CC Pod

Climate Capital
  • 4.7 (14)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Biweekly

Our weekly podcast where we interview founders who are solving the most difficult and important decarbonization problems in the world. Climate Capital, across our funds and our syndicate, is one of the most active funders of early stage climate tech in the world.  climatecap.substack.com

  1. 20h ago

    Smarter Batteries for a Smarter Grid (with Cole Ashman of Pila Energy)

    This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Pila Energy is a portfolio company at Climate Capital. Our guest host, Noah Margo-Dermer, General Manager of Climate Capital’s Climate Angels program. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels →Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums. →Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more. Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital! Power outages are becoming more frequent, electricity costs continue to rise, and the modern grid is under growing pressure from electrification, AI-driven demand, and increasingly severe weather. Yet the technologies designed to provide energy resilience remain largely inaccessible to the millions of people who rent, live in multifamily housing, or cannot justify costly home retrofits. In this week’s episode of CC Pod, Noah Margo-Dermer speaks with Cole Ashman, Founder and CEO of Pila Energy, about building a new category of home energy infrastructure that makes backup power, energy savings, and intelligent energy management available to far more people than traditional residential battery systems. Pila has developed a network of intelligent plug-in home batteries that install without electricians or major renovations. Rather than replacing a home’s electrical system, each battery simply plugs into a standard outlet, powering critical appliances while continuously optimizing energy use. The system forms a connected mesh across the home, enabling batteries to communicate, monitor energy consumption, automate savings during peak electricity pricing, and provide backup power during outages. Designed with over-the-air software updates, the platform is also built to support emerging capabilities such as plug-in solar integration and bidirectional power as electrical codes continue to evolve. The timing reflects several powerful shifts reshaping the energy landscape. Utilities are facing unprecedented load growth from electric vehicles, building electrification, and rapidly expanding AI infrastructure, while aging grids struggle to keep pace with more frequent extreme weather events. At the same time, time-of-use electricity pricing, virtual power plants, and distributed energy programs are creating new economic incentives for homeowners and renters alike to store and intelligently manage electricity. As regulators increasingly embrace plug-in distributed energy technologies, software-defined batteries have the potential to become a much broader part of the residential energy ecosystem. Pila’s ambition extends well beyond selling backup batteries. The company views its hardware as the foundation for an operating system for energy across homes and buildings, creating a software platform that connects appliances, distributed energy resources, utilities, insurers, and future grid services. Rather than relying on subscription fees, Pila aims to generate value through optional energy programs, virtual power plant participation, data-driven services, and strategic partnerships across the broader built environment. Starting with direct-to-consumer sales, the company is expanding through utility, solar, insurance, and commercial channels as distributed energy becomes increasingly mainstream. The long-term vision is a future where every building can intelligently manage its own energy without requiring expensive infrastructure upgrades. By lowering the barriers to adopting residential batteries and transforming ordinary wall outlets into connected energy assets, Pila is working toward a more resilient, flexible, and decentralized electricity system, one where energy independence becomes a practical reality for renters, homeowners, and businesses alike. To learn more about Pila Energy, visit https://pilaenergy.com/. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

    36 min

  2. May 28

    Resilience in the Built Environment: Unlocking the Social License for AI (with Hunter Maats and Ameet Konkar @ Resilience Investments)

    This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack; manage. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Resilience Investments is a portfolio company at Climate Capital, where Sundeep Ahuja is the Founder and General Partner. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels →Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums.→Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more. Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital! Recorded during San Francisco Climate Week and co-sponsored by Goodwin, this conversation was part of our event, “Resilience in the Built Environment: Unlocking the Social License for AI.” In this episode, Sundeep sits down with co-founders Ameet Konkar (Chief Executive Officer) and Hunter Maats (Chief Strategy Officer). Together with co-founder Jay Lipman (President), they launched Resilience Investments, a real estate asset manager focused on building portfolios that can not only withstand climate change but thrive in the face of rising energy costs, aging infrastructure, and shifting population patterns. Resilience begins with naturally occurring affordable housing, such as upgrading older single-family homes with rooftop solar, battery storage, insulation, and other improvements that lower utility bills, enhance comfort, and make homes more resilient to extreme weather. These upgrades preserve affordability while transforming aging housing stock into distributed energy assets. By aggregating thousands of homes into virtual power plants, Resilience creates dispatchable energy capacity that can be sold to hyperscalers building AI data centers. This model allows data center developers to secure reliable power and demonstrate tangible community benefits. At the same time, residents receive lower or even zero electricity bills, home repairs, and access to skilled trades jobs. This model helps data center developers earn the trust and support of local communities by delivering visible, recurring benefits such as lower energy bills, home repairs, and skilled trades jobs. It offers a compelling vision for how affordable housing, climate resilience, and AI infrastructure can work together to create lasting value for both communities and investors. To learn more about Resilience Investments, visit https://resilience.energy/. ​*Goodwin's Climate Tech practice has the mission of supporting clients' efforts to avert the worst consequences of the global environmental crisis by providing differentiated and highly sophisticated legal services to startups and startup investors in the climate technologies sector. Our clients are developing and scaling innovations in climate software, renewable energy, carbon capture and storage, nuclear fusion, batteries, mobility, sustainable agriculture, materials science, advanced manufacturing, plastic alternatives, and other areas. Our team is the first of its kind in the industry, consisting of experts in the field with backgrounds not only in law, but in biotech sciences, engineering, and public health policy development. As such, we are able to provide proactive and comprehensive legal services to climate technology enterprises and investors across the globe. To learn more about our global law firm, please visit www.goodwinlaw.com. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

