Bill Brown’s Post

🌎CDL-Vancouver Climate Stream Spotlight Week The Climate Stream has 40+ mentors, including entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, & industry leaders. The mentors support admitted ventures working on tech to enhance sustainability, resilience, and environmental impact. Here's an introduction to some of our Climate Stream Mentors: Marty Reed: A veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Marty established Evok Innovations in 2015, a venture capital firm focused on investments in clean technology and energy transitions. Evok aims to accelerate the adoption of new technologies in collaboration with partners. Marty holds degrees from John F. Kennedy University & Carnegie Mellon University and began his career as a US Navy officer. Bill Brown: Bill is CEO of Laozi Advisors, LLC, and New Waters Capital LP, focusing on tax-efficient investments and early-stage ventures. He advises the U.S. DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory and co-founded 8 Rivers, specializing in innovative energy and clean fuel technologies. Bill holds patents for the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle, utilized by NET Power for clean electricity generation. Bill holds degrees in law and finance from Duke University & Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Adam Pidlisecky: Adam is an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary specializing in Applied Geophysics and Hydrogeophysics. He founded and led 3point Science Inc., a 3D web visualization company acquired by Seequent in 2016. Adam's expertise spans computational geoscience and entrepreneurship, focusing on scalable solutions. He holds a PhD and master’s degree in Geophysics from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s degree from The University of British Columbia in Geophysics & Geology. Irene Yang: Irene joined BASF Venture Capital North America in 2022 after serving as BASF Canada’s Director of Business Development & Innovation, driving growth initiatives and partnerships across industries since 2013. Irene's prior experience includes product management at AMD and McKinsey & Company consulting. Irene holds an MS in Engineering, an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B. Eng. & Management degree from McMaster University. Yin Lu: As a Partner at MCJ Collective, Yin focuses on community strategy, investments, and post-investment support with a strong emphasis on diversity, equity, & inclusion. Previously, she led DEI efforts at the SHERYL SANDBERG & DAVE GOLDBERG FAMILY FOUNDATION, and was GM of Khan Academy's international business, expanding its global presence. Yin also worked at Coursera, Google, and Microsoft. A mother of two, she is committed to advancing responsible climate solutions. Yin holds a B.A. in Economics and an M. Ed. in Counseling from UCLA. See the full list of Climate Stream Mentors at CDL-Vancouver here: https://lnkd.in/gggNV-q6 Ready for mentorship? Apply today: https://lnkd.in/ez43f-2

Succinct description of the hurdles for new tech in the renewable fuels space. Commercialization depends on these step changes in scale of production. Creative and speculative investment along with rock-solid development is necessary to bridge the gap.    Standout points from this article: “The biggest obstacle to scaling climate tech, in other words, isn’t money per se, but a lack of project-development skills.” “When you go and informally talk to all the climate tech accelerators, incubators, and nonprofits, there is virtually zero focus on project development,” said Sean Sandbach, the firm’s head of capital formation and ESG. “There’s a huge gap in what they understand.”   Reach out if you have a project needing development assistance or know of someone else working through the process!

Thrilled to contribute alongside Norrsken VC, Planet A Ventures and World Fund to the latest Climate Tech to Watch by Sifted. A must to check out these fast-growing climate companies, here are my top three picks: ⚡ Spectral, founded by Philip Gladek and Tom Westra aims to increase the flexibility of the energy system with its multi-module platform that integrates and automates energy assets and trading operations. It allows energy utilities and asset owners to optimise behind-the-metre assets, virtual power plants and multi-commodity smart grids. The company is among only a few players that have proven large-scale implementation. 💧 Point Twelve, founded by Flore de Durfort, Quentin Cangelosi and Erika Degoute, is making it possible to prove that the energy used to produce hydrogen is renewable. Today, the vast majority of hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels, but the only way to deliver on the promise of hydrogen as a sustainable fuel is to produce it using renewable energy. Point Twelve provides an important piece of the puzzle for producers to reduce costs and build trust.   🏠 skoon, London-based Skoon is speeding up the adoption of heat pumps with its software platform, which provides recommendations for ways homeowners can decarbonise their homes. Whilst there are more companies jumping on this huge opportunity, Skoon has an unique founding team: cofounder Adam Chapman is a serial entrepreneur, a heat pump installer and heads the UK installation and training platforms, Heat Geek; and Aadil Qureshi has experience in building and scaling tech products from experience at Apple and IBM. For the full list curated by Alexandra Bacon, click here:

