CleanTechies

In This Episode In today’s episode of CleanTechies, we’re joined by Anca Timofte , the CEO and Founder of Holocene , a direct air capture (DAC) company revolutionizing carbon removal through a continuous-loop liquid system. With over a decade of experience in carbon capture—including being one of the first employees at Climeworks —Anca offers unparalleled insight into the challenges and opportunit...

Jane Melia is the CEO and Co-Founder of Harvest Thermal, revolutionizing home heating with heat batteries. Jane’s journey began with a vision to make home electrification both cost-effective and climate-friendly. Harvest Thermal has developed a patented system that combines heat pumps with thermal storage, reducing household emissions by 90% and energy bills by 30%, all while providing unparallele...

Martin Freimüller, the CEO and Co-Founder of Octavia Carbon, a cutting-edge Direct Air Capture (DAC) company based in Kenya Martin’s journey began with a deep appreciation for Africa’s potential and the realization that Kenya, with its abundant geothermal energy and skilled talent pool, is the perfect location for DAC. In just two and a half years, Octavia Carbon has developed patented technology,...

On today’s episode, we’re speaking with Martin Schichtel , the CEO and Founder of Kraftblock , a thermal energy storage solution for industrial clients that use high heat.  Today, they’re delivering their 5th project. All of which have been paid for by their customers — yep, you read that right. They have not used equity to pay for these pilot and demonstration projects.  Their tech takes excess h...

Joshua Posamentier is the co-founder and managing partner at Congruent Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused exclusively on climate tech. With a background in physics and a career that began in the semiconductor industry, Josh transitioned into climate investing after holding various roles at Intel and Prelude Ventures. Widely regarded as an OG in the climate tech space, Josh has b...

Our reflections and musings as we close out the year... Topics 01:28 2024's Top CleanTechies Episodes 07:37 Insights 12:49 Reflections on Branding and Storytelling 20:22 Milestones and Achievements in 2024 26:12 Key Lessons for Climate Tech Startups 34:59 Future Outlook Support the show If you're gonna change the world, you're gonna need a world-class team. Partner with ErthTech Tal...

Julia Kumari Drapkin is the CEO and founder of ISeeChange, a data platform that combines resident-generated insights with AI to address climate adaptation challenges. Julia’s background as a climate science reporter, covering disasters like Hurricane Katrina, inspired her to bridge the gap between people’s lived experiences and actionable climate solutions. Her expertise in storytelling and data-d...

Learn how this carbon capture startup also produces green chemicals AND hydrogen -- how they funded their first demo plant -- their secrets to building a resilient business model -- and what he would advise Trump's admin in order to help keep climate on track while also competing with China.  Listen Time: Full Show 58:31 (no ads) | Free Preview 37:14 On today’s episode, Owen Cadwalader , the...

Hear the story of how Sila Nanotechnologies has successfully developed, taken to market, and scaled up a new Anode technology for the battery industry. -- Learn the importance of Job Creation in landing funding -- Understand why CleanTech is actually bi-partisan -- and Understand where the puck is going with the battery industry. Listen Time: Full Show 1:09:26 (no ads) | Free Preview 41:27 On toda...

Nate Loewentheil is the founder and managing partner of Commonweal Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on solving America's biggest challenges through entrepreneurship. Nate’s career spans angel investing, politics, and public policy. Previously, he served in the Obama White House, advising President Obama on emerging technologies such as clean energy and broadband expansion...

Hear the CEO of Skytree explain how you MUST build for scale to achieve impact in a timely manner -- how O&G have been releasing their captured Co2 for years -- why their biggest investor is a huge Greenhouse Operator -- the importance of co-locating your carbon capture tech with the demand -- his journey into climate -- and a few more hot takes.  Listen Time: Full Show 57:04 (no ads) | Free P...

Amy Duffuor is a co-founder and General Partner at Azolla Ventures and Managing Director at Prime Impact Fund, Azolla's predecessor vehicle. She has a diverse background that spans immigration research, management consulting, impact investing, and renewables investment banking. Amy began her career studying marginalized West African migrants and later pursued an MPhil in Migration Studies at...

Listen Time: Full Show 38:51 (no ads) | Free Preview 31:19 Today, we are speaking with Shaun Abrahamson from Third Sphere .  Third Sphere is a leading ClimateTech investor that also has a debt strategy for high-volume production startups in the hardware space. They have backed companies like ChargeLab , ClimateBase , Gradient , OneWheel , Therma , Revivn , & Wasted ( check out the episode we d...

