign foam and eco-friendly EPS-alternative solutions that powers key industry leaders to be the catalyst for a cleaner environment. The company's products are produced from naturally sourced biopolymers that create ascalable, compostable alternative using the existing supply chain and at a similar cost. Current industry partners include consumer electronics, appliances, shipping, and consumer packaged goods. Cruz Foam was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California. |  | Convertible Note | Oct 15, 2021 |  |

9 of 9 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Aviv Growth Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/aviv-growth-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Closed Loop Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/closed-loop-partners-38d7) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Good Company](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/good-company-9f3d) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Helena](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/helena) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [New Era Capital Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/new-era-capital-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Bosch Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/robert-bosch-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Regeneration.VC

VC Fund

Founded in Los Angeles, Regeneration.VC is an early-stage venture fund supercharging consumer-powered climate innovation driven by circular and regenerative principles. Our investment strategy encompasses design (materials & packaging), use (consumer brands & products), and reuse technologies (reverse logistics & marketplaces) thatgenerate measurable environmental impact alongside outsized return potential.

5 contacts available at Regeneration.VC.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Destana Herring | Analyst | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/destana-herring |
| Alexander Bechelli | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alexander-bechelli |
| Dan Fishman | General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dan-fishman-6936 |
| Eva Wallack | Analyst | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/eva-wallack |
| Michael Smith | General Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/michael-smith-78ee |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Michael Smith invest in?

Michael Smith invests primarily in Software, Information Technology and B2B startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 9 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Michael Smith last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Michael Smith closed in Nov 2025. Shizune tracks 9 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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