Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

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.

<a href="https://twitter.com/azeem">@Azeem</a> 
<a href="https://www.twitter.com/exponentialview">@exponentialview</a> 
<a href="https://twitter.com/shaylekann">@shaylekann</a>
Further resources:
<a href="https://climatetechvc.substack.com/p/-five-frontier-challenges-to-deep?s=r">Five Frontier Challenges to Deep Decarbonization</a> (Climate Tech VC, 2022) 
<a href="https://hbr.org/podcast/2021/10/decarbonization-by-the-numbers-with-michele-della-vigna">Decarbonization by the Numbers</a> (Exponential View Podcast, 2021) 
<a href="https://hbr.org/podcast/2021/11/why-energy-storage-is-the-future-of-the-grid-with-malta-ceo-ramya-swaminathan">Why Energy Storage is the Future of the Grid</a> (Exponential View Podcast, 2021)

How will the future unfold? What is the impact of AI and other exponential technologies on business &amp; society? Join Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View, on his quest to demistify the era of exponential change.