Soda is the evolution of Slattery’s CapitalB and “formalises” its goals into three areas: infrastructure, sustainability and ventures. It also outlines Slattery’s plans for ReefCo.

The company claims to be a launchpad for Australia’s technology and environmental future and boasted investments in companies with a combined market value of $10 billion. It will have former State Government Minister Kate Jones on board along with former QIC investment boss Evan Kilpatrick.

It claimed that one of its goals would be to partner and invest in disruptive business models that challenged the status quo, while Slattery said the reef needed to benefit from “green industrialisation on a scale not seen before”.

Last year, Slattery outlined to In Queensland how Jones was going to head his plans to help save the Great Barrier Reef and that appears to have emerged in the form of ReefCo, which is “a core project under Soda’s sustainability banner”.

The plan includes creating 1 million square metres of environmentally tolerant reef. Soda has been working with Australian universities on the project and now wants the research and development component to be completed in the next few years.

“It’s vital that we do everything we can to secure a future for the Great Barrier Reef, from both an environmental and economic perspective.” Slattery said.

“We also need to use science, innovation and green industrialisation on a scale never seen before.”

One of Slattery’s investments, Biopixel, has been building “the largest online high-definition digital library of the Great Barrier Reef”.

He also wants Soda to be carbon neutral through direct investments in renewable infrastructure.

“I believe if you talk-the-talk, you need to walk-the-walk rather than greenwash through some dubious carbon credits,” Slattery said.

“I want to make sure we are directly investing in renewable energy infrastructure to reach zero net emissions in two years.”

Soda’s infrastructure division includes Slattery’s investments in undersea communication cables and HyperOne, the $1.5 billion digital fibre network currently being built.

“I’ve always been drawn to solving some of the big problems in Australia’s digital infrastructure having built data centres, submarine cables, competitive fibre networks, cloud infrastructure platforms and what I can see is that demand for these assets continues to grow exponentially,” Slattery said.

“In fact, Covid-19 has accelerated demand even further.

“We don’t just need to catch up, we need to get ahead of the curve to make sure we are ready for this continued growth.”

Slattery already holds extensive investments in digital including Megaport, IntelliHR, Superloop, NEXTDC and HyperOne.

The second ”pillar” of Soda would be its ventures division.

It said it aims to assist Australian entrepreneurs in building large, sustainable and innovative companies as they execute a domestic and global growth strategy,” the company said.

“Having built a series of startups over the past few decades we are fortunate to have plenty of experience in funding, building and scaling technology businesses. Soda Ventures is a platform in which we can help fuel the growth for some of Australia’s amazing entrepreneurs.”

“I firmly believe every person should try and start a business by the time they are 30. Everyone seems to aspire to work for someone, but really we are all potential entrepreneurs,” Slattery said.

“The size and success of the venture isn’t anywhere near as important as the business skills and life lessons you take away from it.”