🗽 48 Hours at the HackSummit

The momentum in Climate Deep Tech is undeniable.

That’s why this December 12-13th, we brought together the global community in New York. 

Climate Deep Tech founders, investors, and industry leaders working to solve some of the world’s most pressing climate challenges met at Newlab to share their experiences, unlock new collaborations and learn from one another.

“From gravity-driven batteries (Terrament) and maritime emissions converted into limestone (Seabound), to the ambitious goal of bringing back the dodo (Colossal Biosciences), the breadth of practical to moonshot applications in climate deep tech was nothing short of inspiring.“ summarizes Rochelle March of People Places Words Actions

When the opening remarks took place, we invited attendees to: Be kind, be open, and make the most of the incredible people in this room.

From then on the networking began, the 1-1 meetings took place and the venue was filled with honest conversations between 408 attendees. 

“Events like these are a reminder of the power of collaboration and curiosity in pushing boundaries. I look forward to seeing how these ideas take root and grow,” summarizes Dan Altschuler of Unovis Asset Management 

12 Standout Takeaways

Cementing A Greener Future

Brimstone has developed an efficient, economical, and deeply decarbonized process to produce portland cement and other industrial materials. Its process leverages the power of co-production and a carbon-free rock to deliver the same industry-standard products trusted by builders for generations.

Co-Founder and CEO Cody Finke joined us for a Fireside chat with investor Brendan Wallace at Fifth Wall. 

Cody tells us:

“Remaking the global economy for decarbonization is a whole todo. There is nothing that is currently on pace to fully decarbonize any sector in less than 50 years. But, 50+ years does not mean that the best performing companies have a hitch in their get along. Growth for climate companies with negative green premiums is astronomical.

It will take 50+ years because industries that impact climate change are the biggest markets in the world and there is a LOT of progress that needs to be made. AND they are typically capital intensive and OpEx light meaning that old [power, cement, steel, chemicals, aluminum, etc] plants will not shut down until they have to because they are fully depreciated and are printing money.

Anything can scale, but things that have an innate economic driving force (negative green premium) will scale faster than things that require persistent carbon taxes and green premiums.

We have been intentionally building Brimstone to have a negative green premium at full scale. It will take time to get there, but once we do, a market larger than software awaits us and our investors like Fifth Wall.”

The Nuances of Blended Finance

Esther Pan Sloane, Andrew Lala, Timothy Rann and Helena Waserman discussed how blended finance  - a mix of philanthropic and government funding - is designed to reduce risk and unlock capital for private investors.

While it's a powerful tool, Helena shares the 3 unexpected realities during their conversation:

• It doesn’t always succeed in unlocking private capital.
Despite its promise, success depends heavily on context and execution.

• Building a solid business is still key.
Superior unit economics and a healthy business model are critical—blended finance can’t replace sound fundamentals.

• It's most effective early on.
While blended finance is a lifeline during the R&D phase, it can sometimes become a hurdle as a company scales.

The Climate Capital Stack

Scaling climate tech is a high-stakes puzzle, and financing at scale remains the missing piece. From venture capital’s limitations to the challenges of project finance, the hunt for innovative funding mechanisms is heating up.

Steve Molino, Partner at Clear Current Capital, points out:

“There were plenty of discussions around how to finance the scale up of climate tech companies, but nothing new (from my standpoint) that is a true unlock. VC has its role and limitations when time to market is long and CAPEX is high. Debt has its role, as always, but is not going to replace equity investment. 

Project finance is hard to get and requires creditworthy offtakes (not going to see that in food), etc. - AKA, funding has been, and will be, hard and the holy grail of government support is always of interest.”

Market-Based Solutions for A Clean Energy Economy

While demand for clean energy and whole-home electrification is steadily growing, there still exist some high barriers to adoption, namely around complexity and cost. We heard how Palmetto is on a mission to break down these barriers and supercharge the growth of renewables:

What a thrill to demo our new Energy Intelligence APIs, now in public beta, with Michael Bratsafolis and Stefano Polloni at HackSummit - Modeling the entire US residential building stock, disaggregated to each home energy use case at the individual building level, is no easy task - but that’s what our proprietary ML models do. Years of deep data tech in the making, we are so excited to be on the path to launch this product to the developers and climate innovators of the world - we can’t wait to see what you build. 

Additionally, our CEO Chris Kemper joined Palmetto CTO Jason Hamilton and Michael Bratsafolis discussed a range of topics front and center on everyone's minds when thinking about Climate Tech: 

• The business opportunity around Market-Based Solutions for A Clean Energy Economy

• Policy predictions and the current and future regulatory environment for clean energy

• The tech needed to drive consumer adoption

• The role data plays and facilitating discussion

Tips and Advice when Entering the US Market

The US is ranked as the country with the best entrepreneurial ecosystem according to the Global Entrepreneurship Index, last published in 2019. Entering the US market is a growth opportunity for many Climate startups, but navigating the ecosystem can prove a challenge.

