Frequently Asked Questions

Why is SOSV producing this event?

The Princeton, NJ-based venture capital firm SOSV has been producing the Climate Tech Summit since 2021. In 2022, the event brought together nearly 7,000 attendees from around the world to listen to the world’s top founders and investors in climate tech. The third SOSV Climate Tech Summit will take place on Sept. 26-27, 2023.

SOSV is a leader in early stage climate tech investing, thanks to its IndieBio (life sciences) and HAX  (hard tech) startup development programs.

SOSV publishes yearly the SOSV Climate Tech 100, listing its most promising investments in the category. Pitchbook reported that SOSV was the #1 most active climate tech investor for the 2018-2020 period.

SOSV has more than 500 co-investors in its climate tech portfolio, and in June this year SOSV published an analysis on TechCrunch of those investors as a guide to help founders better understand the funding landscape. SOSV is deeply committed the the mission of “human and planetary health,” and the SOSV Climate Tech Summit is designed to improve the prospects for all startups and all investors in the category, as well as to attract new participants.

“Startups by their very nature take risks no normal business would,” says Sean O’Sullivan, the founder and managing partner of SOSV, “and that’s doubly true for the deep tech startups inventing radical, breakthrough approaches to decarbonization. The more investment we deliver to brilliant founders, the better our chances that we will produce the innovations we need to save the planet. The SOSV Climate Tech Summit will help us speed up the exchange of insights and deepening of networks that are fundamental to the rapid growth of any startup ecosystem. As we can all see in the daily news coverage, the increasing rate of climate-related disasters requires immediate action. We really can’t move fast enough.”

The executive producers are Ned Desmond, SOSV senior operating partner and former COO of TechCrunch, and Ben Joffe, an SOSV Partner. Norm Amandi is responsible for the video production.

We are currently working on an agenda reflecting key issues and emerging topics in the climate tech space. In 2022 we covered mainly Energy, Food&Ag, Industry, Materials and Policy. We will have about 60 speakers including high-profile investors, unicorn founders, emerging startups and more.

If you would like to suggest a speaker, contact us here including details about the speaker and suggested topic(s).

Sept. 26-27, 2023, From 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. PST.

The event is free to all attendees, but registration is required.

If you would like to suggest programming ideas or get involved in some other way, please contact Ned or Ben at climatetech@sosv.com

The event is virtual.

SOSV’s aim is to help the climate tech startup ecosystem by convening investors, founders, corporates, policy-makers and media to hear from the leading founders and VCs in the sector. Our belief is that startups will provide many of products and technologies that will help humanity address climate change, and as a leader in the category, SOSV has a responsibility to convene and educate all the interested parties in and around the climate tech ecosystem.

In 2021, SOSV added a matchup for qualified founders and investors to the SOSV Climate Tech Summit. We staged the event on a digital platform designed for networking, and the results were stunning. More than 1,000 founders and investors participated on the platform, and we recorded 1500 meetings on the platform alone. Many more came together elsewhere. The project fit perfectly with our mission, which is to speed up the climate tech ecosystem.

How does the matchup work? We invite VCs and founders to register on the platform in advance of the summit and guided them to establish profiles, research appropriate VCs (or founders) and request meetings during the 3 days of the matchup.

How do I get invited? We invite participants based on registrations for the summit. In other words, register for the summit and be sure to provide all the information requested. In mid-August, invitations go out and registration opens.

Who is qualified to participate? We invite credible climate tech founders whose companies have some notable backing or traction and venture capitalists who have have established investing records.

2021 and 2022 Summit speakers:

