22. Future Venture’s Maryanna Saenko
ClimateTech with Kentaro
Our season finale covers startup investments that are on the absolute cutting edge. We’re joined by Maryanna Saenko, an early-stage venture capitalist and the Co-founder of Future Ventures (early investors in SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, Planet, and Skype). Backing visionaries for over two decades through her firm, Maryanna gets to play a part in technology that ranges from Bee Immunology to Nuclear Fusion. She’s also worked on lunar rovers, martian landers, driverless cars, and long-range low-frequency communication systems. On the show, we cover ‘frontier tech’ and...
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20. Cogo’s Ben Gleisner
ClimateTech with Kentaro
It’s hard to track our individual carbon footprints. Most people have no idea what emissions are associated with a bag of groceries or last night’s takeout. This type of information is hard to come by, which makes it even more challenging to make environmentally friendly decisions. Sustainability Data Service company, Cogo is trying to change that by empowering individuals and businesses to measure, reduce, and offset the impact they have on the climate. Today’s guest is Ben Gleisner, founder and CEO of Cogo. On the show, we dove into the individual side of sustainability,...
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19. LanzaTech’s Dr. Jennifer Holmgren
ClimateTech with Kentaro
Did you know that greenhouse gas emissions can be turned into leggings or even jet fuel? Today’s guest, Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, is the CEO of LanzaTech. Her company has been working on carbon recycling technology for over 15 years. Now, LanzaTech has scaled up its technology from a startup and is almost ready to go public. In the episode, Jennifer gave me an AP chem lesson on the conversion process and the myriad of ways the technology can be used. We also dig into her incredibly impressive biography which, spoiler alert, includes 50 patents, 30 scientific publications, a PHD and...
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18. Patch’s Brennan Spellacy
ClimateTech with Kentaro
In recent years, climate-minded companies all over the world have made commitments to reach net zero emissions. That means cutting emissions as close to zero as possible and then funding carbon capture and carbon removal to make up for the rest. Brennan Spellacy is the founder of a software company called Patch. Patch helps businesses reach net zero by connecting them with carbon removal developers. In this episode, we get into Brennan’s journey as an entrepreneur, his version of a book recommendation, and the idea of ‘undoing’ pollution by funding carbon removal and carbon capture...
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17. Financial Machines’ Peter Knowles
ClimateTech with Kentaro
Startups are looking at the climate challenge from all angles. For today’s episode, we’re talking to one that’s helping facilitate the move to clean energy through intelligent software. Peter Knowles is the president of Financial Machines. In our conversation, he told me about how his startup evolved from a consultancy to software based advisory, which is a feat in itself. On the show, Peter and I also dove deep into energy storage, renewable energy and the challenges of fundraising for a startup. Learn more about Peter and Financial Machines ClimateTech with...
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16. Microsoft’s Mark Kroese
ClimateTech with Kentaro
A lot of lucky people have their personal passions and their professional paths collide. And that could not be more true for Mark Kroese, a 22-year veteran at Microsoft and their General Manager of Sustainability Solutions. Mark started his career at Microsoft in the 90s as a product manager for Word and Excel. Then his love for mountain climbing and visits to the rainforest led him to focus on sustainability. In this episode, Mark shared his thoughts on sustainability reporting and building databases for that information. We talked about how much water data centers use and the environmental...
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15. NatureAlpha’s Dr. Vian Sharif
ClimateTech with Kentaro
We have a whole zoo in today’s episode about biodiversity! I shared a fantastic conversation with Dr. Vian Sharif, Head of Sustainability at FNZ and Founder of NatureAlpha. Both FNZ and NatureAlpha are platforms for investors. FNZ is a digital wealth management platform while Vian’s newer venture NatureAlpha focuses on demonstrating the impacts of investments on biodiversity & natural capital. In today’s episode, Vian and I talked about integrating conservation work with investments — and also about pangolins. Check out a pangolin . Learn more about Vian and her work at NatureAlpha...
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14. BloombergNEF’s Nathaniel Bullard
ClimateTech with Kentaro
We have a little bit of everything in this week’s episode. We’re diving deep with Nathaniel Bullard Chief Content Officer of BloombergNEF, Bloomberg's primary research service on energy, transportation, commodities, and technology. Nathaniel is a little bit different from the founder guests we’ve traditionally had on the show. He’s played the analyst slash writer role for a majority of his vast career and today writes a weekly column under the Bloomberg Green banner where he covers energy, transport, technology, climate, and finance. In this episode, we talked about...
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13. Persefoni’s Tim Mohin and Caitlin Kinney
ClimateTech with Kentaro
For our first episode this season, we have invited two newly minted, homegrown podcasters from Persefoni: Tim Mohin and Caitlin Kinney! Tim Mohin is a lifelong environmentalist and one of the OGs of sustainability. Tim started his career at the US Environmental Protection Agency and moved on to various roles in corporate responsibility and sustainability at big tech firms like Apple and Intel. He also worked as the CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the world's most widely adopted sustainability reporting standard. Tim’s co-host Caitlin is a Gen Z climate activist who is on a...
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Season 2 - Trailer
ClimateTech with Kentaro
We’re back! This season, we’re talking to brilliant leaders like Mark Kroese, General Manager of Sustainability at Microsoft, Dr. Vian Sharif, Founder of NatureAlpha, Nathaniel Bullard, Chief Content Officer at BloombergNEF, and many more. In each episode, we take a hard look at the most innovative solutions to the climate crisis and learn from the most brilliant minds behind them. Join me each week as I get into more fascinating and wide-ranging conversations with founders, investors, journalists, and climate tech enthusiasts. Listen to our season launch on 7/13. A new...
info_outlineThis week’s M&A and funding roundup includes:
HTU Technologies, a clean-energy company developing a proprietary electrocatalyst discovery process for electrolyser; Volocopter, an urban air mobility service provider developing the fully electric vertical take-off and landing “eVTOL” aircraft in certification to transport passengers safely and quietly within cities; Swobbee, a Berlin-based startup that’s working on commercializing battery swapping for micromobility vehicles; and Urent, a Russian-based e-scooter and bike-sharing service provide.