Joel Tasche is the founder of CleanHub, and is on a mission to clean up our oceans, all while empowering marginalized waste workers. And it all started with his passion for surfing. 🌊 And it all started with his passion for surfing. 🌊 Listen to this episode to learn how CleanHub: 🚛 implements tracking systems all the way from households to disposal…

Deniz Ficicioglu loves tuna so much that she doesn't want them to be put in a can. 🐟 That's why she founded BettaF!sh, an alternative proteins company that uses seaweed to create plant-based fish alternatives that replicate the taste, texture, and experience of traditional fish, minus the devastating effects of fishing. Check out this 30-minute epi…

Brian Sheng is a self-funded entrepreneur and co-founder of Aquaria, a company that seeks to create resilient water infrastructure by extracting water from the air. A former venture capitalist who started his own VC firm at 18, Brian transitioned to the operational side of startups with the onset of the pandemic. Here's what we talked about in our …

Kidus Asfaw is the founder of Kubik, an Ethiopian company that upcycles plastic waste into construction material for low-carbon buildings. In this episode we talked about: 🏢 How Kubik aspires to be a technology platform for the materials industry, aiming to extend their reach beyond just plastic 🚀 The opportunities for climatetech companies in Sub-…

Vivian Bertseka is co-founder of BlueLayer, the first end-to-end software platform for carbon project developers. In this episode we talked about how: 📈 The carbon credit market is growing but also experiencing growing pains, with issues around transparency and trust. 🔍 There is an urgent need for more transparency in the carbon credit market to im…

Viktoria Oseyko is CMO of Carbominer, a startup that uses direct air capture (DAC) to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and use it for productive purposes, like growing our fruits and vegetables in greenhouses. We talked about how this technology works, how founder can attract public money for green interventions, and what the future of Ukrainian clim…

I found Jennifer O'Brien when reading some press about a new seaweed farm that had just been set up off the wild western coast of Ireland, in County Galloway. I've been intrigued by seaweed for a long time as a source of sustainable protein and material, as well as for its carbon sequestration power. It seems that seaweed is finally starting to get…

Martin Stuchtey is the founder and co-CEO of The Landbanking Group, which aims to support the regeneration of nature and biodiversity through an asset class they call Nature Equity. Martin talked about how we can protect nature by literally putting a value to it, as well as his own life and career which has ranged from soldier in the German army’s …

This inverview is the 25th and final episode of my podcast Sound Funding, where I've been interviewing impact fund managers together with Impact Europe since 2020. If you're interested in impact funds, I highly recommend checking out the back catalogue! Impact Europe's podcast host Benjamin DeVries interviewed me about my background as a founder, h…

Remember in the mid 2010s when we were all talking about microplastics in things like face creams, and brands were making a big deal about being micro-bead free? Well although the media attention has gone away, the problem of microplastics has definitely not. Adam Root is the founder and CEO of Matter., which is tackling the problem of microplastic…

Jason Goodhand is an old classmate and pal, and a fellow traveller in renewable energy before it was cool. He's been fascinated by the role energy storage has in greening the grid for as long as I've known him. These days, he's travelling the world discovering, developing, and implementing storage technologies based on hydrogen, sodium, zinc, iron,…

Bruce Friedrich is the founder and president of the Good Food Institute and the reason I invest in alternative proteins. I was driving through the hills of Umbria listening to podcasts and an interview with Bruce came on. An hour later I was enthralled and had found my calling. It really was as simple as that. I talked with Bruce about the outlook …

Fungi is having a moment as it does everything from open our minds, feed our population, pass notes for our trees, capture our CO2, and clean up our messes. Nathan Paumier is a fungi nerd and writer of the popular and informative BRB newsletter. I took advantage of having him on the show to ask everything I always wanted to know about mushrooms but…

Will Wiseman is a Forbes 30 under 30 founder who’s on a mission to democratise investing in renewable energy. He co-founded Climatize, which allows people to invest as little as five bucks, just two years ago and it’s going well. We talked about how Will got started, his experiences abroad in Europe, and the role of microloans in electrifying the g…

