Rayyan Islam

Venture Partner

Rayyan focuses on sourcing new opportunities at the intersection of technology and science applied to industrial sectors.

Rayyan is a serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor focused on industrial technology and the low-carbon economy. The companies he’s invested in, sourced and advised have grown to over $8B in private market value. He is the co-founder and General Partner of 8090 Industries, the leading partner and investor for industrial breakthrough technologies focused on decarbonization and national security. Rayyan has led investments in groundbreaking companies like EquipmentShare, Astranis, Cemvita, Circ, Oklo, Infinium, Orbit Fab, Quaise, Addionics, Living Carbon, Liberation Labs and more.

Rayyan is also the co-founder and President of Gold Hydrogen, the world's leading producer of abundant clean hydrogen from microbes and old oil wells for less than $1/kg. Rayyan was recognized by Business Insider’s SEED 100, as one of the top 100 early-stage investors of 2023, alongside Peter Thiel and Vinod Khosla and amongst the most powerful seed stage climate tech VCs by Fortune Magazine. Rayyan has spoken at NYU, Stanford, UT Austin and the United Nations on venture capital, energy and climate technologies and his work has been featured on Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Wired and more.

Influenced by his family upbringing in Bangladesh, he personally witnessed the ramifications of energy insecurity and climate change at a young age and its impact on communities globally. Determined to make a serious dent on the issue, Rayyan has supported a cadre of climate technology solutions, drafted policy recommendations to President Joe Biden’s climate transition team and founded the decarbonization focused newsletter Decarbon Weekly, which is read by leading climate scientists, members of state and local governments, energy company C-Suite executives, founders, investors and foundations.

Rayyan is a former Forbes 30U30 Fellow, served as a United Nations Youth Delegate and is a recipient of the Outstanding Youth Delegate Award.

Outside of investing, Rayyan is an advisor to the Earth BioGenome Project and supports bold individuals with novel pioneering ideas, frontline efforts in archaeology and global human rights. In his free time, Rayyan enjoys spending time with family, being out in the great outdoors, exploring museums, reading history, and mapping out the surface of Mars and hunting for new exoplanets as a NASA citizen scientist.

Rayyan lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife, son and daughter.