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🌊 No Green Premium, The 2026 Climate VC Playbook

Why price parity, resilience, and market-rate returns are the only strategy that works now.

In 2022, climate was hot. Capital was cheap. ESG was mainstream.

Today? The pendulum has swung.

In this episode, with Fabian Heilemann, General Partner at AENU, we dive into what has fundamentally changed in climate investing, and what founders and GPs must do now if they want to build real businesses that survive political cycles and LP scrutiny.

Fabian doesn’t mince words:

“If you ask for green premium, go home.”

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why the voluntary carbon market thesis stalled, and what AENU got wrong

→ Why climate funds must now prove market-rate returns (30%+ IRR)

→ The shift from “climate tech” to energy security, efficiency & resilience

→ Why adaptation and systemic resilience may be the next wave

→ Europe’s structural crisis between the US and China

→ The rise of “Green Infra 2.0”, hardware-led electrification plays

→ The real exit pathways for energy companies (hint: mostly trade sales)

→ What LPs actually think, and why tourist capital is gone

→ Fabian’s founder survival framework: routines, meditation, and long-term legacy

Fabian’s thesis for 2026 is clear:

If your product cannot compete on price parity and feature parity, it will not scale. Climate benefit must be interlocked with commercial ROI, not sold as moral persuasion.

Because the market right now rewards:

Energy resilience

Industrial efficiency

Adaptation

Clear customer economics

Not virtue signaling.

And yet, the physics of the climate crisis hasn’t changed.Only the narrative has.

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Listen now:Apple // Spotify // YouTube

🌊 The Inflection Point Nobody Noticed

Why electrification, materials innovation, and better unit economics are reshaping climate VC.

We’re joined by Sarah Sclarsic, General Partner & Co-Founder at Voyager Ventures, a transatlantic VC firm backing foundational innovations across energy, materials, and machines.

Sarah has spent decades building companies in climate, crafting federal policy, and investing across cycles, from Cleantech 1.0 to today’s electrified, AI-accelerated industrial wave. In this episode, we dive into what LPs really think about climate right now, and why the fundamentals have never been stronger, even when headlines suggest otherwise.

Because while sentiment swings, physics doesn’t.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ The LP perception gap, why institutional investors see long-term fundamentals while headlines focus on short-term noise

→ The quiet inflection point, electricity is now the dominant global energy form (~34%)

→ Why falling battery costs (90%+ in a decade) change everything

→ What emerging managers must prove to LPs beyond “the thesis”

→ Why deeptech no longer can hold a green premium

→ The electro-tech stack advantage (and why fossil-based models are structurally weaker)

→ How to evaluate hardware startups in 2026

→ Why teams, not tech, build billion-dollar companies

→ The compounding gains of electrification + AI + advanced manufacturing

→ Rebuilding 1,000-year-old industrial processes with modern tools

Sarah’s core lens is simple:

If it can’t win on price and performance, without subsidies, it won’t dominate a global market.

Voyager backs companies that:

Replace fossil-based processes with inherently superior systems

Benefit from declining input costs (electrification, automation, AI)

Have durable innovation engines, not one-off breakthroughs

We also explore two fascinating examples:

A company reinventing alloy production using high-powered energy waves

A rare-earth refining startup using nature-derived proteins instead of fossil heat

The pattern?

Massive industries built on outdated industrial assumptions are being reimagined from first principles.

If you’re building or investing in climate, this episode is a masterclass in thinking long-term while executing fast.

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🌊 Mining Without Mines

How plants could unlock the next wave of critical metals.

We’re joined by Fabien, Co-Founder & CEO of Genomines, a company rethinking how the world sources nickel, not by digging deeper, but by growing smarter.

In this episode, we dive into a radical idea at the heart of the energy transition: what if we could produce critical metals using plants instead of mines?

Fabien walks us through hyper-accumulator plants, the brutal economics of mining, and why biology might be the most under-appreciated extraction technology of our time.

This is a conversation about cost curves, patience, and why sustainability only scales if it wins on unit economics.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why electrifying everything doesn’t work if metals stay carbon-intensive

→ How hyper-accumulator plants pull nickel straight from soil

→ The brutal reality of mining economics — and why most deposits aren’t viable

→ Why nickel isn’t rare, just inaccessible

→ Raising deep-tech capital when everyone thinks you’re crazy

→ Why winning on cost matters more than winning the climate argument

→ Transitioning from an R&D lab to an operating company

→ How cheap nickel could reshape batteries, EVs, and geopolitics

If you’re building in deep-tech or mining innovation, Fabien is someone worth listening to.

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🌊 Building a Sovereign Copper Supply

We’re joined by Katie Marsh, Co-Founder & CEO of Recupere Metals, a next-gen industrial company rethinking how copper is produced for electrification.

Fresh off a €5M seed round closed in just 30 days, Katie shares how Recupere is turning scrap copper into high-performance electrical wires, without smelting, without green premiums, and without compromising on quality.