I was flattered when Silas Mähner and Somil Aggarwal reached out to invite me onto The CleanTechies Podcast out of New York. In the end we decided to do something fun and interview each other and syndicate the episode across both our podcasts at the same time. Fun times! Parakar is the easiest way to hire people in Europe without the hassle of sett…

Stuart Goldsmith is one of the only people out there who can make me LOL about climate change. I caught his act on YouTube thanks to "the Algorithm" and was thrilled that he said yes when I invited him on the podcast. Especially since he's in front of slightly larger audiences like the Conan O'Brien Show and Wembley Arena. This episode has some imp…

Susanne Glørsen is a renowned early-stage sustainability investor who took her fascination with the potential of fungi to the next level: she created an award, called the Future Is Fungi. In this episode, Susanne talks about the award and introduces us to the inaugural winners including the bioremediation company novobiom, as well as Oona Snoeyenbo…

If you've ever found yourself looking for a job in the foodtech sector, chances are you've come across the name Emma Osborne. Once a traditional executive recruiter, Emma threw that overboard to focus only on matching talent with roles that are aligned with her own values. Today, in addition to her talent matching work, she is at the centre of some…

I know Nate Crosser as an influential venture capitalist at Blue Horizon, where I've co-invested with him. But I've lately started appreciating his talents as a writer of the Fifth Industrial series of essays on Substack. It was in reading his essay "Solarpunk is the next big literary-design movement" that I knew my listeners needed to hear from hi…

Glenn Hurowitz is Founder & CEO of Mighty Earth, which aspires to be the most effective environmental advocacy organization in the world. Based on the work I’ve seen them do so far, I think they’re pretty damn close to achieving that. Glenn founded Mighty Earth after recognizing a need for an entrepreneurial, results-focused organization working on…

In a world where biodiversity is under threat, the role of native trees in maintaining the planet's health cannot be overstated. Blaine Pearson is the founder of Squiirrel, a digital marketplace and traceability system for reforestation and restoration ecology. We talked about trees' complex roles in biodiversity, the wildfires in Canada, and the i…

Jonny Everett didn't want to build his own climatetech company, so he decided instead to launch Marble, a climatetech company to build 25 of them in the next five years. Does that sound crazy to you? Well, it didn't to some serious backers who have helped make this Paris-based venture studio a reality. Jonny talks about his career, his thoughts on …

What if you could eat carbon-negative food? This isn’t sci fi—it’s arguably even cooler. Gregor Tegl is the co-founder and CEO of Arkeon, a company that can turn CO2 into amino acids, the building blocks of protein. How, you ask? Well, Arkeon has figured out how to put an ancient micro-organism called archaea to work. These little fellas have been …

Mallory Greene's father was a funeral director and mother worked at a hospice, so the topic of death was never far from the dinner table. With her company Eirene Cremations, she has combined digitisation and transparency in order to shake up the funeral industry and give people real and cost-effective choices for themselves and their loved ones. Es…

Paul Foulkes-Arellano is a sort of elder statesman in the circular economy industry. A lone wolf consultant these days, he previously spent the better part of 30 years in packaging and so knows first-hand the uphill battle we have ahead of us to achieve circularity in our economy. Fortunately, he also has some ideas about how to get there. In this …

Did you ever consider that your bank account could be doubling your carbon footprint? Me neither. But Dan Sherrard-Smith has built a business called Mother Tree that exists to help people and businesses shift their money so that they're not funding climate change. It might actually be the easiest way to lower your carbon footprint. Take two seconds…

Amos Golan is Founder and CEO of Chunk Foods, based both in Israel and the USA. Chunk has the distinction of being the first plant-based steak on an American steakhouse chain's menu. Here's what it says on the menu at Charley's Steakhouse: F U Filet Mignon: *freaking unbelievable* plant-based by Chunk Chunk's goal is to make plant-based steaks bett…

Nicole Kellner was already making a living as an artist before she even identified as one. A tech entrepreneur by background, she kept finding herself drawn (haha) to visual storytelling through art and so went all in. With this episode she is launching her colouring book, Electrify Everything, which is an awesome way for kids and adults alike to l…

