Accelerating ClimateTech Startups

Managing Partner

Raffi focuses his professional work on climate change mitigation and local community resilience. He is Co-founder/Managing Partner at Izuba Energy, a leading developer of renewable energy projects in Africa. He is Managing Partner at Cambridge Creative Development, a community-oriented real estate development company; Managing Partner Original Position Ventures, a climatetech venture creation, investment, & advisory firm; Partner at Clean Energy Venture Group, a climatetech investment syndicate, VP Strategy at Sublime Systems, a technology startup spun out of MIT to make the world's first scalable carbon neutral cement; an active advisor to Via Separations and Lithios; a partner with the Cambridge Day, the local newspaper in Cambridge, MA; a landlord focused on section 8 and refugee tenants; and an active city housing policy advocate.

He previously was VP, Business at Ouster (NYSE:OUST), a leading lidar & robotics technology company. Prior to Ouster, Raffi was VP, Business Development at MODO Fuels, focused on production of ultra low carbon fuels (biomass residues to jet fuel, diesel, & gasoline), a Principal at Flagship Pioneering (where he focused on launching and investing in companies in climate change mitigation), and President at Midori, a startup focused on reducing antibiotic use for growth promotion in farm animals with microbiome enhancing solutions. Prior to Midori, Raffi developed renewable power projects in Africa, including the first utility-scale solar PV plant in Africa (ex South Africa) which comprised 6% of Rwanda's power & broke the record for fastest African energy project finance deal to reach financial close and interconnect. He formerly was a business analyst at McKinsey & Co., where he specialized in healthcare, national competitiveness, sustainability and resource productivity, and global public health.

Raffi is a board member of the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust and the Cambridge Community Foundation. He previously was curator of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Community in Boston, and spoke at the Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos.

Raffi holds bachelor's degrees from Stanford University in Economics and Public Policy, with honors in International Security and Cooperation, and conducted graduate work in International Policy Studies.