If you’re not already signed up for the SOSV Climate Tech Summit (Oct. 25-26 / free & virtual / register now), here’s another great reason to join in: live breakout sessions featuring top climate tech investors. This is your chance to hear a brief presentation from notable investors and ask your questions. Whether your startup is pre-seed, early-stage, or growth-stage, there will be breakouts you don’t want to miss. Here are the first three:
Khosla Ventures is a diversified VC firm with a stable of climate tech unicorns: plant-based meat unicorn Impossible Foods, solid-state EV battery developer QuantumScape, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, among others. Rajesh Swaminathan, also participating on the early growth panel, will field your questions. He has over two decades of experience in deep tech and a track record of strong exits including Enphase Energy, Solid Energy, Rockley, Infinite Power Solutions, Adaptive3D, Tango, Inpria and Norsk Ti
MCJ Collective is renowned for its My Climate Journey podcast (hence, MCJ) and community of 2,400+ members who invest alongside the firm. Its portfolio includes Arcadia, a unicorn data platform that optimizes clean energy use, Twelve, which transforms CO2 into chemicals, materials and fuels for everyday goods, and Fleetzero, which is building a fleet of electric cargo ships. MCJ Partner Yin Lu will be there to field your questions. If you want to transition into climate tech, Yu is a great person to meet. Be sure to check out the Early VC session featuring her teammate Cody Simms.
World Fund is Europe’s largest climate tech fund with $350M AUM. If you have an idea with the potential to reduce emissions by at least 100 megatons of CO2e per year, World Fund might be interested. Since launching in October 2021, they’ve invested in Space Forge, a startup aiming to manufacture super materials in space, Planet A Foods, maker of the world’s first cocoa-free chocolate, and IQM Quantum Computers, an enabler for yet-to-be-discovered climate tech. World Fund’s Dr. Mark Windeknecht, an engineer turned venture investor, will answer your questions. Don’t miss his colleague Daria Saharova, co-founder of World Fund, speak on the New Climate VCs panel.
These 30-minute sessions will start with a brief presentation followed by a Q&A, so bring questions. Breakouts run in parallel to the main stage presentations, which you can catch on demand later.
Register today for the SOSV Climate Tech Summit to join the breakout sessions.
Rajesh Swaminathan is a Partner at Khosla Ventures and has two decades of experience assisting and investing in deep tech startups. He manages investments across renewables generation, storage, hydrogen, industrial decarbonization, plastics, foodtech, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing. Previously, Rajesh led Applied Ventures LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials.
Yin Lu’s focus at MCJ is on community strategy, investments and post-investment support, all with a lens toward ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion are at the forefront of decision making. Yin previously worked on DEI efforts at Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation and was GM of Khan Academy’s international business, where she and her team scaled Khan Academy’s content into 30 languages and launched offices in Mexico, Brazil, Peru and India.
Mark Windeknecht has been part of the founding team of World Fund. He focuses on investments in the energy and the building sector. Prior to the World Fund, he worked at an energy company where he managed the early stage venture capital investment arm. Mark started his career as a researcher in decentralized energy technology at Technical University of Munich (TUM). He holds a PhD and a Diploma in Energy Technologies from TUM.
