Planet A Ventures

🚨 Brand new job on our science team! Want to make an impact? You’re in exactly the right place. At Planet A we only invest in solutions that actually move the needle on climate. We’re looking for a brilliant Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyst to help us identify winning teams. You’ll be part of our Science Team, which has veto over which startups we invest in, and get to work closely with our portfolio founders. The role involves: → Calculating consequential LCAs to assess the potential impact of innovative solutions → Doing environmental research to form new investment hypotheses → Helping us continuously refine our impact assessment methodology → And much more! If you are excited to work at the cutting edge of green tech, we’d love to talk 👋 Apply now - link in the comments!

Big news! 📣 The Upright Project x Slush just published their first impact report. They set out to answer one question: What kind of companies are we building out of Europe today? And how do we make sure we support the founders that can truly change the world for the better. WHAT’S THE DEAL?👇 The report analyses six companies speaking on stage this year. It’s a snapshot of the ecosystem today and a case study for Upright’s impact analysis, which looks beyond traditional ESG metrics to evaluate the wider systemic impact of a product versus another. WHY IS IT EXCITING?👇 Because while we’re talking more and more about ‘impact’ in the startup community, we need to make sure we are talking about the same thing. It’s great to see the team’s approach become a new impact standard for the wider startup community. 👀 Catch co-founder Annu on stage in December! Explore the full report here: https://lnkd.in/dc9jzKa3

CLIMATE FOUNDERS! Here’s how to write a killer TEA. ⚡️ Techno economic assessments are a critical part of fundraising and a great way to build transparent relationships with your investors from day one. They help us understand if your technology is economically viable and, critically, can beat incumbents on price. 👀 They also reveal a lot about how you reach assumptions, evaluate risk and break down the path to market. Getting started can be tough, so we put together a simple guide to get you started. Jump in for: → Our TEA 101 overview → Our Top TEA Do’s & Don’ts → Planet A’s TEA Template 👉 https://lnkd.in/e89bWxxJ

Exciting energy tech startups for your radar! 👀 The global transition from fossil to renewable energy is a gargantuan effort that will rely heavily on pioneering solutions to pave the way. From capturing renewable energy to storing and distributing it, the lion’s share of investment in energy tech, until now, has focused on hardware. 💡 But is that about to change? Software has a critical role to play tackling bottlenecks to deliver scale, efficiency and stability to the clean energy market. In this latest Sifted article our GP Nick shares two exciting companies to watch right now. Podero 🇦🇹 Enterprise software that helps utilities manage customer energy assets for grid stabilisation and energy trading, driving profits for utilities and savings for users. Luxera Energy 🇩🇪 A one-stop solution for investments in large-scale energy storage facilities, helping to efficiently scale grid storage capacity. Read the full list here: https://lnkd.in/eqZ7PQEm Thanks to Freya Pratty for giving us the chance to be part of it alongside Will Dufton at Giant Ventures, Daria Saharova & Craig Douglas at World Fund and Sebastian Peck at KOMPAS VC.

🌎 100 TOP CLIMATE TECHNOLOGIES INVESTORS ARE LOOKING FOR Each new report of flash floods, hurricanes and heatwaves around the world underlines the urgency in connecting critical climate tech solutions with fresh capital. So, where do we see the biggest opportunities to move the needle? Sam, our deep tech lead at Planet A, shared some of the climate technologies he’s on the lookout for next, including: 🎛 Federated learning & edge-AI for industrial IoT ♻ Next-generation plastic recycling 🏭 Manufacturing optimisation Great to be featured alongside friends from across the climate community including Norrsken VC, Extantia and World Fund. Thank you ClimateHack and Laura Hodgkiss! 👀 From hardware grid solutions to decarbonising steel, get the full list here: https://lnkd.in/dSgNNa4Y

MEET THE TEAM - Jessica! 👋 Jess is our energy and transport lead at Planet A, passionate about solutions with the potential to re-wire high-emissions industries to thrive within the planetary boundaries. Alongside her work, she’s super active with initiatives to build connections across the climate community and turn talk to action on improving diversity and inclusion across our industry - like Climate Mosaic. You can also catch her at events including Norrsken Impact Week in Barcelona and, of course, SLUSH in the coming weeks. 👀 Scroll to see what Jess is working on in green tech right now!