There’s no sugarcoating it…Trump is bad news for ClimateTech — but thankfully, we have interviewed 200+ ClimateTech Entrepreneurs on how to build politically resilient companies — ensuring the future is greener no matter who the president is.  Today, we’re distilling those key lessons for you.  Key risks across / what’s on the chopping block  Possible silver linings & some wins  Recognizing th...

Today we are joined by Duncan Logan , CEO & Co-Founder of 9Zero . A community platform to bring climate professionals together in person and online so we can work together to solve the climate crisis.  Duncan previously founded RocketSpace where he saw many tech startups that would go on to become unicorns. Companies like Uber, FlexPort, and Spotify. Having this experience made him realize the...

Jean-Simon Venne is the co-founder and CTO of BrainBox AI, a pioneering company using artificial intelligence to optimize energy use in buildings. With a background in telecom and deep expertise in building mechanics and computer engineering, Jean-Simon has led BrainBox’s efforts to bring scalable, autonomous HVAC systems to the market. In this episode, Jean-Simon discusses his entrepreneurial jou...

Brian Berzin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Thea Energy, a nuclear fusion company aiming to commercialize clean, dispatchable energy. With over 70 years of scientific research from Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, Thea Energy focuses on utilizing a stellarator design for efficient and scalable fusion power. Previously an electrical engineer and venture capitalist, Brian combines his technical and entre...

Today, we are speaking with Liz Dennett , the CEO and Founder of Endolith .  Endolith recently spun out of Cemvita to form its own independent company. ( Ep #200 with Moji from Cemvita ) By 2050, we will need more copper than in the history of mankind due to the electrification of industry and developing countries. If we don’t solve this, it could lead to geopolitical conflicts.  Their tech uses m...

A while ago, we released a survey to collect people's feedback on NY Climate Week 2024. Well… the results are in! And we are here to recap them.  If you want to know… What people thought the best events were (and why)  As well as the worst… (namedropped… 😬) and why  Favorite topics  Topics people want to see more next year What everyone’s goal was, and did they achieve it?  What people will...

Arjun Jairaj is an investor at noa, a London-based VC firm focused on early-stage ventures in the built environment across North America and Europe. With experience spanning private equity, startup founding, and advisory roles, Arjun has worked in India, the UK, and beyond, including founding a shared economy startup called Plonk. At noa, he focuses on real estate, construction, energy, and mobili...

We're joined by Panama Bartholomy, Founder and Executive Director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC).  We talk about Panama’s background, the journey of creating the BDC, and why heat pumps and electrification are at the heart of decarbonizing buildings.  He shares insights on the challenges of transforming America’s building sector, the importance of state-level action, and the...

Bucket List: - Do a live podcast recording ✅ Thanks to Extantia, one of THE leading ClimateTech funds in Europe, we recorded our first live podcast with Co-Founder, Partner, & LinkedIn Top Voice Yair Reem . It was FOAKing awesome. And no, it wasn’t awesome just because we got to do a live podcast, but because so many of you showed up to listen!! Shoutout to all of the CleanTechies that came t...

And... don't forget to fill out the post climate week survey! 📝 NYCW 2024 was a DOOZY…filled with plenty of good and crazy times that we equally don’t really remember. It went by in a blur, but so much happened in the week that we need to break it down with all you CleanTechies out there. Listen to the ep to hear about: What events we liked — Third Sphere, Political Risk Event, Climate Capit...

Hey Everyone! We're excited to share two big announcements. 🚨🚨 First, CleanTechies is doing its first-ever live podcast! 🎙️🎊 We are partnering with Extantia , one of THE leading ClimateTech VCs in Europe, to do our first ever live podcast recording. 🎉 When: Wednesday, Sep. 25th @ 4 pm Sharp (be early) Where: Register for address Register for 1 of 15 CleanTechies tickets here: https://lu.m...

NY Climate Week is ####ing insane — event after event after event.  If you’re not careful, you’ll waste an entire week of work and sleep — and get nothing out of it.  We are here to give you our two cents… or rather, 35 min of advice on how to get the most out of your climate week experience.  This is for you regardless if this is your first or fifth climate week.  We broke it down into: Before -...