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Climate Takes 100 Investments
58 Plays29 days ago
Welcome to Climate Takes, Carbon13’s podcast where we ask special guests from the climate startup and VC world for their takes on their subject, and we ask, what will it take to tackle the climate emergency?
In this special episode, we celebrate a huge milestone for Carbon13: 100 invested ventures since 2021.
Carbon13’s cofounders Nicky Dee and Michael Langguth take a few minutes out of their busy schedules building our next 100 ventures to talk to Sara Jones about Carbon13’s unique approach, tell us what people misunderstand about “impact”, what’s changed between our first investment and our 100th, and what might be coming in 2026.
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Transcript
Carbon 13 Milestone and Mission
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome Carbon 13's podcast, Climate Takes. And today is going to be one of my favorites because we are delighted to announce that we have reached 100 invested startups in Carbon 13's portfolio. That is a huge milestone. I'm joined by co-founders of Carbon 13 who've literally done this with their bare hands, Michael and Nikki.
00:00:40
Speaker
we get obviously an unfair advantage in seeing how well these teams come together and work. If you want to build a climate tech startup and you're still looking for that perfect team, you should come to to our program. And it's an amazing experience to meet so many like-minded people that are all keen to build something that really matters.
00:01:04
Speaker
And that's always what we're focused on. How do we train every founder to think about impact, but very much tie that impact to a commercial proposition because we are all about getting these solutions out into the world in a really big way.
Engagement and Growth in Climate Tech
00:01:19
Speaker
but almost want to use this to make a shout out to people out there that maybe work in corporates and want to be involved in building startups or um academics, people in universities and the universities that are thinking about how do we get more out of our student entrepreneurship.
00:01:39
Speaker
Hi guys, how are you? Good, thank you Sarah. Yeah, a big milestone for us and and one um we've been working on for a little while.
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah, I'm very excited to to finally be able to talk about this. We obviously have seen it coming and we're very excited to to be here now. Yes, it was inevitable, but not necessarily simple. um We made our first investments in 2021, right?
00:02:13
Speaker
So that's 100 since 2021. Do you want to tell us what is the point of this portfolio? What is the carbon 13 thesis?
00:02:25
Speaker
um It's a good question and one that we've um obviously spent a lot of time thinking about. And the the whole premise of of Carbon 13 is that we get solutions to safeguarding the earth out into the world in a big way. So we really are trying to show the art of what is possible in this space. Obviously, we have...
00:02:51
Speaker
voices talking about um the challenges. But what what what we want to have is people going out into the world, not just talking about solutions, but actually deploying them.
Showcasing Portfolio Successes
00:03:04
Speaker
ah So obviously, being able to make these investments is a critical part of that. And let's pick out some examples here from the 100 investments. Which ones do you think are great examples of the way Carbon 13 builds companies and then the problem solution that they're providing.
00:03:24
Speaker
Michael, do you want to go first? Yeah, sure. um So a company that currently is doing incredibly well and like is a really good example of like how much we can speed up the development from lab to sort of industrial pilots and then sort of go really go out into the market and make a big difference is Cocoon Carbon where You have um two technical co-founders who joined from both from Cambridge University, and they had been looking at different technologies in the sort of green steel space. um
00:03:59
Speaker
And on the other hand, you have a commercial co-founder, Elliott, who was a co-founder at Thriber Health before. So he had experience on on building a company, actually so specifically something that has a physical component.
00:04:12
Speaker
and um And he came to the program because obviously he knows how to build a business, but he was looking for some technical co-founders, scientific co-founders that have a specific idea for something that really moves the needle, right? Like not to build another carbon accounting calculator, but find something that really moves the needle in an industry that he might not be as familiar with. And together they have been building cocoon carbon. They have raised some quite a bit of money and now have gone from lab to basically a pilot with with a steel plant in the US and and several coming up very soon.