    27 min

  3. May 15

    Unlocking Climate Investing to 401(k) Retirement Plans (with Alex Wright-Gladstein of Sphere)

    This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack; manage. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Sphere is a portfolio company at Climate Capital, where Sundeep Ahuja is the Founder and General Partner. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels →Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums.→Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more. Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital! Retirement savings represent one of the largest pools of capital in the world, yet they are rarely discussed in the context of climate impact. In this conversation, CC Pod host Sundeep Ahuja speaks with Alex Wright-Gladstein, founder and CEO of Sphere, about how the $45 trillion of retirement savings could become a powerful lever for climate-aligned investing. Sphere helps advisors and employers demonstrate their commitment to fiduciary duty with a high-quality product at reasonable fees while also satisfying a deeply personal desire of clients, without having to choose between the two. Building on this, the company’s flagship strategy, the Sphere 500 Fossil-Free Index, tracks the 500 largest US companies by market capitalization while excluding fossil fuel exposure to reduce stranded asset risk. It also directs shareholder voting toward climate-aligned outcomes rather than maintaining the status quo, embedding climate considerations directly into capital allocation. The conversation traces Alex’s path into building Sphere, which began far outside finance. She previously founded Ayar Labs, an MIT spin-out valued at roughly $3.75–4 billion that uses photonic interconnects to move data between chips using light, significantly improving energy efficiency and performance in AI computing systems. Despite working on frontier hardware innovation, her eventual pivot into retirement investing came from a very personal operational challenge inside her own company. While leading Ayar Labs, Alex attempted to add a climate-aligned option to the company’s 401(k) plan. What initially seemed like a simple internal change turned into a multi-year effort that revealed deeper structural constraints in the retirement industry. Even employees at climate-focused companies were often defaulted into funds with fossil fuel exposure, not because of lack of demand, but due to fiduciary risk frameworks, fee sensitivity, and the absence of compliant index-based climate alternatives. That friction became the foundation for Sphere. The company’s insight was that the barrier to climate-aligned retirement investing was not investor intent, but product structure. Instead of relying on higher-cost, actively managed ESG strategies, Sphere designed passive index funds that mirror standard benchmarks while excluding fossil fuel companies, allowing them to meet fiduciary standards on fees, tracking error, and legal defensibility. Sphere has since focused on embedding its funds directly into major 401(k) platforms, making it possible for employers to add climate-aligned options without switching providers or redesigning their retirement plans. This plug-in model removes operational friction for HR teams and plan advisors, which has historically been one of the biggest blockers to adoption. Beyond product design, Sphere also operates as a systems-change platform. It highlights long-term market data showing that fossil fuel-heavy sectors have underperformed broader indices over time, reframing climate alignment as both a values-driven and financially competitive choice. The company also supports employee-led advocacy, where individuals push HR departments and 401(k) advisors to introduce climate-aligned options, creating change from within large organizations. The episode further explores how Sphere has partnered with broader public awareness efforts, including campaigns led by cultural figures and pension participants, to highlight the scale of fossil fuel exposure in retirement funds. These efforts have helped bring visibility to an issue that most savers are unaware of, despite its significant climate implications. Today, Sphere is expanding its product suite beyond its initial index fund, building a broader range of climate-aligned retirement options designed to replicate standard 401(k) allocations across asset classes. The company’s long-term goal is to make climate-aligned investing a default feature of workplace retirement plans, rather than a niche or optional add-on. To learn more about Sphere, visit https://www.oursphere.org/. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

    20 min

  4. May 5

    EV Battery Repurposing for Grid Resilience (with Edward Chiang of Moment Energy)

