February 1, 2022

Shomik Dutta, HGL’s co-founder and partner, announced today that after nearly 6 years, he is leaving his full-time role at Higher Ground Labs. Shomik will continue to be involved as a board member and in all investment decisions through the duration of Fund III, but he will transition out of his day-to-day responsibilities as he shifts his focus to a new effort in climate investing, to HGL’s international investments, and to his two darling kids.

Shomik’s departure is bittersweet for HGL. Shomik and Betsy Hoover together built something incredible with lasting impact. Shomik’s vision, hustle, and spirit have been a core to the soul of HGL and our relationships with our investors, advisors, founders and partners in the ecosystem that he helped build. Our team has learned so much from him and is grateful for the work he has done and will do in the climate space. 

Betsy will continue to run HGL as managing partner for the remainder of Fund III and as we launch for Fund IV and beyond. The HGL team is incredibly strong – Sarah Eberhard, Hillary Lehr, and Vin Morada will continue to lead HGL’s operations, partnerships and investments, respectively, and we are excited to grow our team in the months to come! 

2022 is another historic election year and the stakes could not be more clear. We have ambitious goals for this year and beyond as the fight for the soul of our democracy continues. 

We have three priorities for this year: 

• We will continue to invest in companies that can make a difference for progressive campaigns and candidates. 
• We will support our existing portfolio companies through additional capital, programming, and introductions to maximize growth and impact.
• We will raise our next round of capital to fuel ongoing innovation in electoral politics and the health of our democracy. 

We are excited for 2022 and beyond. Please join us in thanking Shomik for all that he has done to position us for this next chapter.