00:04:49
Speaker
That's one example. Another example would be in our um European program, we had a company called Tetrax. So very different technology. It's an AI platform, a genetic AI platform to help software um being basically in the due diligence process of solar development. So solar developers, when they decide on a and new location, they have to go through a lot of processes, a lot of documentation to decide which um which is the best place for the solar development. And with that solution, they can bring down that time and by over 10x and therefore obviously roll more ah roll more solar out and actually be faster in the deployment of solar, which is something obviously that we want. And the team came out of our Berlin cohort where
00:05:36
Speaker
two Spanish co-founders that hadn't known each other came individually to our program and they met, so decided to start a company with a third co-founder, Ekaterina, who is based in Germany. And um yeah, really exciting team currently raising really good first round of funding after our program.
00:05:55
Speaker
And I say, you know, just just building on that, it really speaks to the heart of what we're doing. Obviously, 100 investments across a variety of different sectors. And it's the team that gives us that edge we get.
Valued Ventures and Their Impact
00:06:10
Speaker
obviously an unfair advantage in seeing how well these teams come together and work and that's um the same regardless of whether they're working in energy maybe green chemistry on an AI platform we get to see that very much firsthand are there any other specific examples you'd want to name check Nikki Yeah, I mean, it it's always difficult because you don't want to have favorites. But um we think all of the ventures, obviously, at the point at which we we make the investment, we feel very compelled by the team and what they're doing. um But coming back to some of the impact that we want to create, there are a couple of teams that I think are interesting. One of them is Blue Methane.
00:07:02
Speaker
And they're extracting methane from water. i think methane is a really important and potent greenhouse gas that we need to address.
00:07:12
Speaker
And we have an opportunity to try and shift the trajectory of climate change if we really start to tackle methane now. um So if we look at the global warming potential, which is the heat trapped in the atmosphere from methane um over 100 year time frame, that's 25 versus one for for carbon dioxide over And When you think of some of the investments that we've seen in direct air capture and the amount of effort and energy that you have to put in sucking that carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, you know, over 400 parts per million, um then you can see why extracting methane from water is brilliant. And again, this is a team... Relatively new to setting up a venture, but now ah very accomplished on entrepreneurs. um
00:08:11
Speaker
And they've gone through a few different pivots from extracting methane in a reservoir to extracting it in wastewater treatment plants. um yeah Yeah, very effective when it comes to actually driving that impact.
00:08:25
Speaker
And another company just similar but quite different is Climatei. And what they're looking at is F gases. So if you thought methane sounded pretty potent, F gases are even more potent. So if you look at um nitrogen trifluoride, in the latest assessment, AR6, that was 17,400. global warming potential and sulfur hexafluoride is 24,300 and that's associated um very often with power generation and that team are are tackling that problem head on but it's not necessarily something that's well known so we were delighted to support this team and I think now it's really starting to generate some interest.
Statistics and Selection Process
00:09:21
Speaker
So if we take it a step back and we look at the hundred as a whole, right, let's just look at some stats for those 100 investments. Just over half, like 60, 65 percent-ish are deep tech, hard tech, kind of IP science-led ventures, with the remainder being software.
00:09:39
Speaker
um About 65 percent of the teams that we invest in have at least one female founder.
00:09:48
Speaker
80% of the startups are still in existence, only a 20% failure rate. And this is since 2021. And we are still early days in the development of these ventures, um especially the kinds of ventures that we back who have um fairly long journeys ahead of them, such as the nature of their type of startup. um One of the most important ah parts of the hundred startups though, is the,
00:10:16
Speaker
planned impact that these ventures might have. And Nikki, do you want to take us through how we approach looking at the impact of these startups?
00:10:28
Speaker
Well, look, and I think there are lots of misunderstandings when it comes to impact. um we're actually really pragmatic when it comes to impact. ah We think that it can actually create an edge.
00:10:44
Speaker
So evaluating impact upfront can feed into your ideation process. It can also help you think about innovative business models um and tap into some new commercial opportunities. And that's always what we're focused on. How do we train every founder to think about impact, but very much tie that impact to a commercial proposition, because we are all about getting these solutions out into the world in a really big way. The way for these ventures to scale is by getting financial fuel. So they have to be commercial. Obviously, there are other ways of of tackling the climate crisis or or some of the issues affecting the earth but the the lever that we're using at the moment is these ventures.