Startup communities start with topophilia - love of place. We love Houston for what it is, what it will become and its distinctive role in what it will contribute to the world. Startup community is built with the entrepreneur at the center. They matter. It’s incredible hard to be one. Entrepreneurs need opportunities to gather, to share their why, to get funded, to find talent, to build pilots, to scale their businesses, to be celebrated and countless other needs. This is simply the call to action for Houston’s energy and climate startup community. September 9-13, 2024: Do an event. Attend an event. Build something. Tell someone. Celebrate an entrepreneur. Meet up. Whatever. Don’t just talk, don’t just do. Be the Future of Energy!

21 headlines from last week in ClimateTech 👀 👀 Useful: Dealroom.co launched their Global Climate Investor Map which classifies over 300 climate tech investors across several categories. 💡 Good Read: Tim McDonnell at Semafor explains why climate tech has an IPO problem. 🐄 Windfall Bio raised $28 million Series A funding, in a round led by Prelude Ventures, to scale its methane capture and transformation solution. 🏭 Liberation Labs secured $12.5 million to support the ongoing construction of its large-scale precision fermentation protein production facility in Indiana. 🛸 Vertical Future and the University of Cambridge have been granted £1.5 million by the UK Space Agency 🐟 Atlantic Fish Co. unveiled what it says is the world’s first cultivated black sea bass. 🍫 US confectionery brand Macalat partnered with MycoTechnology, Inc. to create chocolate bar made with mycelium-derived flavour modulator ClearIQ. 🛰 The Canadian Space Agency and Impact Canada awarded the Deep Space Food Challenge C$380,000 grand prize to ecoation and Maia Farms 🧪 Canadian startup Anodyne Chemistries raised a $6M Seed round for their enzyme-based technology. 🌾 Ammobia secured $4.2 million seed funding to build a demonstration project for its green ammonia, for use in fertilisers and chemicals. 🇺🇸 The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $20 billion in grants from the Inflation Reduction Act to eight companies. ☀️ Berlin-based zolar raised €100 million for its digital platform for residential solar energy. ✨ Proxima Fusion secured €20 million seed funding to begin building its first generation of fusion power plants. 🥼 Clyde Hydrogen Systems raised £1 million to make hydrogen energy production more efficient. 🎾 Amsterdam-based Renewaball secured over €3 million to reduce the environmental impact of tennis and padel balls across Europe. 🪵 US startup Cambium is building a recycled wood supply chain to prevent already-been-used wood from being routinely wasted. 🤝 Finland’s Nordic Bioproducts Group Ltd is partnering with leading bioplastics producer PTT MCC Biochem to advance the development of high-performance 🔋 HYSETCO secured nearly €200 million to accelerate hydrogen refuelling. 🔦 Voltpost debuted its technology that retrofits existing lampposts to enable EV charging. 🌾 Weenat closed its Series C funding round with €8 million. 💽 Quantonation secured €70 million at the first close of its second early-stage quantum technology fund Community x ClimateHack ClimateHacks Meetups in: 🇳🇱 Amsterdam: 17th April 🇺🇸 San Francisco: 22nd April 🇨🇭 Zürich: 23rd April ➕ Interview with Dr. Till Stenzel @ SET Ventures and Jim Mann @ UNDO ahead of the HackSummit 🍚 HackTrends on Climate Smart Rice with Greg Michel, Craig Jamieson, Michal Klar, Steve Melhuish, Meg Kendall https://lnkd.in/eu4Uww2v

