Sofie Käll, CIO and Anna Søndergaard, Co-Founder & CEO at The Footprint Firm: on Early-Stage Risk, System Innovation & Investing Beyond the Data Centre | Season Ten, Episode Five

Welcome to Season Ten of Conversations in Cleantech!

This season, we’re deconstructing digital infrastructure - one of the fastest-growing and most influential parts of the energy transition. From hyperscalers and AI demand to talent, capital, software and sustainability, we’ll explore how data infrastructure gets built, powered, financed, staffed and scaled.

In this episode, hosts Jenny Gladman and Isabella Rova are joined by Sofie Käll, CIO, and Anna Søndergaard, Co-Founder, Partner & CEO at The Footprint Firm - two investors approaching digital infrastructure not from the centre of the asset, but from the edges of the system.

As data centres place growing pressure on grids, water, cooling and materials, Sofie and Anna offer a different lens on what it means to invest in the future of digital infrastructure. Rather than backing the assets themselves, they focus on the technologies, services and efficiencies that can reshape the ecosystem around them - from grid balancing and energy storage to cooling innovation and software optimisation.

This conversation explores what early-stage capital can realistically do in a market defined by speed, scale and physical constraint. It also digs into the balance between commercial viability and impact, the challenge of proving deep tech in real-world systems, and why some of the most meaningful opportunities may lie not in the “moonshots”, but in the less glamorous solutions that quietly improve performance at scale.

For anyone curious about how venture thinking, systems change and sustainability intersect in the digital infrastructure buildout, this episode offers a sharp and refreshing perspective.

01:02 - Introduction to Sofie and Anna
02:45 - From an early-stage investor perspective, what makes the data centre ecosystem so compelling?
03:44 - Could you briefly introduce yourselves and share the story behind The Footprint Firm and the work you’re doing today?
07:31 - How do you approach digital infrastructure opportunities differently from traditional asset investors?
09:58 - How do you distinguish between incremental improvements and solutions that can truly scale commercially?
13:34 - How do you assess technical risk from a deep tech perspective?
18:14 - How do you see early-stage innovation helping address the growing energy demands of data centres?
21:47 - Do you see data centres acting as a stress test for broader energy transition technologies?
23:42 - Beyond power, where are the most under-discussed circular economy opportunities in the physical build of data centres?
27:00 - How do you connect the dots across sectors like energy, circular economy, and the built environment when investing in digital infrastructure - and who do you see as the winners?
32:25 - What drew you to this sector - was there a defining moment that shaped your decision to pursue it?

Connect with your hosts, Jenny Gladman and Isabella Rova, on LinkedIn.

Find your guests, Sofie Käll and Anna Søndergaard, on LinkedIn.

Thanks for listening to Conversations in Cleantech brought to you by Brightsmith.

This is a Loaded Hype production.