Venturing in Climate

Rob Trezona is a Founding Partner of Kiko Ventures, a $450m evergreen cleantech investment platform, backed by IP Group and based in London. Kiko aims to make the impossible possible in the fight against climate change. Rob worked at IP Group for over 10 years before launching Kiko Ventures, was a Non-Executive Director of Ceres Power, has been working in cleantech since 2000 and started his career as a hydrogen and fuel cell scientist. In this episode, we discuss:1) Rob's journey into venture capital and why VC2) Fund structures and their impact on investing in deeptech companies3) Benefits of evergreen fund structures for climate tech4) Learning from Cleantech 1.0 5) What Kiko Ventures look for 6) Understanding where we are in the hydrogen cycle7) The role of carbon capture and storage in fighting climate change8) Rob's favourite investor and why9) Quick-fire round

Patrick Sheehan is the Founder and Managing Partner of ETF Partners (Environmental Technologies Fund), a leading European climate VC firm, founded in 2006 and focusing mainly on Series B and beyond investments. Patrick has invested across cleantech cycles and has a wealth of experience in the space.In this episode, we discuss:1) Patrick's journey into venture capital2) His motivations to start an environmental VC fund3) How the cleantech investing cycle has evolved since Cleantech 1.04) How fundraising has evolved over time5) Example investments ETF has made6) Hardware investing7) Measuring impact8) Comparing cleantech 1.0 to now9) What to watch out for in climate tech investing10) Policy movements to watch out for11) Tips for being a good board member12) Key lessons from founding a VC firm13) Quick-fire round

In this episode of Venturing in Climate, I spoke to Tessa Clarke, CEO and Co-Founder of OLIO. OLIO is an app that connects local communities and businesses to share surplus food and other household items. OLIO has raised ~$50m in funding. We discuss:1) What OLIO does and how the idea came about 2) Tessa's career journey 3) The scale of food waste and key challenges4) Key lessons from maintaining a good relationship with your Co-Founder5) Going from start-up to scale-up and key lessons6) Fundraising: 'cockroach plan', current funding climate and valuation7) A day in the life of Tessa 8) Quick-fire round Regulatory landscape of food waste3) The scale of 2) How Johan came to found Tepeo3) The challenge of heating - ~20% of carbon emissions are associated with domestic heating4) Lessons from entrepreneurship5) Being a sole founder6) The need to move from a centralised to decentralised energy system...and the energy crisis7) What's next for Tepeo8) Advice from moving into the climate space9) Quick-fire round

In this episode of Venturing in Climate, I spoke to Johan Du Plessis, CEO and Founder of Tepeo who are tackling the vast amount of emissions from domestic heating through their Zero Emission Boilers (ZEBs). We discuss: 1) What Tepeo does2) How Johan came to found Tepeo3) The challenge of heating - ~20% of carbon emissions are associated with domestic heating 4) Lessons from entrepreneurship5) Being a sole founder6) The need to move from a centralised to decentralised energy system...and the energy crisis7) What's next for Tepeo8) Advice from moving into the climate space9) Quick-fire round

In this episode, I interview Tom McGillyCuddy, Co-Founder of CIRCA5000. CIRCA5000 is an impact-investing platform which has raised over £12m in funding. In this episode, we discuss: 1) What CIRCA5000 does and what stage it is at2) How Tom and Matt started CIRCA5000 and why3) Retention 4) Becoming an entrepreneur and the key lessons learned5) Profit and purpose6) Challenges of working with VCs7) Building leading teams and tips for hiring8) When to build an executive team 9) Founder mental health10) Investing in the current environment 11) Measuring impact 12) Challenges of ESG approaches13) Quick-fire round

Here's what we discussed in this episode of Venturing in Climate: Kona Energy, what it does and why it is important Starting out: what made Andy set up Kona and take the leap into entrepreneurshipHow Andy manages uncertainty as a FounderRaising funding and its challengesThe opportunity for battery storageBattery technology and other technologies (e.g. hydrogen)What needs to change fast to encourage more battery storage The impact of the European energy crisis on renewables and battery storageQuick fire-round and Carbon Chain.

During this episode, I interviewed Helen Lin, one of the founding team of At One Ventures, a $150million planet-positive climate VC fund investing in the US, Europe and in emerging markets. We tackle some very timely and crucial climate-related topics. Here is what Helen and I discussed: 1) Helen's journey into venture capital and climate tech2) What At One Ventures focuses on 3) How At One helps founders4) Valuations and deployment speed 5) Why it isn't too late to tackle climate change and what we need to do 6) At One's investment into Dendra 7) Carbon offsetting - its role in tackling climate change and its challenges8) The quick fire round (founder mistakes, ways to keep up with climate tech news, and the most exciting early-stage climate start-up) 9) How to get hold of Helen