Startup investor David Hamilton Nichols has a diverse and growing portfolio of flourishing impact-driven companies. Over the last several years, he has been broadly involved with a dozen early-stage ventures as an investor, board member, and strategic advisor.
One of Nichols’ startups in which he is both an advisor and early investor is RageOn, an e-commerce platform offering fast, environmentally friendly print on demand of a variety of products. RageOn has helped over 900,000 online store owners thrive during the pandemic-induced economic downturn, in which time the business has expanded exponentially. With its technologies now patented in 6 countries, this rapidly scaling, sustainable platform empowers the gamut of everyone from individual creatives to major brands such as Netflix, KISS, T-Mobile, and Hello Kitty to continue to grow.
Norwegian-based CHOOOSE is an early addition to Nichols’ portfolio. He is its first American investor, and he serves as a strategic advisor to the company. CHOOOSE has been recognized as a Top 10 Global Tech Startup by Sir Richard Branson, has garnered numerous awards and media mentions, and has inspired people and businesses across the world to take action through its climate solutions platform. Among the many sectors to which CHOOOSE has provided its solutions, it has a broad partnership base in the transportation industry, including Norwegian Airlines, Wizz Air, Skyscanner, and Heathrow Airport, and most recently it has expanded into shipping with Navigator Holdings. CHOOOSE also partners with numerous celebrity brands and offers carbon-offsetting tools that are used by individuals in 70+ countries and counting.
Similarly, in the United States, Nichols is the lead investor in NOW, a groundbreaking startup company that has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and Global Citizen. It was founded to “empower individuals, collectives, and brands pushing the world forward to create action now with their platform.” An example of the power of such collaborative action, NOW has funded over a quarter billion pounds of CO2 removal and, as part of its reforestation efforts, has also funded over 400,000 trees.
Also dealing with climate, Nichols recently invested early in Aether Diamonds, a company for which he is an advisor and to which he has brought other investors. Aether has developed a proprietary process of capturing carbon from the atmosphere and transforming it into high-quality diamonds. Nichols was just joined on the advisory board by Pamela Cloud, former chief merchandising officer and senior vice president at Tiffany & Co. In its first three days after product launch of the world’s first carbon-negative and truly sustainable diamonds, alchemized from air and hand-set in Fairmined gold, Aether surpassed $600,000 in pre-orders, thereby in that time alone well-exceeding its target goal for the first 30 days. The company has gone on to generate over $2 million in pre-orders in approximately 12 weeks and begins shipping orders in late April. It has also been featured in a flurry of press including Forbes, Vogue, Engadget, COVETEUR, and Scientific American. Aether has dramatically accelerated its progress in the past few months.
Ahura AI, an emerging ed-tech company founded by a child refugee who became a NASA engineer and then turned serial entrepreneur, is ramping up to launch its product that uses artificial intelligence to help people learn up to 5x faster than traditional education. Ahura AI does this by combining the access of e-learning software with the effectiveness of 1:1 personalized instruction. Also, for every product license sold, it donates one license to underserved populations. The company is focused on solving UN Sustainable Development Goals numbers 4 and 10 (Quality Education and Reduced Inequalities). As an early investor and in his advisory role, Nichols has seen Ahura AI make rapid strides, including joining and excelling in Alchemist Accelerator, hiring Alex Tsado, formerly of NVIDIA and founder of Alliance4ai, as COO, and working to bring the renowned De Kai, inaugural member of Google’s AI Ethics council ATEAC (Advanced Technology External Advisory Council), onto Ahura’s own Ethics Review Board.
Nichols is the lead investor and a board member emeritus of Ovanova, an industry-altering fundraising and solar company, whose business model helps organizations while helping people go solar. Along Ovanova’s path to success, Nichols and the company attended Skoll World Forum, and the founders were invited to teach Solar Education 101 on behalf of the American Solar Society at the United States Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. So far, Ovanova has helped homeowners transition to solar in more than 16 U.S. states, a number which is growing rapidly. In the process, it has ensured many times over that a good organization valued by each homeowner with whom Ovanova speaks about the benefits of solar energy has gotten funds to further that organization’s mission. The company has helped over 25 organizations and in Q1 2021 gave away over $10,000. Ovanova is poised to revolutionize the way people learn about and go solar!These are just a handful of the expanding number of ventures David Hamilton Nichols has catalyzed with both capital and expertise. Watch for these companies’ continued growth and for the other ventures in which Nichols involves himself, including a number of film projects on which he is producer.You can follow his work at DavidHamiltonNichols.com to learn more.