Matt Ahearn

Matt Ahearn is a co-founder and Partner at True North Venture Partners, a cleantech-focused venture and holding firm. His work at the firm centers on firm management, financing, executing investments, and supporting portfolio companies. He is based out of the firm's Chicago office, while the firm's other principal office is in Phoenix, Arizona.

Before True North, Ahearn worked at BDT Capital Partners, a Chicago-based merchant bank that provides capital and advisory services to closely held and family-controlled businesses. He began his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the Special Situations Group, where he worked on opportunistic investments across public and private markets.

Ahearn graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University (2002–2006), where he studied Political Science and Economics. He also serves in board/director roles at True North portfolio companies, including as a director at Nanostone Water.

True North Venture Partners was founded by Michael J. Ahearn — co-founder and chairman of First Solar, Inc. — and launched in 2011 with an initial ~$300 million fund. The firm has since described itself as a perpetual holding company capitalized at over $700 million, whose mission is to "invest in and build businesses that help the world transition to a clean and sustainable future." Its investing DNA is rooted in the founding and scaling of First Solar.

• Invests in early-stage companies building "innovative solutions that address significant global challenges," concentrated in clean energy, water, agriculture/food, and waste.
• Four stated focus areas: Abundant & Safe Water, Low Carbon Energy Infrastructure, Waste Harvesting, and Advanced Fuels & Chemicals.
• Check sizes range widely — roughly $100K to $25M — allowing participation from early rounds through later scaling, consistent with an evergreen/holding-company model rather than a fixed-term fund.
• As a builder-operator investor (mission to "invest in *and build* businesses"), True North tends to take an active, hands-on role and board seats in its companies rather than passive minority stakes.
• Emphasis on defensible technology solving hard physical/industrial problems (separation, filtration, conversion, waste-to-value) with real climate/sustainability impact.