Venturing in Climate

Episode 8: Rob Trezona, Founding Partner @ Kiko Ventures

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 06:00:35 GMT

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 VC

2) Fund structures and their impact on investing in deeptech companies

3) Benefits of evergreen fund structures for climate tech

4) Learning from Cleantech 1.0

5) What Kiko Ventures look for

6) Understanding where we are in the hydrogen cycle

7) The role of carbon capture and storage in fighting climate change

8) Rob's favourite investor and why

9) Quick-fire round

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Episode 7: Patrick Sheehan, Managing Partner @ ETF Partners

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 06:00:28 GMT

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 capital

2) His motivations to start an environmental VC fund

3) How the cleantech investing cycle has evolved since Cleantech 1.0

4) How fundraising has evolved over time

5) Example investments ETF has made

6) Hardware investing

7) Measuring impact

8) Comparing cleantech 1.0 to now

9) What to watch out for in climate tech investing

10) Policy movements to watch out for

11) Tips for being a good board member

12) Key lessons from founding a VC firm

13) Quick-fire round

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Episode 6: Irena Spazzapan, Managing Partner @ Systemiq Capital

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 07:00:03 GMT

In this episode of Venturing in Climate, I spoke to Irena Spazzapan, Managing Partner of Systemiq Capital. Systemiq Capital is a London-based climate technology venture capital firm which has recently launched the first close of its £70m Fund II.

We discuss:

1) Irena's career journey to managing a climate tech VC firm

2) Building a VC firm and adding value

3) What Systemiq Capital looks for with examples

4) Investing in hardware, capital intensity and dilution

5) Fundraising process for a VC fund

6) Over and under-invested areas of climate tech

7) Quantifying impact potential

8) Typical fund terms and returns

9) Portfolio company: Brimstone

10) Carbon Capture & Storage

11) Quick-fire round

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 5: Tessa Clarke, CEO & Co-Founder @ OLIO

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 09:41:28 GMT

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 challenges

4) Key lessons from maintaining a good relationship with your Co-Founder

5) Going from start-up to scale-up and key lessons

6) Fundraising: 'cockroach plan', current funding climate and valuation

7) A day in the life of Tessa

8) Quick-fire round

Regulatory landscape of food waste

3) The scale of

2) How Johan came to found Tepeo

3) The challenge of heating - ~20% of carbon emissions are associated with domestic heating

4) Lessons from entrepreneurship

5) Being a sole founder

6) The need to move from a centralised to decentralised energy system...and the energy crisis

7) What's next for Tepeo

8) Advice from moving into the climate space

9) Quick-fire round

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Episode 4: Johan Du Plessis @ Tepeo

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 14:07:53 GMT

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 does

2) How Johan came to found Tepeo

3) The challenge of heating - ~20% of carbon emissions are associated with domestic heating

4) Lessons from entrepreneurship

5) Being a sole founder

6) The need to move from a centralised to decentralised energy system...and the energy crisis

7) What's next for Tepeo

8) Advice from moving into the climate space

9) Quick-fire round

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 3: Tom McGillyCuddy @ CIRCA5000

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 08:56:43 GMT

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 at

2) How Tom and Matt started CIRCA5000 and why

3) Retention

4) Becoming an entrepreneur and the key lessons learned

5) Profit and purpose

6) Challenges of working with VCs

7) Building leading teams and tips for hiring

8) When to build an executive team

9) Founder mental health

10) Investing in the current environment

11) Measuring impact

12) Challenges of ESG approaches

13) Quick-fire round

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Episode 1: Battery storage with Andy Willis @ Kona Energy

Wed, 25 May 2022 06:45:14 GMT

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 entrepreneurship
How Andy manages uncertainty as a Founder
Raising funding and its challenges
The opportunity for battery storage
Battery 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 storage
Quick fire-round and Carbon Chain.

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Episode 2: Helen Lin @ At One Ventures

Mon, 23 May 2022 20:17:32 GMT

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 tech

2) What At One Ventures focuses on

3) How At One helps founders

4) 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 challenges

8) 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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.