00:11:33
Speaker
And you talk a lot about how we don't know what a climate unicorn looks like yet.
Future of Climate Tech and Collaboration
00:11:41
Speaker
True, yes. You know, time will tell and we've had various people suggest what what number that might be. um We can also look at it in the round so we can see you know, where we are in terms of emissions on on the earth at the moment and what percentage of that could be addressed by any one company.
00:12:05
Speaker
i think the point here is to get our founders thinking about scaling from day one. And what we find really helpful is that for some individuals, it's less interesting to think, how do I create as much revenue as possible?
00:12:20
Speaker
and it's more interesting to think, actually, what does that look like on an impact? perspective So in the same way as you can get value drivers, high value, low volume or low value, high volume, you can do the same with impact.
00:12:33
Speaker
And it really forces that thinking from day one. OK, so do I just want to be operating in my village? um What does that mean for the numbers? How do I get out of my village into the city? am I going beyond beyond my country's borders? So there's all sorts of questions that it raises for people from day one.
00:12:54
Speaker
And looking back over the past hundred investments, has the kind of person joining Carbon 13 as a founder changed or have the startup ideas themselves evolved?
00:13:09
Speaker
I think, I mean, yes, they have changed in the sense also that we know better what we're looking for, for a great founder. I think we've um narrowed down in the type of questions that we ask. So every founder that comes into the program has had two interviews, in some cases, three.
00:13:27
Speaker
So we really dig deep into the kind of motivation, what drives this person, why do they want to do it? Because we want to see that we have somebody in front of us who has real commitment. Obviously, in some cases, they have to first overcome still some some barrier. For example, not everybody can just afford to make the jump from day one. But we want people that to have a drive to to make that happen.
00:13:51
Speaker
Additionally, we know more about the kinds of roles that are necessary. Obviously, in the like in recent years, ai engineers and people that have an AI first mentality is something that we have increasingly looked for. Like so people that use the latest tools and then really go out and and and move faster by using those is something that's quite important. But then there's also like in science, there's certain areas where synthetic biology, for example, gives us a lot of opportunities to build climate ventures in new materials, for example, or ingredients for FMCG food products.
00:14:28
Speaker
And we have a fair bit of experience helping us to get out into the marketplace and raise their first funding round. So if I was going to add to what Michael said, i think the climate tech space has become more sophisticated. We've got better understanding of not just the tech, but where the commercial opportunities are. And increasingly, we do expect founders to come in with some sort of an idea, either a commercial frustration or a technical trajectory that they've been pursuing for the last few years. And it's now at a stage where they recognize it is potentially commercially interesting. um
00:15:15
Speaker
So we're not so much seeing teams that come together and really trying to formulate an idea from scratch. There is and something sitting behind that. and And we love that because most of our teams typically can hit the ground running.
00:15:31
Speaker
And moving into 2026, what's our advice to climate founders? Yeah, well, we've seen a lot of change. um It was a very different fundraising environment a few years ago to what it is now. So those ah fundamentals of a business are are really critical.
00:15:55
Speaker
We also know that AI... is enabling and certain things to happen really quickly. One of them is software. So whereas a few years ago, seeing ah a software demo um demonstrated um some capability in the team that was quite interesting. Now we know it's quite quick and relatively easy to to develop some software, ah which of course means it's very quick and easy for someone else to develop the same software. So We're more interested in some of the unique data sets, perhaps, that people can get ah their hands on and obviously some of the intelligence sitting behind that. um
00:16:41
Speaker
And then I would say on the on the hardware, obviously, I think we've got better as well in how we support those teams and help them secure IP or engage with universities, leverage grants, et cetera.
00:16:57
Speaker
Carbon 13 is this ecosystem and we've had a lot of support from lots of different kinds of people and institutions. And in particular, how have you know partnerships with corporates helped our startups meaningfully?
00:17:15
Speaker
think it's a good point. And there's obviously a lot of people that helped over the years. And one of the main ways that we have a lot of people involved is our domain experts. So those are people from industry often. So R&D people, but also industry experts in in energy as well as a built environment and so on.