Paul Ritch is a recent transplant from the US to Berlin, via two years of world travel. He's one of the forces behind ProVeg Incubator's absolutely brilliant Kickstarting for Good program which your humble podcast host sees as one of the most ambitious and clever programs ever(!) Check out some of the ideas they have come up with, which they are re…

It's hard to be an animal lover. Those of us who eat plant-based diets because we don't want to harm animals are also very likely to have cats and dogs at home. And so we end up unwittingly fuelling cruel and unsustainable meat production every day. Dogs can be plant-based--though they don't all take to it--but cats, as obligate carnivores, are the…

Today, ClimatePartner works with more than 6,000 companies in over 60 countries. Manca Jurca talks about the pivotal role corporations play in mitigating climate change. Our conversation highlights the importance of quantifying a company's carbon footprint, transitioning to green energy sources, and investing in green technology. Listen as we discu…

My conversation with Arman Anatürk, founder of FoodHack, ClimateHack and HackCapital, a universe that grew out of a single event in Geneva in 2018. We talk about new approaches for startups, fund managers, and angels to participate in the capital-hungry universe of climatetech, and how to get more players involved. From micro funds to SPVs, M&A to …

Jeff Katz is a serial entrepreneur who these days invests in climatetech through his company builder and investment vehicle 1.5° Ventures. In this conversation, Jeff dives into the many structural problems with VC and how it's not set up to tackle the massive challenges around climate change. This interview is packed with insights both for professi…

Megan Poinski is a US-based journalist who has covered the food industry the last 7 years. During this time, she has seen some of the biggest changes in how and what we buy, eat, and think about food literally in centuries. We talked about these changes in technology, attitudes, and markets and what excites her about the industry now. Parakar is th…

Markus Linder is a serial tech founder whose company Inoqo evaluates the impact of grocery products on the basis of climate, social impact, animal welfare, and nutrition to help consumers make greener food selections. We talked about how private label brands can create differentiation by appealing to sustainability-conscious consumers and retailers…

Art Lapinsch certainly never thought he would be studying law, but after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he became convinced that energy policy is one of the most crucial and overlooked aspects of global security. He is now studying energy law while sharing his thoughts on the topic through essays, science fiction pieces, and more at Delphi Zero. In …

One of the biggest complaints about plant-based meats is that something is missing -- and that something is usually the fat. Some folks out there have been busy toiling away for years to find a way to solve this problem, without needing to kill animals to achieve it. People like Anastasia Krivoruchko, co-founder and CEO at Melt&Marble. Anastasia ta…

I had the immense pleasure of speaking with Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute about his brand spanking new report Welcome to the Great Unraveling: Navigating the Polycrisis of Environmental and Social Breakdown. The biggest eye-opener for me? The extra emissions from creating the hardware we need to avoid surpassing emiss…

Extantia is a ClimateTech fund decarbonization fund investing in gigacorns: companies that have the potential to offset or obviate a gigaton of carbon every year. Carlota Ochoa Neven Du Mont talks about carbon markets and Extantia's long-term view of carbon pricing, the investment gap between the sectors attracting the. most attention versus the on…

What if there was a platform to help businesses make climate-conscious decisions and achieve net zero emissions? Yasha Tarani talks about how his platform Climate Choice helps corporates to target Scope 3 emissions as a major step towards net zero. Yasha breaks down the emerging regulatory landscape, the financial implications of climate change, an…

Imagine traveling by air with zero emissions, enjoying the luxury of a private jet at business class ticket prices. That's what Josef Mouris, founder of ELECTRON, envisions with their electric five-seater airplane, the ELECTRON 5. As a commercial pilot for 15 years, Josef's experience fuelled his passion for revolutionizing air travel, and in this …

What if you could enjoy real meat without the guilt and environmental impact of animal slaughter? Discover how Magic Valley, a pioneering cultivated meat company, is making this concept a reality in our engaging conversation with vegan entrepreneur and founder Paul Bevan. Learn about the fascinating process of cultivating meat, its potential to com…

Melina Sánchez Montañéz has covered some ground, from working on Wall Street to serving as a diplomat. Today she combines her finance expertise and interest in public policy as a cleantech investor at AENU in Berlin. We talked about why traditional venture capital is broken, why carbon isn’t the only metric that matters for the climate, and the pro…