BIG NEWS! Carbon Re and ABB have teamed up to help cement producers cut emissions and boost productivity. Why this matters 👇 Did you know the cement industry produces more carbon emissions than deforestation, global shipping, and aviation combined? 🤯 Carbon Re’s AI-powered solution detects energy inefficiencies, lowers costs, and cuts emissions in cement plants. In a recent collaboration with Heidelberg Materials (one of the world’s largest cement companies), the combined power of Carbon Re and ABB already delivered impressive results: 🔻 4% reduction in fuel cost index 🔻 2% cut in carbon emissions 🔻 33% drop in C3S variation, leading to better product quality Oh, and it gets better—ABB's stock saw a 0.75% bump after the partnership with Carbon Re was signed. A boost that translates to roughly £600 million added to its market cap. So, if you ever doubted that green tech could drive returns, here's your proof! Congrats to Josh, Buffy, Daniel, and the entire team for pushing the boundaries of what's possible in climate! Check out their latest case study in the comments below.

It’s time to invest in climate adaptation tech🚨 Climate change is here, with catastrophic effects. Each week brings news of historic floods, wildfires and temperatures around the world. That’s why we’re re-sharing our GP Lena’s piece on why we urgently need more solutions that combine climate mitigation with adaptation. Climate adaptation tech has huge potential to help industry, society and communities adapt to our new climate reality. 👀 But until now it has only attracted a fraction of total climate tech funding. Here’s why that’s about to change 👉https://lnkd.in/dbKfmaQP Founder building something in the space? We’d love to hear from you! 👋

Events Done, Let’s Get To Work 💪 We are wrapping up an intense month of climate events, here are the team's top three reflections: 👉 No time to lose Great energy in New York as always, but it’s more important than ever we turn talk into action. The devastation of Hurricane Helene, yet another historic extreme weather event, is another signal the earth’s system is losing stability and a reminder climate needs to stay top of the political agenda. 👉 Policy is power Legislation has a crucial role to play in cutting emissions and unlocking funding to meet Net Zero targets. At The Drop we talked about the active role we in the climate community need to play by building trusted relationships and sharing deep industry knowledge with policymakers. Speaking of… 👉 European energy independence is at risk Another topic we explored at The Drop. Luckily, this means there is a huge opportunity for solutions solving: → Dependency on foreign suppliers of critical materials and devices (solar panels, inverters, batteries, etc.) → Hardware Risk (vulnerability of actual assets; e.g. how well defended are offshore wind parks, train control stations, etc.) → Software Risk (already today, infrastructure is constantly under attack, how well defended are those assets) In short: even the most renewable grid won’t get us places if we cannot keep it up. Founder building on something in the space? Ping Nick! Up next: Insights from key climate change makers at Bits & Pretzels on turning talk into action. 👀 See you soon(ish) - who’s going to Norrsken Impact Week and Slush? 

WHY CHEAP CARBON CAPTURE CAN’T WAIT 👀 The latest IPCC report stresses we need to capture and store a median average of 665 gigatonnes of CO₂ by 2100 to reach Net Zero 😮💨 Carbon removal is crucial to that goal, but high costs, energy demands, and manufacturability challenges have held us back from investing—until now! Last week we celebrated Phlair - our first (and long-awaited!) investment in this space. So, why now? What's different? And why can’t the world wait? Today we share our take on why the time is right for DAC. Explore market insights, learn how third-gen DAC is solving the price problem, and discover what's next in the space. 👉 https://lnkd.in/e-RYyBCk