“Two practical tips for successful entry into the U.S. market are: building strong, diverse networks across business, scientific, and regulatory communities while staying adaptable to the dynamic policy landscape. Equally important is crafting a compelling story tailored to the U.S. market—effective branding and impactful messaging are essential to resonate with your audience and maximize your impact,” tells Joséphine Erni of Swissnex

Data-Driven Decision-Making

Net Zero Insights launched the ‘State of Climate Tech 2024’ Report at the Summit, offering in-depth insights and trends shaping the Climate Tech landscape. 

Here are a few highlights:

• Over $1B+ debt giga rounds in Europe reversed 2023's downward funding trend.

• While global equity funding declined, the US and Europe demonstrated resilience.

• 60% of corporations anticipate increased M&A activity in the coming years.

For the full report, head, this way.

Infrastructure for Sustainable Finance

In 2022, new policies opened up market opportunities: for the first time ever, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) made it possible for clean energy developers who earn federal clean energy tax credits to sell those tax credits to third parties for cash. 

But the new market for transferable tax credits needs standardization, accessibility for buyers, and technology and software that can scale.

Alfred Johnson of Crux explains how they are enhancing the efficiency of sustainable finance:

“Crux is one of the only platforms that supports all sides of the market: clean energy developers and manufacturers (sellers), corporations (buyers), and intermediaries, like financial institutions, advisors, and brokers. We believe that all of these entities are necessary to build an efficient, liquid market. For transactions directly between buyers and sellers, we enable both parties to invite their advisors to the platform, to help manage due diligence or agreement negotiations. On the other hand, intermediaries are able to use a white labeled version of Crux to source supply or bids for their clients, ultimately managing their transactions in one interface.”

Decarbonizing and Dewasting at Hyperscale 

Polyester is the biggest and fastest growing textile fiber. And with 60 million tons produced annually with applications across apparel, automotive, and home interior, it’s no surprise that it is surpassing the demand for cotton. Yet polyester is also the biggest CO2 emitter, accounting for up to 40% of the textile industry’s total CO2 emissions.

Dennis Nobelius of Syre is a textile impact company decarbonizing and dewasting the industry through textile-to-textile recycling at hyperscale, he told us:  

“The challenge for the industry so far has not been innovation, but solutions that can drive hyperscale, at speed. Syre is built upon a financial model, investors, and playbook to scale rapidly.

We are utilizing the combined strengths of our founders - Vargas Holding, with a proven track-record of building green impact companies, such as Northvolt, H2 Green Steel and Aira, and H&M Group. Building a strong team of global scalemakers, we plan to have our blueprint recycling plant up and running by the end of this year.

By 2027, we aspire to have three plants up and running at full speed and capacity worldwide and by 2032, 12 plants producing more than 3 million metric tons of circular polyester and hence 15+ million metric tons CO2e abated.”

De-Extinction as the Next Frontier

Every species plays a distinct role in their ecosystem. When a species disappears so do all of the interactions between that and other species in that ecosystem. For this reason, every reintroduction scenario will be different and will require a different careful reintroduction plan. 

Beth Shapiro of Colossal Biosciences reveals their approach:

“The tools that we are building – from new approaches to creating stable cell lines to multiplex genome editing technologies to artificial wombs – will help make it possible for species to thrive despite their rapidly changing habitats, help populations to persist despite declining genetic diversity, and help propel us toward a future world that is both biodiverse and filled with people.  But of course these tools have application beyond conservation and ecosystem health. Two years ago, we launched FormBio, a comprehensive tech suite built to accelerate development of cell and gene therapies. Last year we launched Breaking, a plastic degradation and synthetic biology company. And there’s more to come in 2025.”

FoodTech Meets Deep Tech

Magi Richani of Alpine Bio joined Dan Altschuler of Unovis Asset Management for a fireside chat to explore Alpine Bio’s potential to revolutionize sustainable protein production, Magi’s invaluable lessons as a founder, and the biggest challenges she’s overcome along the way.

“As a Molecular Farming company we are transforming plants into the world’s most scalable and efficient bio-factories. By using plants like soybeans and "teaching" them to produce non-plant proteins, we leverage the global farming and food infrastructure already in place.  This approach allows us to harness nature as a powerful and novel resource engine, capable of producing scalable commodity ingredients in ways that mirror the reach and efficiency of traditional agriculture. By doing so, we’re ushering in a new era of resource-efficient farming and sustainable protein manufacturing, paving the way for a food system with minimal environmental impact and maximal scalability. 

Plantega’s deli sandwiches were popular each lunch time with attendees as popular and new menu combinations were served up.

Nil Zacharias of Plantega told us:

Our goal is to enable the end consumer to choose a plant-based version of their favorite deli sandwiches, and we focus on creating the conditions that make that possible. This begins with our model, which includes a few distinct but interconnected features: 

• We offer a turnkey solution that empowers NYC bodegas to prepare and sell 100% plant-based menus (in-store and via third party food delivery apps). 

