Agenda

October
14th
Monday
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    Breakout
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    Lowercarbon Capital: The Most Important Climate Metric No One Optimizes For

    Solving climate change requires bringing some of the most ambitious and unexpected ideas to market. To do this, you have to solve real-world hard problems seemingly without enough time. Grit and charisma are commonly cited as the necessary ingredients, but creativity is often overlooked.

    Join Shuo Yang, partner from Lowercarbon Capital, and Ben Tauber, world-class founder coach, as they discuss how optimizing for creativity is the secret to maximizing startup velocity.

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    Concluded

    Goodwin Procter: Preparing for an Early Stage Climate Financing

    Join Goodwin partners and Climate Tech practice co-chairs, Andrew Sparks and David Brekke, for an exciting and informative roundtable.

October
15th
Tuesday
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    Breakout

    Collab Fund: Building an Exceptional Consumer Brand in the Age of Sustainability

    This session will dive into the minds of an investor and a buyer. Sophie Bakalar (Partner at Collab Fund) and Stella McCartney will explore the challenges and opportunities of pioneering sustainability in the consumer sector, while balancing quality, cost, and climate-forward practices.

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    Perspectives from India's Strengthening Climate Tech Ecosystem

    With per capita emissions in the lower decile, and absolute emissions in the top decile, India faces unique challenges in its path to net zero. As 33M Indians are projected to join the global consumer class in 2024, the Indian juggernaut must grow greener, faster and better than other economies to redeem its 2070 net-zero pledge and 2030 target of 45% GDP emissions intensity reduction compared to 2005 levels. This breakout session brings stakeholders from family offices, venture, and an engaged Indian conglomerate to discuss the state of India’s climate tech ecosystem and the path ahead.

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    Gigascale Capital: Scaling Climate Tech: Founder Office Hours with Schrep

    Join this interactive office hour session providing startup leaders hands-on advice from a climate tech investor. Mike Schroepfer, expert builder, technologist, and investor at Gigascale Capital, will answer your questions about the real challenges you’re facing in scaling your startups to meaningful, global impact. There are no dumb questions here. Whether you’re trying to bring down cost curves, de-risk your tech, leverage your board more effectively, manage through a setback, or something else entirely, Schrep will share actionable advice on the hurdles you’re facing on your path to scale.

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    Syensqo Ventures: "We are scientific explorers"

    With a commitment to pushing scientific boundaries, Syensqo actively engages with and invests in partners to develop sustainable solutions that address complex challenges. The team transforms scientific research and technologies into game-changing industrial applications, and through their venture capital fund, invests in startups pioneering new technologies that address major human challenges associated with resource scarcity, climate change and quality of life, by focusing on sustainable advanced materials. The startups they support operate in areas such as energy, cleantech, industry 5.0, mobility, healthtech, and biotech.

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    Powering the Future: Navigating the New Electricity Landscape

    The energy landscape is undergoing a seismic shift. As the grid transitions from centralized control to decentralized, renewable-dominated systems, new challenges and unprecedented opportunities emerge. Join us to explore the cutting-edge solutions shaping the future of electricity—smart grids, energy storage, and innovative market designs—that will drive climate progress and create a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable energy future.

October
16th
Wednesday
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    Main Stage

    Welcome to the SOSV Climate Tech Summit

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    Main Stage

    2024: A New Chapter in Climate VC?

    After soaring to record heights, and even appearing briefly to defy the VC downturn, climate investors in the first half of the year tapped the brakes hard, slowing total investment 20% and deal count 26% year on year, according to Sightline Climate. The slowdown has hit across all stages, and yet there were also massive funding rounds for companies like geothermal juggernaut Fervo ($244M) and hydrogen driller Koloma ($246M), among others. Three of the most experienced climate investors in the business will unpack the latest trends and project what’s next.

