The NatureBacked Podcast

Rules of capitalism need changing to move the needle in the fight against climate change, said Yoann Berno, a partner at the Nordic investment firm Climentum.“Unfortunately, our leaders, political leaders, are too short-sighted. They’re just responding to this crisis as they responded to COVID. As they will respond to the next crisis, I think it would be a great moment to pause, reflect, and then choose the course - to be a bit more visionary looking 10, 15, 20 years out, now is an opportunity to do it. Unfortunately, they’re just losing this opportunity,” he said. Learn more about: How to move to Capitalism 2.0 Is the carbon price too low? When will people wake up? investing in heat pumps, geothermal, and hydrogen how to manage graveyards of wind turbine blades Climentum launched in July 2022 a 150 million euro fund for investments in climate startups. It has invested in Continuum and one.five so far. You can hear more of Berno in his Climate Insiders podcast.In the NatureBacked podcast of Single.Earth, Tarmo Virki talks with investors and entrepreneurs about their vision of the new green economy.Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oslo-headquartered Norselab looks for startups transforming resource-intensive industries like food, transport, and construction, said Maria de Perlinghi, a partner at the Norwegian impact investment firm.“We believe that the next frontier or the code that we have to crack now is in the major global industries, where we know that there are huge challenges,” she said. “We’re not at all shy of going into those industries and supporting companies that contribute to transforming those industries.” Learn more about: Doing good: with the product or corporate functions? Robots collecting seashells The future role of ESG Challenges of launching a high-yield impact fund “The first principle that we always look for is what we call product-driven impact. So we will not focus so much on how a company is run or the operations of a company, which would be more typical for the ESG approach - we will really look at the core products of the company, the way the company makes money, and whether that can contribute to one of the Sustainable Development Goals," de Perlinghi said.In the NatureBacked podcast of Single.Earth, Tarmo Virki talks with investors and entrepreneurs about their vision of the new green world.Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Climate tech is booming thanks to troubles in the European energy sector. Still, the proportion of investments in climate tech has to grow from very low levels, said Sebastian Heitmann, co-founder, and partner at Extantia Capital.“The goal is to significantly increase this over the coming years,” Heitmann said. “In our world, the current situation is an acceleration. And we see more interest than before.”Berlin-headquartered Extantia Capital invests primarily in startups developing technology for renewable baseload power sources or carbon capture.Learn more about: Conviction and frustration behind founding Extantia Why energy is crucial for climate change Will nuclear/fusion solve climate change Why carbon is in focus for the fund  “At the end of the day, CO2 is a molecule. We cannot blockchain it away,” Heitmann said.In the NatureBacked podcast of Single.Earth, Tarmo Virki talks with investors and entrepreneurs about their vision of the new green world.Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Making great cheese is the holy grail of plant-based milk products. This company is certain it has found the solution."The product is identical to what the cow is producing," Sheriff Will Van den Tweel said in an interview on the sidelines of the Startup Day Festival in Tartu, Estonia.Those Vegan Cowboys is a Dutch-founded Belgian startup where some 25 people are working on replacing cows in the dairy industry. The company's founders sold their previous startup Vegetarian Butcher to Unilever in 2018. Learn more about: How a farmer and a politician founded the two companies Can cowboys switch to farming herbs? How can cheese be like cheese when the cow is removed from the production  How much of the milk is replaced by plant-based alternatives already When will they launch? "We, as people, need to have some pain to change. And I think if you also look at what is happening in the environment, you ask yourself - going further like we are doing now probably doesn't make it easier for children, and we need some changes. And that's what we want to contribute to," Van den Tweel said."There are a lot of investments going into this area and also venture capital going into these types of businesses," he said.In the NatureBacked podcast of Single.Earth, Tarmo Virki talks with investors and entrepreneurs about their vision of the new green world.Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a good hype around climate tech, and some related sectors, like food tech, remain hot despite the downturn, said Helen Lin, a partner at Silicon Valley-based At One Ventures."When there is an economic downturn, investors typically take a flight to safety. So the more you look ... like a brick of gold to an investor, that is, a stable store of value that is not going to be hugely volatile, the more they will actually flock to you," she said.At One Ventures is backing early-stage disruptive deep tech companies that have the potential to upend the unit economics of established industries while dramatically reducing their footprint on the planet or pioneering industries that are actively regenerative. Since its 2020 launch, the firm has made 28 investments.Learn more about: How dying Hawai coral reef created the fund How startups could revamp old, massive industries Cows methane emissions When will carbon capture become interesting for investing "Carbon is important. It's also not the only variable in a very complex equation of fixing all the problems the planet has right now," Lin said.In the NatureBacked podcast of Single.Earth, Tarmo Virki talks with investors and entrepreneurs about their vision of the new green world.Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Startups do not fail because they run out of cash. They run out of cash because the leaders fail," said Patrick Flesner, partner LeadX Capital Partners and author of the bestseller book FastScaling.Learn more about: How fast is too fast scaling? Should you build a plane while flying or before taking off? How investors should separate good and bad cash burn Is 2 million profit per year enough for a startup? Growing from founder to leader: when to leave decisions to staff? Why Netflix startup series Kings of Stonk is worth watching The secret sauce of writing a bestseller Patrick's next books, The Leadership House and Leading Effectively, are due later in 2022.In the NatureBacked podcast, Tarmo Virki talks with investors about the vision of the new green world.Advertisers in this episode:Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nordics and Baltics boast one of the highest concentrations of unicorn startups, and several deeptech firms are set to follow the first unicorns, which have been digital software companies, said partner Juho Risku from investment firm Butterfly Ventures."Those digital companies were made 10 years ago, 15 years ago, or even longer. I think there are quite a few in the making at this very moment," said Risku.The 2012-founded Butterfly Ventures unveiled in the summer of 2022 a new 100 million euro seed entry capital fund, which focuses on science-based deep tech and hardware startups in the Nordics and Baltics, focusing on megatrends like climate change and the ageing population.Learn more about: Why over 20 multiples are more likely among deep-tech startups The critical factor in the VC-entrepreneur relationship How to raise a fund through COVID and war Impact of Santa on innovation in Finland In the NatureBacked podcast, Tarmo Virki talks with investors about the vision of the new green world.Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scooters and carbon accounting firms grab a major share of climate-related startup investments, said Nina Gunell from Helsinki-headquartered investment firm OpenOcean."Definitely there are areas that are getting a lot of investments, although there maybe doesn't need to be that many solutions in the end," she said. OpenOcean was founded in 2009 by the founders and early investors of database firm MySQL. Sun bought MySQL for $1 billion in 2008, just before Oracle acquired Sun in January 2010. Learn more about:* When should software startups start to think about their emissions and ESG* How should startups survive 2022 * Why it matters if trees grow 20 years longer in forests  * Log rollingIn the NatureBacked podcast of Single.Earth, Tarmo Virki is talking with investors about the vision of the new green world.Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Startups focusing on food, agriculture, biodiversity, and forestry offer some of the best opportunities to impact global carbon emissions significantly, said Max Bauchau, who runs Startup Wise Guys Sustainability program.The 2012-founded SWG has invested in around 300 startups over the years. Bauchau said the accelerator-investor, which boasts an 80% survival rate, will start a new sustainability program in October 2022 in Copenhagen.Learn about: Why Denmark is home to SWG Sustainability program Why do carbon investors focus on food?  How can 80% of early-stage startup investments survive? How to apply for SWG Sustainability program  In the NatureBacked podcast of Single.Earth, Tarmo Virki is talking with investors about the vision of the new green world.**A few key takeaways from Max Bauchau:**Food and agriculture …. represent, according to different studies, around 24-25% of all CO2 emissions in the world. So this is a segment that needs to be tackled, that needs to be worked on. **We believe that Denmark is a fantastic sandbox for those kinds of companies. We have some very large companies active in Denmark's agriculture and food. And therefore creating innovation can really be a great sandbox for those companies to create to partner with those larger companies, and to really figure out what's the best way to approach this or this client, and how to create a sustainable solution that really has an impact on the world.**It is no surprise that Scandinavia is one step ahead of the rest of the world regarding sustainability. So a lot of the mentalities are already changed here. Investment is going towards sustainability; it is going towards impact startups.**Ideally, we have companies with small recurring revenues, so there is validation from the market. And we are also looking for great teams. That is, again, a very important factor. We could invest in pre-revenue businesses. That is fine, too, if we strongly believe in the team.**Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The $450 million Kiko Ventures became the first evergreen climate fund when it launched in June 2022, said Founding Partner Arne Morteani.When IP Group launched Kiko Ventures, it said it plans to invest $240 million in climate tech startups over the next five years.Learn about: focus areas of the fund benefits of evergreen fund structure vs VC funds lubrication-as-a-service a triple whammy for a climate tech investor In the NatureBacked podcast of Single.Earth, Tarmo Virki talks with investors and entrepreneurs about their vision of the new green world.Subscribe to the NatureBacked newsletter on LinkedIn. **A few key takeaways from Arne Morteani::**There's lots of stuff that needs to happen, from carbon capture to next-generation solar, you name it. And all of these things need investors that are patient and can be there for the whole ride. All things equal, every entrepreneur should want full lifecycle investors that you can be with an evergreen structure. It allows you to invest without doubt of running out of time and money in the way you would be doing within the traditional fund. And without this 10-year fixed mandate investment mandate that you would have in a traditional fund, you get an enormous amount of flexibility. **We just invested in what really is rocket science as far as heat pumps go. I mean, it literally is rocket science.**Cleantech, in many ways, is much more diverse and much more generalist than the actual generalist funds. And so a strategy where you just do everything a little bit, but focusing on stage isn't a logical strategy. So we want to flip it on its head and say we're thematically focused first, and stage second.** Follow NatureBacked across platforms:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google PodcastsTwitter | Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices