James Slezak

We've interviewed dozens of investors and founders, and collated some real fundraising advice from the front lines of climate tech... What are investors really looking for? We spoke to leading voices from XPRESS Ventures, StarBeam Capital, Future Energy Ventures, and founders deep in the fundraising trenches. Here’s what they said 👇 💬 “50% team, 25% tech, 25% business model—most founders get that balance wrong.” 💬 “The best pitches tell a compelling story—ambitious, grounded, and commercial.” 💬 “Don’t underestimate how little investors know about your space. Educate, early.” 🔥 Quick takeaways: Lead with traction, not tech theory Keep your pitch simple, commercial, and aligned Fundraising is a marathon—stay focused on your mission 🔁 One founder pitched the same investor three times before securing funding. Another said: “Having a co-founder to share the emotional load saved made all the difference.” Full The Green Techpreneur read here. Subscribe for bimonthly insights → https://lnkd.in/etY2UKty #climatetech #startupfundraising #greentech #founderinsights #climateinvesting #startuplife

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What a great news to start 2026 🌍🌱 AFI Ventures is proud to be investor in Equitable Earth (formerly ERS), which today announced a €13m SeriesA - bringing total capital raised to over €25m - to accelerate the certification of nature-based climate solutions, enabling organisations to protect and restore the natural world at scale. 🌍 In a carbon market that urgently needs trust, transparency, and real impact, Equitable Earth (formerly ERS) is setting a new standard through: ✔️ rigorous, fully digital certification ✔️ alignment with the ICVCM Core Carbon Principles ✔️ measurable benefits for climate, nature, and local communities This milestone will enable the certification of more high-integrity projects, faster and at global scale. Congratulations to Thibault Sorret, the whole team and fellow investors (a US-based family office supported by existing investors including AENU and noa) on this important step forward. 🌱 #ClimateAction #NatureBasedSolutions #CarbonMarkets #Biodiversity cc Ventech https://lnkd.in/erCBt6R7

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Excited to launch the 2026 Climate Tech course with Bruce Usher and Alan West! Teams now will include Columbia Business School, Columbia Engineering and Columbia Climate School grad students. These interdisciplinary teams will work with 10 VC funds on deep dives in sectors for innovation in climate mitigation, resilience, efficiency, and decarbonization. Thanks to the participating funds - Active Impact Investments, Aligned Climate Capital, Blackhorn Ventures, Blue Bear Capital, Buoyant Ventures, Clean Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Lime Rock New Energy, Prelude Ventures and Renewal Funds!

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Very excited to share my most recent article in Forbes, focusing on the role of philanthropy in supporting climate innovation in emerging markets. Over the past few weeks, our team has had some great conversations with foundations and other partners who are supporting climate entrepreneurs in the some of the most vulnerable countries. Philanthropy is uniquely positioned to play a role here, but we need a wider aperture in terms of what it can and should do. The article proposes five areas where philanthropy can take on a wider agenda to not just fund more climate startups in these markets, but to build the talent pools and enabling ecosystems that support these companies. Here's a breakdown of the five areas: 1. New company building models: We don’t need just more climate entrepreneurship and innovation in developing countries, but we need it to be targeted at solving the most pressing problems. Purpose-built platforms - venture studios and builder models - can incubate startups with greater intentionality, offering technical capacity, market access, and tailored support that meet local needs. 2. Build fractional leadership networks: As much as more funding is needed to support climate startups in their early stages, matching them with the right talent at the right time can be critical. And there’s no guarantee that this talent is locally available. We need specialized programs that can match seasoned leadership - e.g. fractional CFOs, CMOs, and other C-level executives along with technical experts - who can provide critical guidance, strategic discipline, and credibility, making ventures more investment-ready and sustainable. 3. Ecosystem enablers and hubs: Climate tech benefits from enabling ecosystems, which often entail complex networks of universities giving birth to ideas, funds financing the development of prototypes, executive talent coming in from the corporate world and policymakers assessing how to incentivize the adoption of climate technologies. 4. Create linkages between emerging markets: Most funding, technology and talent transfer in climate tech tends to be concentrated between wealthy countries, but there are opportunities to strengthen ties between emerging markets themselves. Creating networks between regions fosters peer learning, market entry, and collaboration. 5. Prioritize adaptation and resilience: Often, adaptation and resilience (A&R) risks are the primary ways in which emerging markets first and foremost experience climate change. Increasing finance, company building and entrepreneurship support for A&R - health, disaster resilience, agriculture, and water - reflects the acute realities on the ground and brings direct benefits to vulnerable communities.

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How will geopolitics affect the climate transition? If you are responsible for exploring the Transition to net zero in your organization you might like our new report.   In association with AXA XL and AXA Research Fund we have published a new taxonomy of climate transition risks.  We hope this will help you think through impacts and solutions. Climate will magnify political tensions and geopolitics will slow the transition - how can businesses help to stop this unhelpful cycle? #climate #systemicrisk #risk  Danny Ralph Maria Fernanda Lammoglia Cobo Michelle Tuveson Kevin Tang Taha Tariq Timothy Less Steve Enyegue Rowan Douglas CBE Dickie Whitaker Dougal Goodman Tobias S.

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Excellent reporting in the The Economist this week on the role of AI models in the notoriously hard business of predicting monsoons. Ultimately, this is not just more rain data, but about better decision support — showing that adaptation isn’t just policy-driven, it’s now increasingly tech-enabled. #entrepreneurship #innovation #technology #climateadaptationtech #monsoonrains #

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