SOSV Climate Tech Podcast

In this discussion from the 2023 SOSV Climate Tech Summit (Sept 26-27, 2023), Dr. Uma Valeti, founder of UPSIDE Foods, a pioneer in cultivated meat is in conversation with Po Bronson. Dr. Valeti trained as a cardiologist before turning his attention to sustainable meat production. Po Bronson is a general partner at SOSV and managing director of Indie Bio, who wrote the first investment check in Up...

In this discussion from the 2023 SOSV Climate Tech Summit (Sept 26-27, 2023), Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures and Sean O'Sullivan, Managing General Partner and Founder of SOSV discuss the time it takes for climate tech investments to mature and the potential for exponential growth in the future. Vinod Khosla emphasizes the importance of focusing on major areas of carbon reduction and advi...

In this conversation from the 2023 SOSV Climate Tech Summit (Sept 26-27, 2023), Professor Jesse Jenkins, director of the zero lab at Princeton University is interviewed by Robinson Meyer, Founding Executive Editor of Heatmap. They discuss the progress of the Inflation Reduction Act one year after its passing. They talk about the implementation of the act, the flow of money, and the rules that need...

In this panel from the 2023 SOSV Climate Tech Summit (Sept 26-27, 2023), three experts discuss the topic of funding first-of-a-kind projects and the challenges and risks associated with it. They emphasize the importance of defining such projects and the need for different types of capital, such as government funding, venture capital, and philanthropic funding. They also highlight the significance...

In this panel from the 2023 SOSV Climate Tech Summit (Sept 26-27, 2023), three founders of carbon removal startups discuss the importance of carbon removal in achieving sustainable goals and the challenges of scaling up carbon removal technologies. They also touch on the need for community engagement, permitting, and the creation of a market for carbon removal. The panelists emphasize the need for...

In this discussion from the 2021 SOSV Climate Tech Summit (Oct. 20-21, 2021), two startup founders join a climate investor to discuss the importance of carbon capture and utilization in climate mitigation. They cover: The need to remove trillions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere and the potential for large-scale carbon removal. The role of different technologies and markets in carbon utilization...

In this discussion from the 2021 SOSV Climate Tech Summit (Oct. 20-21, 2021), Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Author of the best-selling book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need”, talks about climate tech investments and the challenges they pose compared to other areas. Gates mentions the need for patience and...

Telemedicine and Mental health are hot topics, especially in those times of economic uncertainty and forced isolation. In this episode, Daniel Månsson , a clinical psychologist and CEO of Flow Neuroscience (a SOSV portfolio company), explains how they are bringing the first medication-free depression treatment to the home of patients. This podcast is hosted by Benjamin Joffe ( @benjaminjoffe ), Pa...

The fashion and textile industry is at a turning point . First, it is one of the most polluting due to its use of chemicals (polyester, dyes, etc.), large amounts of water , long-distance logistics , and waste (defective products and unsold inventory that ends up burnt or in landfills. The Covid-19 pandemic put pressure on both retail and supply chains . In this episode, we talk with Alex Chan , C...

MassRobotics helps startups commercialize innovations in robotics . Its ecosystem includes 350 startups, 40 corporates and over 100 VCs, PEs and LPs they advise. In this episode, Fady Saad talks about trends , acquisitions , failures and what has changed over the past decade in robotics. It is a little crash course on the robotics market . This podcast is hosted by Benjamin Joffe ( @benjaminjoffe...

Khosla Ventures (KV) has been an active investor in deep tech for 15 years. In this episode they share ideas on how they select sectors to invest in and prioritize and retire risk , how to best support startups , and what investors need to enter the deep tech field (hint: it's not a PhD) . This podcast is hosted by Benjamin Joffe , Partner at SOSV , a global early stage fund focused on deep tech....

Getting innovation from lab to market is not an easy feat, and few countries do it well. Australia’s research output, for instance, punches way above its commercial applications (e.g. #10 in the SJR ranking and Nature Index). Are there ways to accelerate that transformation? Australia set up Main Sequence Ventures (@mseqvc) as a AU$240M (about US$170M) deep tech fund backed by the CSIRO and privat...