00:17:37
Speaker
um But then specifically, we have certain corporate partners that have been engaging with with our program from day one. um And we think it's a really important um sort trade of founders is being able to use this kind of resource that you give them and finding ways to to leverage that.
00:17:58
Speaker
um It's also that, yeah, i mean, we have found people that are really believing in that same mission of bringing two but together entrepreneurs, setting them up with the right foundation, and therefore, and in that way, sort of being able to get these kind of climate solutions out into the world faster.
00:18:15
Speaker
And yeah, we've been very grateful to work with the likes of Siemens Energy, Barclays, EY, and even BP have been corporate partners in our program.
00:18:27
Speaker
And what are your hopes for the next 100 invested ventures?
00:18:36
Speaker
I think one hope, and i think it's maybe connected to what we said earlier, like that really works, is where you need somebody with with an insight. You need somebody with an industry insight or with a so some kind of spark that ideally comes from your background. It comes from something that you've been thinking about for a while. And bringing these people together with with insights, with technology insights, with market insights and and helping them to move a lot faster is is what we do best.
00:19:07
Speaker
And that in 2026,
00:19:10
Speaker
with these hundred investments now having done those, I think people see that we are the place, if you want to build a climate tech startup and you're still looking for that perfect team, you should come to to our program. And it's an amazing experience to meet so many like-minded people that are all keen to build something that really matters.
00:19:32
Speaker
i mean, firstly, it's quite a daunting thing because this is quite a significant milestone, i think we will increasingly interrogate um where the differentiation is on ventures coming forward.
00:19:51
Speaker
And, but obviously, with that, we also, i think, better at providing support for specific trajectories. And i think that's quite a powerful combination.
00:20:07
Speaker
We know that there are other partners that we want to work with, ah other institutions that we're looking to engage with, um and fundamentally some phenomenal founders that we we have on our waiting list already, um but also that we we keep talking to.
00:20:29
Speaker
And that's really where the excitement comes from. i
Innovations and Future Challenges
00:20:32
Speaker
think whilst we've still got this incredible sort of calibre of individual coming to us, as Michael said, with some kind of insight and we can deliver the support that they need to develop that venture and get that solution out into the world, then um who knows what what will happen with the next 100. We know that there are some significant pain points in the world. One of them is around energy and
00:21:00
Speaker
So we've elect electrified transport, electrified heat, and now we've got data centres. So it's causing huge pain points. And that's not just the generation of energy. It's also um energy efficiency. um we also know...
00:21:18
Speaker
that there are some shifts in how you tackle that problem, depending on whether you're essentially in the north or in the south. um And how AI interacts with everything that we do is something that we're really alert to. but we can't shy away from the hard problems. And whilst many businesses are still relying on decarbonizing through introducing renewables, many of them haven't got concrete solutions post 2030. So we need to be investing in the innovations that can really help do that 2030 beyond drop in in impact for these businesses.
00:22:02
Speaker
I think you just ah just an interesting point that you just made is sort of, we almost want to use this to make a shout out to people out there that maybe work in corporates and want to be involved in building startups or um academics, people in university and the universities that are thinking about how do we get more out of our student entrepreneurship? And we would love to to you know for for you to approach us and come into conversation how we can build more things together in 2026.
00:22:35
Speaker
Absolutely. um If somebody wants to be involved in any way, they should just drop an email or LinkedIn messages. Hello at carbon13.com.
00:22:46
Speaker
But look, applications for our next venture builder programs in the UK and Europe will open in January. um applications for our accelerator will open in Q1 as well. um And if you are somebody who wants to add to the fuel of our ventures from an investment point of view, you should also get in touch and we can discuss that. um Thank you very much for listening um to Climate Takes 100 Investments. And I think you'll join me in saying a huge well done to Nikki and Michael for this humongous effort for several years to get to this point. So well done, guys. team raise it yes well And everybody in the Carbon 13 team, we all got together last week in Cambridge. um They're all wonderful in in every single way. And that's one of the joys of working at Carbon 13. It's the people that you're working with. And that's how we've got to 100, I think. and So thank you very much for listening.
00:23:44
Speaker
Thank you. if i