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    Main Stage

    Crossing the Chasm To Close Series B

    One of the most startling statistics in Sightline Climate’s investing report for 1H 2024 was the dramatically longer timelines associated with raising a Series B – 26 months or 2.5 times longer than a year ago. Climate investors have the “dry powder” but they are clearly more wary now. For this panel, we ask three founders who succeeded in closing Series Bs this year to join Sightline’s Kim Zou for a conversation: What does it take to close a Series B in 2024?

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    Main Stage

    The Early Check Slowdown

    Early stage stage climate was the last to feel the chill, but investments in the first half (versus 1H 2023) in seed declined 12% and deal count tumbled 30%, while Series A investment fell 12% with deals down 23%. At the same time deal size for seed rose slightly, up 2%, and Series A rose 16%. Possibly related to all that are signs of category flight: only 13% of investors active in the first half of this year had prior climate investments versus 30% a year earlier, according to Sightline Climate . Our panel of committed early stage climate investors will untangle the trendlines and make sense out of early stage climate investing.

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    Main Stage

    Climate Tech is Too Capital Intensive (But Not Always)

    Many heavy capex climate companies are stalling as late stage investors and lenders are balking at the cost of scaling factories. Even if the company succeeds, the dilution can be crushing, or the debt service becomes a huge line item that destroys margins. For many VCs, the sole remedy had been to stay away from capex, and only invest only in climate software and sensing companies. But a new “second wave” of low-capex deeptech is emerging, where factories don’t cost hundreds of millions, and margins are healthy — even in year one.

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    Main Stage

    Making Fashion Sustainable: From The Lab To Cat Walk

    In its current state, the global fashion industry is wasteful and emissions-heavy, responsible for an estimated 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and 4 percent of waste. Part of the answer is to decarbonize textiles, a goal several startups are pursuing. TomTex, for example, makes leather and textile alternatives using 100% bio-based inputs including mushrooms, coffee grounds and seafood shell waste. But how can startups find their way into the supply chains of fashion brands? The good news is that brands like Everlane are waking up to the sustainable materials. Can sustainable fashion technologies take advantage of openings like that? Our panelists will tackle how this conundrum – common across many climate categories – can be resolved.

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    Main Stage

    It's Actuarial. Climate is Reinventing Insurance.

    The Insurance industry has no climate deniers. The frequency of $1 billion+ natural disasters has increased from one every four months in the 1980s to one every three weeks, according to the U.S. National Climate Assessment.  Facing huge losses, big name insurance companies are dropping coverage everywhere from California to Iowa.  At the same time, new insurance approaches based on parametrics (payouts based on weather metrics) and AI-based risk analysis are surfacing to address the property risks of climate change. Our panel spells out the future of underwriting against climate. 

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    Main Stage

    Decarbonizing Shipping, The Last Frontier In Transport

    Maritime transport produces nearly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the UN’s International Maritime Organization declared last year that the industry should take its carbon output to zero “by or around” 2050. Quitting heavy fuel oil (HFO), the predominant energy source today for shipping, will take investment and innovation in everything from new fuels to wind propulsion to reduced hull drag, as well as regulation updates to level the playing field among shipping giants. Setting the course for maritime decarbonization is our panel’s topic.

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    Main Stage

    Koloma: The Clean H2 Under Our Feet

    Hydrogen is a perfect green fuel. Burning it yields only water and heat. Actually producing green H2, however, usually takes electricity and natural gas (“grey” hydrogen in the spectrum), both problematic. An alternative is “geologic H2”(“white” hydrogen), the vast, naturally occurring H2 deposits in the earth’s crust. In theory, they can be discovered and exploited just like oil and gas are today. If that works, renewable energy’s prospects will soar. Earlier this year, Koloma raised an eye-popping $245 million Series B this year to pursue that vision.

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    Main Stage

    SPF 1000: Modifying Solar Radiation

    Given that global temperatures have hit record highs 13 months in a row, it’s reasonable to ask whether decarbonization can move fast enough. What if extreme weather events produce huge death tolls? One response could be to pump sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to cool the planet by reflecting the sun’s energy away from earth. Controversial in the extreme, yes, but more than ever the object of well-funded research. Our panel looks at the state of  the debate over this extreme climate tech.