• We partner with leading plant-based brands to open new distribution opportunities and consistently drive product trials through field marketing activations. 

• Through these efforts, we provide consumers with access to healthier, more sustainable food options at a competitive price point where they typically buy and consume food. 

In many ways, our model embraces culinary traditions. When you encounter our menu in a bodega, it’s sold in the same place you’d buy deli sandwiches and prepared by the same cooks! 

Ofek Ron of Oshi hosted a live cooking demo with their chef to unveil their newest product: the Oshi white fish.

Although only a prototype, attendees were treated to samples of their white fish slated to launch in early 2025. Their premium whole-cut salmon fillets made exclusively from plants was also on the menu for all attendees to enjoy for lunch.

Catalyzing Carbon Capture 

By reimagining hard-to-abate sectors, sustainability and industry transformation can go hand in hand, from capturing carbon at sea to upcycling industrial emissions into valuable products, startups like Seabound and Turnover Labs are tackling supply chain emissions head-on. 

“The idea of turning CO2 into useful chemicals is not a new one, but the way we set ourselves apart is by building technologies that we envision to slot directly into chemical facilities or petroleum refineries. Rather than building a brand new plant from scratch, we're trying to build enabling processes that take CO2 that's emitted from a manufacturing site and just turn it into the most basic thing that they can reuse and we're doing this at the very ground level of how we design our processes,” says Marissa Beatty of Turnover Labs

“Seabound’s carbon capture technology diverts a ship’s exhaust gas into a container full of small pebbles of calcium oxide, which chemically react with CO2 in the exhaust gas to form calcium carbonate. In other words, we make limestone onboard ships, effectively locking the CO2 into small pebbles.

When the ship returns to port, we offload the limestone and either: 1) sell it for use as a building material, or 2) recycle the pebbles to separate the CO2 from the calcium oxide so that we can reuse the calcium oxide to capture more CO2 on another ship, and then sell the pure CO2 for clean fuel production or geological sequestration. 

Our process is unique because we only capture the CO2 onboard and leave it locked in limestone, rather than trying to separate and liquefy the pure CO2 from the limestone onboard as well. These steps of separation and liquefaction are typically the most complicated, expensive, and energy-intensive for carbon capture technologies, which is why we’ve shifted them to shore where we can leverage economies of scale and land-based energy infrastructure”, explains Alisha Fredriksson of Seabound

Partnerships to Drive Progress

Collaboration is the cornerstone of progress in solving the world’s most pressing challenges to unlock scalable solutions. From Voltiris and 3M's innovative solar energy technologies for agriculture to Brevel's partnerships for manufacturing expertise and Synonym’s biomanufacturing collaborations with iFAB, these are just a few of the stories told at the Summit that exemplify how joining forces enables groundbreaking advancements in climate and the bioeconomy.

“Our collaborative session with 3M highlighted the critical role of advanced spectral film technology in transforming sustainable agriculture. By joining forces, Voltiris and 3M enhance solar energy solutions that significantly reduce the carbon footprint of greenhouse agriculture, thereby bolstering food security and supporting the energy transition within agricultural practices.

This partnership demonstrates how aligning expertise and innovation can drive scalable impacts in vital sectors. Strategic collaborations between corporates and early-stage companies are pivotal in catalyzing significant advancements in climate solutions,” shares Nicolas Weber of Voltiris

“We are operating in an industry where we cannot achieve our vision alone. If we want to really solve our nutrition crisis and move the climate-change needle, we have to work with global partners. Brevel’s value is in technology development, improvements, optimisation and future product development and not in industrial manufacturing and factory management. We are working with partners who have the experience, expertise and capital to build and operate manufacturing Joint Ventures in different locations in the world,” notes Yonatan Golan of Brevel.

Edward Shenderovich of Synonym concludes, “Our goal of building an ecosystem around biomanufacturing can not be done in a vacuum. iPROOF, our first project, is essentially an exercise in collaboration: we are a part of iFAB, an EDA-designated TechHub, which received $51M in federal government funding to boost biomanufacturing capabilities in Central Illinois. The initiative itself was spearheaded by IBRL, a fermentation pilot facility at UIUC, supported by both state and local governments, and run in partnership with both commercial and non-profit organizations across the state. We are extremely proud to be a part of this initiative and believe that these kinds of collaborations will be important catalysts for the bioeconomy.”

Continue the Conversations

Next up. We’re heading to Lausanne on May 15-16th for the 6th edition of the HackSummit. Expect over twice as many attendees as New York, a week of side events and plenty of great company. Hope to see you there.

Can’t wait until then? Join us at a local Meetup hosted by a global network of Ambassadors across FoodHack and ClimateHack

Carry on today. The networking app will be live for the next few months, so make sure to browse the attendee list and follow up on conversations started in New York.