Leaders in Cleantech

In this episode, I’m joined by Steve Robinson and David Beeston from Hyperion Search for a Q2 cleantech market review, looking across technology, investment, infrastructure and talent. The central theme of the conversation is clear: the market is moving from announcement to alignment , or perhaps more sharply, from ambition to execution . Capital is still flowing, M&A activity continues, and t...

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I sit down with Nacho Gimenez, Chief Operating Officer at OXCCU, to explore his journey from chemical engineer, to venture investor, and now back into an operational leadership role at one of Europe's most exciting climate technology companies.  We discuss OXCCU's breakthrough approach to producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and other hydroca...

Howard Johns has spent more than two decades doing exactly one thing: putting clean energy in the hands of people. POP is the natural culmination of that work. Following a degree in Energy and Environmental Technology, his journey began in the 90s as an activist and protestor - trying to stop a coal mine in South Wales and various roads across the UK. Realising you can’t solve the problem by sayin...

About our Guest Chris is a commercial Energy and Mobility lawyer, with nearly 20 years' experience in the sustainability sphere. With specialist knowledge of battery storage, solar, EV infrastructure and wind, Chris regularly advises funders, asset owners, developers and contractors on renewable energy projects and the trading and procurement of renewable power. From PPAs and optimisation agr...

About our Guest Dr. Pete Armstrong:  Dr. Pete Armstrong is the CEO/CTO and co-founder of Mixergy, a smart hot water technology company reshaping how we heat and store energy. After completing his PhD on intelligent hot water systems at Oxford University with co-founder Ren Kang, Pete helped pioneer Mixergy’s technology that makes hot water smart and a connected energy asset. Today, Mixergy leads t...

Philipp Man – terralayr In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I’m joined by Philipp Man, co-founder and CEO of terralayr, a company building a new kind of energy infrastructure platform focused on flexibility and battery storage. Philipp shares his journey from commodities and entrepreneurship into the energy sector, and the insight that led to terralayr: the growing flexibility gap in power sy...

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech , I’m joined by Adrien Pinsard, CEO of Telis Energy , a Carlyle-backed renewable energy platform targeting a 10GW development pipeline across Europe by 2030 . Adrien reflects on nearly two decades in the renewables sector , moving from private equity investor to platform builder and entrepreneur. Before launching Telis in 2022, Adrien spent 14 years investin...

In this episode I’m Joined by Mike Nakrani, CEO of VEV. Mike is an OG in the electrification of transport, and that’s ignoring the milk float joyride! We talk about the challenges, opportunities and many converging technologies and factors that impact fleet electrification. There are of course many examples now that light and heavy-duty electric fleets are here and scaling. Grid connections aside,...

In this episode, I’m joined by Johannes Kirnberger, co-founder and Managing Director of Delta Charge, a Swedish-German company building Europe’s next-generation charging and battery infrastructure for electric freight. Johannes shares his journey from advising global institutions like the OECD and World Bank to co-founding a startup that's tackling one of Europe’s most complex infrastructure...

In this episode, David Hunt discusses the key insights from the Hyperion Q4 Market and Talent Review, highlighting the significant shifts in the cleantech sector during 2025. The conversation covers the maturation of the industry, the focus on execution over exuberance, and the evolving demands for leadership and talent across various sectors, including energy storage, EVs, and renewables. The epi...

Devrim Celal– Kraken In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, David Hunt is joined once again by Devrim Celal, Chief Flexibility & Marketing Officer at Kraken, nearly six years after their first conversation in 2019—back when Devrim was CEO of Upside Energy. Since then, Upside Energy was acquired by Octopus Energy and evolved into Kraken, now one of the world’s leading energy technology platfo...

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I speak with Juergen Mayerhofer, CEO and co-founder of enspired, the Vienna-based company using fully automated, AI-driven trading to optimise flexible power assets – especially grid-scale batteries – across multiple European markets. Juergen shares how he stumbled into energy via Austrian gas market liberalisation, fell in love with physical energy systems...

In this episode I’m joined by Gregory Dewerpe, Founder of NOA  (formerly A/O), to cut through the noise on climate investing. We talk about the shift from abundance to discipline, why Europe and the US are now playing different games, and how AI will matter in the physical world—grids, buildings, materials—rather than the hype layer. Candid, practical, and economics-first: adoption wins when solut...

About Liliane Ableitner: Liliane is the co-founder and CEO of the climate tech startup exnaton. In 2019, she graduated with a PhD in information systems from one of Europe’s most renowned universities ETH Zurich. In 2020, she co-founded a startup with her two fellow PhD colleagues and was listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for young entrepreneurs. Until today, the startup has received Venture C...

Join David Hunt, host of the Leaders in Cleantech podcast, as he delves into the future of battery storage with Andrew Gilligan, Senior Director of Global Markets and Development at Fluence. In this episode, Andrew shares his journey from the solar industry to joining Fluence, insights about global storage markets, and the evolving supply chains required to support large-scale battery deployments....

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I speak with Joachim Lohse, CEO and co-founder of Ampcontrol, about his journey from writing LinkedIn blog posts as a young consultant to founding one of Europe’s most innovative smart charging software companies. We discuss the technical and leadership challenges of scaling a company at the heart of the EV transition, and what it really takes to support th...

Hydrogen has for decades been talked about as the fuel of the future, the economics, among other things stand it’s way, producing cheap hydrogen isn’t easy, but what if nature has already done the hard work for us? In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I speak with Emmanuel Masini, founder and CEO of Mantle8, a pioneering natural hydrogen exploration company. We dive into Emmanuel’s journey fro...

Rewiring Energy: Disruption, Transparency, and Scaling with Purpose – Joe McDonald, TEM In this energised episode, David Hunt is joined by Joe McDonald, Co-founder and CEO of TEM – a fast-scaling UK energytech startup reshaping how energy transactions are done. From his early days at LimeJump and the acquisition by Shell, to co-founding TEM and challenging the very core of how electricity is bough...

🎧 Episode and guest overview In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech , David Hunt is joined by Danijel Visevic, Managing Partner of World Fund, Europe’s largest climate tech VC. Danijel shares his personal and professional journey — from journalism and politics to launching a €300M venture fund dedicated to decarbonisation. They explore the challenges of scaling deep tech and hardware-centric sta...

What’s it all about? In this episode, I’m joined by Monica Collings—former CEO of Vattenfall UK and ESB Energy, and now a board chair, non-exec, and strategic advisor across the energy transition space. We discuss her journey from executive leadership to a portfolio career, lessons from leading through the energy crisis, building resilient cultures in volatile times, and why diversity, inclusion,...

🎙 Episode 150 – Jan Lozek, Managing Director & Founder, Future Energy Ventures In this milestone episode of Leaders in Cleantech, David Hunt is joined by Jan Lozek, a veteran investor and the founder of Future Energy Ventures, one of Europe’s largest and most influential climate tech VCs. Together, they explore the evolution of cleantech investment, the challenges and opportunities facing foun...

What’s it all about? Energy Storage, to infinity and beyond!  How do you forecast and predict revenues from your energy storage assets, even if not built yet? Modo have a range of solutions to help asset owners, developers and investors to answer these questions. We also dive into the challenges and experiences of high growth, from pivoting and fundraising to new market entry and building and reta...

What’s it all about? Building cleantech start-ups, at scale. It can be confusing, the world of Incubators, accelerators and venture builders, also known as start-up studios. Who does what, how and why? In this episode we clarify some of those things, but discuss so much more about the why and how of new cleantech venture builder Big Circle Ventures, with founder CEO Joost Kruytzer. Joost is a very...

What’s it all about? Investing in Hardtech! Yes, it’s true, some VC’s do invest in hardtech/deeptech, knowing the specific challenges of supporting companies of this nature to scale. This week I speak with Malin Carlstrom of Danish VC Climentum Capital about scaling deeptech, the importance of team, the usefulness (and otherwise) of advisors and NED’s, and the ‘perfect storm’ giving optimism about...

What’s it all about? Clean, efficient, reliable, electric public transport. After traveling by Bus and Coach across five continents, Keith Bradbury and Co-Founder Pierce Glennie made the switch from Fintech to Cleantech, with a solution to the cost, pollution and unreliability and hassle of public transport. Ember was born, you can hear the story from inception to recent A-round fundraise, and pla...