  • Alex Greenhalgh, CEO, Spintex
  • Alex Kopelyan, Senior Director & Partner, SOSV IndieBio
  • Alex Wilhelm, Editor-in-Chief, TechCrunch+
  • Allegra Kowalewski-Ferreira, Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures
  • Allison Kopf, Chief Growth Officer, IUNU
  • Amanda Little, Professor of journalism and science writing, Vanderbilt University
  • Amy Harder, Executive Editor, Cipher by Breakthrough Energy
  • Arturo Elizondo, Founder and CEO, The EVERY Company
  • Arvind Gupta, Partner, Mayfield; Founder, IndieBio; Co-author, Decoding the World
  • Audun Abelsnes, Managing Director, Techstars Energy
  • Ben Joffe, Partner, SOSV
  • Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Author, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
  • Bill Gross, Founder Idealab, Heliogen, Energy Vault, Carbon Capture
  • Candice Ammori, Founding, The Climate Vine
  • Carl-Erik Lagercrantz, CEO, Vargas Holding, Vice-Chairman, Northvolt & H2 Green Steel, Chairman, Polarium
  • Carlos Araque, CEO, Quaise
  • Casey Crownhart, Climate Reporter, MIT Technology Review
  • Catherine Shu, Senior Reporter, TechCrunch
  • Chris Sacca, Managing Partner, Lowercarbon Capital
  • Christina Chang, Partner, Lowercarbon Capital
  • Christoph Gebald, PhD, co-Founder & co-CEO, Climeworks
  • Clea Kolster, PhD, Director of Science, Lowercarbon Capital
  • Cody Simms, Partner, MCJ Collective
  • Connie Loizos, Silicon Valley Editor, TechCrunch, Author, StrictlyVC newsletter
  • Danny Crichton, Head of Editorial, Lux Capital, Former Managing Editor, TechCrunch
  • Daria Saharova, Founding Partner, World Fund
  • Darrell Etherington, News Editor, TechCrunch
  • David Kirtley, PhD, Founder and CEO, Helion
  • David Rowan, Founder Voyagers.io, Founding Editor-in-chief, Wired (UK), Author, Non-Bullsh*t Innovation
  • David Tze, CEO, NovoNutrients
  • Dawn Lippert, Founder and CEO, Elemental Excelerator
  • Deep tech investors on how founders survive the “valleys of death”
  • Duncan Turner, General Partner, SOSV, Managing Director, HAX
  • Emily Reichert, PhD, CEO, Greentown Labs
  • Etosha Cave, PhD, Co-founder and CSO, Twelve
  • Francesco Matteucci, PhD, Program Manager in Green Technologies, European Innovation Council (EIC)
  • Frederick Teo, CEO, GenZero
  • Gabriel Kra, Managing Director and Co-founder, Prelude Ventures
  • Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Singapore
  • Gwen Cheni, Partner, SOSV / IndieBio
  • Inja Radman, PhD, Co-founder and CSO, New Culture
  • Ira Ehrenpreis, Founder and Managing Partner, DBL Partners
  • Jason Jacobs, Host, My Climate Journey
  • Jason Pontin, Partner, DCVC; Former Editor-in-Chief, MIT Technology Review
  • Jason Prince, Co-Founder, Electricity Lead, Third Derivative
  • Jason Thompson, CFO, Redwood Materials
  • Jeff Johnson, Managing Director, Temasek
  • Jennifer Gerbi, PhD, Acting Director, ARPA-E
  • Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, Lanzatech
  • Jesse Jenkins, Lead, Princeton University ZERO Lab
  • Jigar Shah, Director, Loan Programs Office at U.S. DOE
  • Joe Luttwak, Founder and CEO, Lingrove
  • John Diener, Co-founder and CEO, Vertical Oceans
  • Jonathan Shieber, Chief Editor & Venture Partner, Footprint Coalition, Former Climate Editor, TechCrunch
  • Josh Santos, CEO, Noya
  • Josh Silverman, CEO, Aromyx
  • Karsten Temme, PhD, CEO & Co-Founder, Pivot Bio
  • Kathy Hannun, Co-Founder and President, Dandelion Energy
  • Katie Rae, CEO and Managing Partner, The Engine
  • Kevin Martin, Co-Founder, unspun
  • Kevin Samy, R-Zero
  • Kiersten Stead, PhD, Managing Partner, DCVC
  • Kim Zou, Co-founder, CTVC
  • Larissa Zimberoff, Writer on Food and Technology; Author, Technically Food
  • Leah Ellis, PhD, CEO, Sublime Systems
  • Lily Wachter, CFO, Biomason
  • Lisa Dyson, PhD, CEO, Air Protein
  • Mark Windeknecht, PhD, Climate Tech Investor, World Fund
  • Mateo Jaramillo, CEO, Form Energy
  • Matías Muchnick, Founder & CEO, NotCo
  • Matias Viel, Founder & CEO, Beeflow
  • Matt Peterson, Director, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund
  • Michael Peither, Co-Founder and CTO, VoltStorage
  • Michael Selden, CEO, Finless Foods
  • Miranda Wang, Co-founder and CEO, Novoloop
  • Mona Alsubaei, Investment Team, Union Square Ventures
  • Neal Stephenson, Author, “Termination Shock”
  • Nina Heir, CEO, Katapult
  • Pae Wu, PhD, General Partner, SOSV & CTO, IndieBio
  • Patrick O’Riordan, Global Head of BioBrew, AB InBev
  • Po Bronson, General Partner, SOSV & Managing Director, IndieBio
  • Raffael Jovine, PhD, Founder & Chief Scientist, Brilliant Planet
  • Rajesh Mehta, PhD, SBIR/STTR Program Director, Environmental Technologies, NSF
  • Rajesh Swaminathan, Partner, Khosla Ventures
  • Robin Millican, Director of U.S. Policy and Advocacy, Breakthrough Energy
  • Sam Smith-Eppsteiner, Partner, Innovation Endeavors
  • Sandhya Sriram, PhD, CEO Shiok Meats
  • Sarah Hunter, Director of Global Public Policy, X (formerly Google X)
  • Sarah Sclarsic, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Voyager
  • Scott Jacobs, CEO & Co-Founder, Generate
  • Sean O’Sullivan, Managing General Partner, SOSV
  • Shayle Kann, Partner, Energy Impact Partners
  • Sophie Purdom, Co-founder, Climate Tech VC, early stage investor
  • Stanley Chan (Chen Qiufan), Cli-Fi Author, The Waste Tide, A.I. 2041
  • Susan Schofer, Partner & Chief Science Officer, HAX
  • Suzanne Fletcher, General Partner, Prime Movers Lab
  • Tadeu Carneiro, Chairman and CEO, Boston Metal
  • Tim De Chant, Senior Climate Reporter, TechCrunch
  • Toni Wendt, Co-Founder & Head of Technology Development, Traitomic (Carlsberg A/S)
  • Tony Fadell, Principal, Future Shape
  • Tulika Raj, Co-Founder and CEO, SunGreenH2
  • Uma Valeti, MD, CEO and founder, Upside Foods
  • Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, US Business Editor, The Economist
  • Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures
  • Viraj Puri, Co-founder & CEO, Gotham Greens
  • Yet-Ming Chiang, PhD, Professor, MIT, Co-founder, Form Energy & Desktop Metal
  • Yin Lu, Partner, MCJ Collective
  • Yishan Wong, CEO, Terraformation

Yes, we welcome media participation. You can find event descriptions, details, and visual assets here. Also, we are happy to assist media in making connections to our speakers and setting up interviews with—or quotes from—our organizers. For more information, please contact Ned Desmond at climatetech@sosv.com.

Yes, we will publish all the main stage sessions after the event and notify all attendees by email when they are ready. Sessions of 2022 and 2021 are already available.