Venture Capital and Deep Decarbonization (with Energy Impact Partners’ Shayle Kann)

Venture capitalists offer their investors outsized financial returns in exchange for taking on considerable risk. But what if that risk includes backing products where the economics of the end market aren’t clear? Moreover, what if the companies being supported have the non-financial goal of tackling climate change?

As more money than ever pours into climate tech, Azeem Azhar speaks with Shayle Kann, a partner at Energy Impact Partners, about the challenges of investing in the net zero economy and why his framing of the problem as “deep decarbonization” may offer a way forward.

They also discuss:

• Five challenges and opportunities facing “deep decarbonization.”

• To what extent net zero electricity is the solution to climate change.

• What metrics VCs should consider when investing in climate tech.

@Azeem (twitter.com/azeem)

@exponentialview (twitter.com/exponentialview)

@shaylekann (twitter.com/shaylekann)

Further resources:

Five Frontier Challenges to Deep Decarbonization (climatetechvc.substack.com/p/-five-frontier-ch…) (Climate Tech VC, 2022)

Decarbonization by the Numbers (hbr.org/podcast/2021/10/decarbonization-by-the…) (Exponential View Podcast, 2021)

Why Energy Storage is the Future of the Grid (hbr.org/podcast/2021/11/why-energy-storage-is-…) (Exponential View Podcast, 2021)

About Exponential View:
Welcome to Exponential View, where Azeem Azhar examines how exponential technologies such as AI are reshaping the future. Each week, Azeem shares his analysis or speaks with an expert guest to shed light on frontier shifts across technology, business and society.

To keep up with the Exponential transition, subscribe to this channel or the newsletter: exponentialview.co/
To keep up with our AI economy research, subscribe to investmentbrief.ai

Where to find me:
Exponential View newsletter: exponentialview.co
Website: azeemazhar.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/azeem
Twitter/X: x.com/azeem

Production by EPIIPLUS1.
Production and research: Baba Films, Marija Gavrilov.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.