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    Breakout

    Cipher: Mapping New Cleantech Across America

    Recently passed laws, leading with the Inflation Reduction Act, are unleashing a historic wave of investments into clean energy technologies across the United States. Hear from three experts across different key industries on what they’re seeing, both the opportunities and challenges.

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    Working with ARPA-E, the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Moonshot Factory”

    Whether you’re a startup innovator, an investor or a strategic partner, join us for an interactive discussion on how to collaborate with ARPA-E to accelerate transformative energy technologies to market. Jon Glass, ARPA-E’s technology commercialization leader, will share perspectives on ARPA-E’s current and future funding priorities, how the agency operates, and how to best work with the agency and the DOE overall to develop early-stage technologies and bring them to market. He will be joined by successful ARPA-E funding recipients to share their experiences in accessing non-dilutive government funding as part of an overall climate tech development strategy.

October
17th
Thursday
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    Main Stage

    Welcome to the Second Day of the SOSV Climate Tech Summit

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    Main Stage

    Growth Investors Backed off. What Will Bring Them Back?

    Like every other stage of climate investing, the growth stage declined year-on-year in the first of 2024, down 33% with 13% fewer deals, according to Sightline Climate. On the face of it, that’s a surprise considering the rapid progress of key firms across many categories, many with powerful tailwinds thanks to the IRA and other factors. For big check writers, where are goal posts and what are the best plays? Our panel addresses that question from the standpoint of two major growth investors and a VC eager to see them step in.

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    Main Stage

    Blitzfunding: Raise Like Our World Depends On It

    Growth investors may have slowed the pace, but a few relatively new startups have nonetheless succeeded in raising huge rounds clearly designed to vault them very quickly into meaningful commercial deployment. The founders at geo-thermal power leader Fervo Energy, home heat-pump champion Aira, and industrial heat innovator Antora have raised more than $1.1 billion in little more than four years. By VC standards, such blitz funding is the outer limits; to have an impact on global warming, it may be the right stuff.

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    Main Stage

    Nuclear Fission: Terrapower's Wyoming Reactor

    In August, Terrapower’s lead investor, Bill Gates, was in Kemmerer, Wyoming to break ground for Terrapower’s Natrium nuclear power plant, the first in the US to use liquid sodium as a coolant (instead of water) and also the recipient of the largest single federal commitment ever to a private project – 50% of the $4 billion project. Now it has to wait two years for NRC approval; powering up is projected for 2030. In the meantime, investments in nuclear fission grew 18% year-on-year to reach $1.3 billion since 2020, according to Sightline Climate.  Are we witnessing nuclear fission’s second coming? 

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    Main Stage

    Fusion Energy: How Close is Close?

    Nuclear fusion’s promise of limitless power is the holy grail of the energy sector, but containing the nuclear reactions that power the sun is one of mankind’s greatest technical challenges. So how close are we? Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout, has raised $2 billion and built the novel REBCO magnets required to contain super-heated fusion reactions in its Tokamak “donut” reactor. Commonwealth has projected that its plant under construction in Massachusetts will be on the grid in the next decade. Investment in fusion grew 7.5% year-on-year to reach $4.3 billion since 2020, according to Sightline Climate. How much more will it take?

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    Main Stage

    Big Tech's Net Zero Energy Problem

    In 2023, Google and Microsoft alone consumed 24TWh of energy each, the equivalent to the consumptions of 2.3 million US households. As energy big tech’s energy demands explode thanks to the demands AI tech in particular places on data centers,  how is Big Tech attempting to balance that demand-driven growth with net zero decarbonization commitments? Our panel will discuss Big Tech’s efforts to secure clean energy at scale, and what that means for startups in energy. 