Habib Haddad and Calvin Chin are the Managing Partners of the E14 Fund , an early stage deep tech fund that invests exclusively in startups from the prolifically inventive MIT Media Lab community. This podcast is hosted by Benjamin Joffe , Partner at SOSV , a global early stage fund focused on deep tech. SOSV runs multiple accelerator programs including HAX (intelligent hardware) and IndieBio (lif...

Few VC funds focus on deep tech in industry , and few investors have a strong industrial background. Robert Gallenberger at btov Partners is one of those rare people. He invests across Europe where he sees an industrial renaissance based on the combination of fresh tech talent with industry veterans , and making use of the strong industrial base particularly in Germany, Switzerland and more. This...

First, let’s state that I have been a fan of Xavier since I was first invited to speak about hardware startups at his Hello Tomorrow Global Summit in 2016. Hello Tomorrow is a #deeptech community, and its Summit is the largest deep tech event in the world, featuring yearly 500 global startups. I was impressed by the production quality and general vibe; I’ve attended every year since then, and it o...

This is a a live panel ran by SOSV to introduce and discuss solutions funded by some of the most active investors in deep tech startups fighting Covid-19. Each of the three funds ( Fifty Years , Khosla Ventures , SOSV ) published an impressive list of their relevant portfolio startups. IndieBio even made a call to fund Covid-fighting startups as part of its newly launched NYC program . Here are th...

Eric Rosenblum is a Managing Partner at Tsingyuan Ventures , an early stage US fund with over $100m under management. They believe in the opportunity of cross-border and cross-discipline investments and focus primarily on US-based science startups founded by the Chinese tech diaspora . Prior to co-founding Tsingyuan Ventures, Eric graduated from Harvard, worked at BCG then got an MBA at MIT and wo...

Leslie Jump is the CEO and Mack Kolarich the CPO of Different , an organization that helps institutions and family offices discover, analyze, diligence, and select venture capital funds. They recently completed a remarkable DeepTech Investing Report based on more than 150 interviews with VCs, LPs and other stakeholders . The report was funded by Schmidt Futures , a philanthropic vehicle created by...

Sota Nagano is a Partner at Abies Ventures , a $40m early stage deep tech fund based in Tokyo backed by Taizo Son , a billionare active tech investor, and younger brother of Masa, creator of the famous Vision Fund. Abies Ventures invests in Japan and abroad in industrial tech, But also opportunistically in multiple sectors including advanced sensors, space tech and life sciences. Prior to Abies, S...

Seth Bannon is the Founding Partner of Fifty Years , a $50m early stage deep tech fund . Seth is a long-time advocate and campaigner, who turned to technology and investment to solve the world’s biggest problems around sustainability, food, and the digital divide. A graduate of Y Combinator, Seth was named twice to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Social Entrepreneurship. Seth believes business wil...

Kelly Chen is a Partner at DCVC  — a US-based venture fund founded in 2011 that raised $725 million in November 2019 to invest mostly in deep tech. Kelly is a China-born New Yorker now based in SF, who graduated from Columbia Engineering and Wharton with a focus on finance algorithms and manufacturing operations. She worked as a fixed income trader who started angel investing actively and eventual...

Manish Singhal is the founding partner of pi Ventures , a $30 million early stage deep tech fund based in Bangalore. Before founding Pi Ventures in 2016 as one of the very first AI-focused funds, he has worked for over 2 decades in R&D, product and general management roles in global companies creating video technologies and consumer electronics, including Motorola and Sling Media. This podcast...

John Ho is a Partner at Anzu Partners , a US-based $190 million venture capital and private equity fund focused on breakthrough industrial technologies . John is a Computer Science and Electrical Engineering PhD from MIT, and long-time Bostonian, who worked in industry and management consulting. This podcast is hosted by Benjamin Joffe , Partner at SOSV , a global early stage fund focused on deep...

Matt Clifford is the co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First . EF helps create deep tech startups by attracting exceptional talent, and having them go through a unique program to create teams, identify real problems, and fund the most promising ones. SOSV has funded several EF graduates (and likely more to come). This podcast is hosted by Benjamin Joffe , Partner at SOSV , a global early stage fu...