DAC Startup CarbonCapture Raises $80 Million from Investors Including Amazon, Aramco, Siemens - California-based climate tech company CarbonCapture announced today that it has raised $80 million, with proceeds to be used for the development and deployment of the company’s Direct Air Capture (DAC) carbon removal systems. DAC technology, listed by the IEA as a key carbon removal option in the transition to a net-zero energy system, extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material or permanently removed when combined with storage. According to the landmark 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change mitigation study, scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C include carbon dioxide removal methods scaling to billions of tons of removal annually over the coming decades, with DAC positioned to potentially account for a significant portion of the total. Founded in 2019, CarbonCapture produces DAC machines that use solid sorbents to efficiently absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, and the company utilizes a modular and upgradeable capture system that allows next-generation sorbents to be swapped in as they become available, enabling cost reductions over time without the need to construct entire new facilities. CarbonCapture is currently developing “Project Bison,” a new DAC project in Wyoming in partnership with carbon storage developer Frontier Carbon Solutions. The project is expected to be developed over multiple phases through 2030, reaching 5 million tons of capture and storage annual capacity. The company has signed $26 million in carbon removal credits, with offtake agreements last year to remove over 55,000 tons of carbon dioxide announced with companies including Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and Amazon. New strategic investors joining the Series A financing included Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Aramco Ventures, and Siemens Financial Services. CarbonCapture said that the financing will support further technology development and to field early installations of the copmany’s modular DAC systems. Adrian Corless, CEO of CarbonCapture said: “To realize our ambitious mission to decarbonize the atmosphere, it’s imperative that we marshal the capabilities of the global industrial community. That’s why I’m so excited to welcome our new strategic investors—the unparalleled logistics and supply chain prowess of Amazon, the world-class capabilities of Aramco Ventures, and the digital transformation and energy transition expertise of Siemens will be pivotal to helping us scale DAC in the coming years.” The financing was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participating investors also including Idealab X, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Neotribe Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and several other venture investors. Zia Huque, Prime Movers Lab General Partner and CarbonCapture Board Member said: “CarbonCapture has made substantial technical and commercial progress since our initial investment in

The Elemental Excelerator is taking strides to close the financing gap for emerging technologies. First, in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), they began a deep market study into climate financing gaps and how to address them. The team quantified the Scale Gap at $150 billion for emerging technologies. You can read the learnings in their white paper with BCG “Traversing the Climate Technology Scale Gap" found: https://lnkd.in/g6gMXhep Second, to close the financing gap using their investment expertise — Elemental Excelerator took steps to infuse more capital directly into critical projects and push the boundaries of current investment practices. The team worked with audacious philanthropic partners to secure additional funding and innovative pilot approaches. This resulted in the creation of Elemental Excelerator's new funding instrument, the Development SAFE (D-SAFE), through which has already funded eight initial projects! A published summary of work can be found: https://lnkd.in/gu9i5Jyu

7 things I learned from George Darrah, principal at Systemiq Capital, about ClimateTech Investing and company building. Take what is useful to you, debate or reject what is not. For more listen to the Tech and Trees podcast. 1. Why we should be more open to the idea of geoengineering: We are happily engineering our planet for the negative everyday - pumping emissions into the atmosphere, shaping rivers, cutting down forests. Why would we not (cautiously!) evaluate engineering for the positive? 2. What is one of the most urgent climate problems to be solved? We must mitigate methane emissions. However, as methane's concentration in the air is far lower than CO2's, methane removal is an order of magnitude more difficult and expensive than carbon removal. That's why we are limited to detecting methane leaks as early as possible for now (Robert Huppertz is doing great work with Orbio Earth (YC S23)) 3. Why opportunity cost should be a central concept for anyone involved in climate action? Climate change is a problem of timely urgency. Each dollar that we spend on climate action today is more valuable than a dollar spent tomorrow. In a market where funding is scarce, money we spend on improbable carbon removal technologies is not spent on high probability steel emission abatement. 4. Why ClimateTech companies cannot be evaluated using a few frameworks: Climate change is a problem that requires an industrial transition. That means ClimateTech applications span the entire global economy. ClimateTech is not a sector. It is a set of outcomes driven by business in every part of the economy. 5. What are George and Systemiq looking for in founders: A background of commerciality and execution. In a capitalist world, large scale climate action requires large businesses. People who have found a business case that can drive large scale climate outcomes and can execute against the randomness of the venture building process will build these firms. 6. What sectors would George like to invest and decarbonize? First, the chemicals industry. Trillion $ market, billions of tons of emissions, need for deep innovation to decarbonize. Second, cooling in developing countries. The demand for C in HVAC will increase heavily in developing countries. Solutions for climate-effective cooling of people and goods are needed. 7. Who are the people and companies who left a lasting impression on George? The founders of NatureMetrics showed unbelievable grit and tenacity. The founders of Hoxton Farms are super complementary and have known each other since kindergarten. The founders of Basecamp Research started their company on glacier in Iceland. What does that mean for you? No need to look for a secret to success and convincing an investor. It's your own story and path that matter. PS. We also talk about George's past in the Oil & Gas sector and its "difficult" relationship with climate action. It's rare to get an insiders perspective.

DAC Startup CarbonCapture Raises $80 Million from Investors Including Amazon, Aramco, Siemens - California-based climate tech company CarbonCapture announced today that it has raised $80 million, with proceeds to be used for the development and deployment of the company’s Direct Air Capture (DAC) carbon removal systems. DAC technology, listed by the IEA as a key carbon removal option in the transition to a net-zero energy system, extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material or permanently removed when combined with storage. According to the landmark 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change mitigation study, scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C include carbon dioxide removal methods scaling to billions of tons of removal annually over the coming decades, with DAC positioned to potentially account for a significant portion of the total. Founded in 2019, CarbonCapture produces DAC machines that use solid sorbents to efficiently absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, and the company utilizes a modular and upgradeable capture system that allows next-generation sorbents to be swapped in as they become available, enabling cost reductions over time without the need to construct entire new facilities. CarbonCapture is currently developing “Project Bison,” a new DAC project in Wyoming in partnership with carbon storage developer Frontier Carbon Solutions. The project is expected to be developed over multiple phases through 2030, reaching 5 million tons of capture and storage annual capacity. The company has signed $26 million in carbon removal credits, with offtake agreements last year to remove over 55,000 tons of carbon dioxide announced with companies including Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and Amazon. New strategic investors joining the Series A financing included Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Aramco Ventures, and Siemens Financial Services. CarbonCapture said that the financing will support further technology development and to field early installations of the copmany’s modular DAC systems. Adrian Corless, CEO of CarbonCapture said: “To realize our ambitious mission to decarbonize the atmosphere, it’s imperative that we marshal the capabilities of the global industrial community. That’s why I’m so excited to welcome our new strategic investors—the unparalleled logistics and supply chain prowess of Amazon, the world-class capabilities of Aramco Ventures, and the digital transformation and energy transition expertise of Siemens will be pivotal to helping us scale DAC in the coming years.” The financing was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participating investors also including Idealab X, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Neotribe Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and several other venture investors. Zia Huque, Prime Movers Lab General Partner and CarbonCapture Board Member said: “CarbonCapture has made substantial technical and commercial progress since our initial investment in

Over the last 5-10 years there has been significant new capital and tech to address climate change but the amount is staggeringly still underspent by trillions of what is needed. At the same time, a exodus is likely on the horizon of funds as well as consolidation in some key sectors. What do you see driving this? #esg #climatetech #cleantech