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    Main Stage

    Steel and Cement's Electrifying Futures

    At 7-8% each, steel and cement production are responsible for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and in the past 4.5 years investors have funded dozens of startups – $2.8 billion for steel and $925 million for cement – aiming to decarbonize these indispensable industrial sectors. Compared to energy, where winning renewable technologies are well established, the best approaches to decarbonizing steel and cement are far from settled. Both MIT-spinout Sublime Systems and Electra use novel electricity-based (as opposed to heat) technologies to create green cement and steel, and both are on the path to their first production plants – Sublime with an $87 million federal grant (and a $75 million investment from Holcim) and Electra with an $85 million seed round backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The greening of steel and cement may hinge on their success.

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    Main Stage

    Battery Wars: Can The Best Tech Win?

    It’s technically challenging to manufacture lithium-ion EV batteries in high volumes, and just six incumbents – CATL, BYD in China, Panasonic in Japan, and LG Energy, Samsung SDI, SK On in South Korea – produce 80% of the world’s supply. Several battery startups aiming to challenge the Big Six legacy with better technology stumbled badly this year, mostly around production and technology issues. Sila Nanotechnologies, on the other hand, has raised $1.3 billion, including $375 million in June, for its silicon (versus graphite) anode batteries, which promise faster charging and greater EV ranges. Sila’s first plant is under construction, in Moses Lake, Washington, and the firm plans to ship their first EV batteries next year to three customers, including Mercedes.

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    Main Stage

    CVCs, Acquisitions and Big Corporate Climate Tech

    Many global companies have pledged to decarbonize their business, and a growing number are updating investment teams as a way to find the new technologies. Among the most active are tech and energy-related companies. In this panel,  VCs working inside the major corporations Shell, Siemens, and Amazon will discuss how venture fits into corporate decarbonization strategy, how founders should engage with them, and what criteria lead to investment, offtake agreements and acquisition.

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    Breakout

    EIP: Why Climate Tech Startups Need Techno-Economic Analysis

    In this breakout session, Join Dr. Melissa Ball, associate director of technology at EIP, for a discussion on the dos and don’ts of techno-economic analysis and the power of a simple model. Dr. Ball, whose  work at EIP focused on focuses on technical diligence for deep decarbonization, will open the session up for office hours questions from the audience.

    • Melissa Ball photo
      Melissa Ball Associate Director of Technology, Energy Impact Partners
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    Breakout

    Khosla Ventures: Raising $$ and Building (multiple) Climatech Companies - What can we learn from those who have done it?

    Some climatech entrepreneurs have raised $$ and built climatech companies multiple times, even before the IRA was established, and between the valley of cleantech1.0 and climatech2.0. How did they do it even in tough fundraising environments? What can we learn from them?

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    DCVC: Deep Tech for Deep Opportunities

    DCVC speaks with founders about energy generation and distribution, and how to preserve and use natural resources in new ways

October
18th
Friday
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    Breakout

    Scientists Turned Founders: The HAX Experience

    The innovation demanded to make industry resilient and sustainable is testing the outer limits of technical and scientific work in university and corporate labs. The scientist founders at Hyperlume, Ayrton, and Cocoon stepped into the startup world in order to bring their breakthroughs to the commercial world, where they can help solve problems on the long list facing decarbonization in industry like data center power consumption, hydrogen transport, and low carbon steel. At SOSV’s HAX in Newark, NJ, these founders have turned their technology into venture-backed startups.<

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    Breakout

    MCJ x SOSV Women in Climate learning hour: scaling solutions for carbon and methane capture

    MCJ is bringing its monthly meetup to the SOSV stage. Every month, MCJ invites 2-3 leaders working on interesting solutions in the energy/resiliency space to do a Lean Coffee format event where we co-create the agenda in real-time and get through the topics that are most interesting to the group. This is a safe, inclusive space to learn where participants choose the topic of interest and learn with a small intimate group in a breakout room of their choice.