In this episode, we dive into the coming copper supply crisis, and unpack what it really takes to build a climate-critical industrial company that can scale fast, compete on cost, and integrate directly into global supply chains.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ How to run a fast, disciplined fundraising process in a brutal market

→ Why copper supply, not batteries, may be the real bottleneck to electrification

→ The technical breakthrough that makes scrap copper competitive

→ Why smelting is the hidden carbon and cost villain in metals

→ How software and data create Recupere’s defensibility

→ What Europe gets wrong about sovereignty, supply chains, and resilience

→ The real risks founders face when moving from lab to first commercial plant

Katie also explains why price parity matters more than climate narratives, how OEMs think about supply-chain de-risking, and why the best climate businesses don’t rely on green premiums to win.

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🌊 Building Cities Without Breaking the System

Why urban climate tech must be faster, better, and cheaper to truly scale.

We’re joined by Jacob Bro, General Partner at 2150, one of Europe’s most thoughtful urban climate investors, fresh off the close of €210m Fund II.

In this episode, we dive into what it really takes to fund the next generation of urban climate infrastructure, and why climate tech is no longer a “vertical,” but a defining layer of the global economy.

Jacob shares hard-earned lessons from Fund I, how LP expectations have evolved, and why sustainability only matters if the economics work.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why raising Fund II took longer, and why that’s actually healthy

→ What LPs are really worried about in today’s macro environment

→ Why “climate tech” is maturing into an economic reality, not a niche

→ The danger of business models that rely too heavily on regulation

→ Why team > idea, even in deep tech and Series A–C investing

→ How AI + energy + industry are colliding into a once-in-a-generation opportunity

→ Why 80% of global GDP, and emissions, are urban. And how to fix it.

→ When price matters in venture, and when it really doesn’t

Jacob also unpacks 2150’s evolving definition of urban climate tech, their growing exposure beyond Europe, and why emerging markets matter if you believe in future prosperity at scale.

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🌊 A VC Playbook for Industrial Biotech

What it really takes to turn great biology into scalable, venture-backable companies.

We’re joined by Joško Bobanović, Partner in Industrial Biotech at Sofinnova Partners, one of Europe’s most experienced investors at the intersection of biology, industry, and climate.

In this episode, we dive into how industrial biotech companies are really built, from lab-grade science to full-scale production, and unpack what it takes to turn ambitious biology into durable businesses.

Joško has been investing in this space since long before “climate tech” was fashionable. His perspective is shaped by scars, cycles, and decades of pattern recognition.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ What industrial biotech actually means

→ Why generalist VCs struggle without deep technical partners

→ The difference between great science and venture-scale companies

→ Platforms vs. product companies, and why too many choices can kill startups

→ Why IP strategy and freedom to operate are often underestimated

→ How teams must evolve from scientists to industrial operators

→ Why exits in industrial biotech still skew toward IPOs, not M&A

This is a masterclass in how long-cycle climate technologies really scale, and why patience, specialization, and realism matter more than hype.

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Thank you to this week’s sponsor:

Accelerating Impact - a non-profit advancing impact finance by mobilizing capital and running free accelerator programs for emerging fund managers. Join for expert coaching, training, financial support, and a strong community. Apply here.

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🌊 Why Circularity Is the Real Climate Lever

Why staying within planetary boundaries demands a rethink of how we design, use, and reuse everything.

We’re joined by Martijn Lopes Cardozo, Partner at Regeneration.VC, one of the world’s leading investors in the circular economy.

In this episode, we dive into why climate alone isn’t enough, and unpack what it really takes to build venture-scale companies that protect biodiversity, water, materials, and supply chains, not just CO₂. Martijn argues that even at 1.5°C, we can still lose the planet, unless we radically rethink how products are designed, consumed, and regenerated.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why circularity impacts 90% of biodiversity loss, not just emissions

→ The real VC opportunity hiding in design, use, and reuse phases

→ Why competing on a “green premium” is a losing strategy

→ How brands like IKEA, and H&M pull circular startups through the supply chain

→ What Martijn looks for in a “big seed” (late-seed) circular startup

→ How better measurement could unlock capital

→ The rise of asset-utilization models (and why sharing beats owning)

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🌊 Pricing Nature As An Asset

Why the next wave of climate returns will be built on data, ecosystems, and risk

We’re joined by Jahed Momand, General Partner at Cerulean Ventures, a pre-seed fund backing founders applying AI and software to the physical world, from nature and oceans to grids, steel, and supply chains.

In this episode, we dive into what “investing in nature” actually means, and unpack how turning ecosystems into measurable, investable assets could unlock entirely new markets, business models, and venture-scale returns.

Jahed shares how Cerulean thinks about pre-seed conviction, why data gaps in the physical world are the biggest opportunity in climate, and what it really takes to back founders before the story is obvious.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why nature is the most underpriced input in the global economy

→ How environmental data becomes an investable asset

→ The real business models behind “nature tech” (beyond carbon credits)

→ Why insurance, supply chains, and pharma are early buyers

→ How AI in the physical world creates defensibility most startups miss

→ What pre-seed investing actually optimizes for (and why Cerulean sometimes overpays)

→ How to build a contrarian thesis that later-stage funds will follow