    This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Moment Energy is a portfolio company at Climate Capital. Our host is Noah Margo-Dermer, General Manager of Climate Capital’s Climate Angels program. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels →Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums. →Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more. Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital! In the most recent episode of the CC Pod, Noah Margo-Dermer sits down with Edward Chiang, co-founder and CEO of Moment Energy, a company redefining how we think about battery life cycles and grid resilience. Moment Energy is a cleantech company building sustainable energy storage systems from repurposed electric vehicle batteries. The company’s mission is to keep people’s lights on while preventing usable batteries from ending up in landfills. Founded by four engineers and entrepreneurs, Edward Chiang, alongside co-founders Sumreen Rattan (COO), Gabriel Soares (CTO), and Gurmesh Sidhu (CPO), Moment Energy is focused on expanding global access to clean, reliable, and affordable power. The company also works with major automakers, including Nissan North America and Mercedes-Benz Energy, to give EV batteries a second life. The company is tackling a growing but underappreciated problem: what happens to electric vehicle batteries when they are no longer suitable for driving. While most assume these batteries are recycled, the reality is more complex and costly. Moment Energy takes a different approach, upcycling these “end-of-life” EV batteries into stationary energy storage systems that can power critical infrastructure for another 15 to 20 years. At the core of the company’s innovation is a highly sophisticated repurposing process. EV batteries are rarely fully degraded at retirement, often retaining 80 to 95 percent of their original capacity. Moment Energy disassembles battery packs, identifies and removes underperforming cells, and reconfigures the remaining modules into new storage systems. This approach extends material lifespan while significantly reducing costs compared to manufacturing new batteries. This process is technically complex due to the variability across EV batteries. Different automakers, chemistries, and usage patterns mean no two battery packs are identical. To address this, Moment Energy has built an advanced battery management system powered by machine learning. By collecting real-world performance data across deployments, the system continuously improves optimization, safety, and longevity across diverse operating conditions. Safety and certification are key differentiators. Moment Energy is the first company in North America to achieve full certification for second-life battery systems, enabling deployment in dense, on-grid environments such as hospitals, data centers, and urban infrastructure. This milestone is critical in an industry where many alternative approaches lack the regulatory rigor required for widespread adoption. The broader impact becomes even more important as electricity demand accelerates from electrification, AI infrastructure, and aging grid systems. Moment Energy’s modular storage units can be deployed directly at the point of need, storing energy during off-peak hours and discharging during peak demand. This reduces strain on the grid, avoids costly infrastructure upgrades, and lowers energy costs. Their systems also support off-grid and remote applications, reducing diesel consumption and enabling cleaner energy access, while providing backup power and peak shaving for commercial and industrial customers. Ultimately, Moment Energy sits at the intersection of energy storage, supply chain resilience, and the circular economy. By transforming retired EV batteries into reliable, scalable infrastructure, the company is extending the life of critical materials while helping build a more flexible and resilient energy system. To learn more about Moment Energy, visit https://www.momentenergy.com/. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

    53 min

  5. Mar 4

    Recycling Critical Minerals from Electronics (with Alexander Olesen, Bradley Herrup, Grayson Shor, Nick Kumleben of Buckstop)

    This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Buckstop is a portfolio company at Climate Capital where Nick van Osdol works as a Venture Partner. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital! In the latest CC Pod, Nick van Osdol speaks with Alexander Olesen, Grayson Shor, Brad Herrup, and Nick Kumleben, founders of Buckstop, a platform that uses AI to unlock the “urban mine” of critical minerals embedded in end-of-life electronics. Buckstop is addressing a major bottleneck in the energy transition: the widening gap between the minerals required for clean energy and the sources available to supply them. In the United States, electronics recycling rates remain below 22 percent, far behind the 80 to 90 percent rates seen in parts of Asia. The team saw a clear opportunity in discarded solar panels, batteries, and data center equipment, all of which contain valuable materials that could be recovered and redeployed if properly identified, valued, and aggregated. At the heart of the platform is what the company calls an “Algorithmic Assay”. These AI models break down finished goods and assign value based on their underlying metal and mineral content. The current e-waste market is fragmented, with no shared pricing standards or consistent language across asset types. By introducing transparency and standardized valuation, Buckstop enables asset owners to understand residual value, recyclers to access aggregated supply at scale, and insurers to better assess decommissioning risk and bonding requirements. Buckstop is currently in private beta with 14 large industrial and energy companies,has evaluated over 453 MW of real-world customer solar assets, and completed close to 500 customer discovery conversations globally. Early validation has been strong, with interest from underwriters, utilities, recyclers, and manufacturers. The company has also attracted major investors, including one of the world’s largest utilities and corporations in the United States. With more than 162,000 solar assets and batteries already in its system and data center equipment next on the roadmap, Buckstop aims to become a core data infrastructure layer for the circular energy economy. To learn more about Buckstop, visit www.buckstop.com. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

    46 min

  6. Jan 8

    Scaling Carbon Materials for the Grid (with Bryan Guido Hassin of DexMat)

    This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, DexMat is a portfolio company at Climate Capital. Our guest host, Dimitry Gershenson, is the co-founder and CEO of one of our portcos, Enduring Planet. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels →Invest in the Network Fund. Next-decade energy, infrastructure, and resilience. Q1 2026 fund now open; last quarter invested in 9 companies alongside Transition VC, Propeller, SOSV, and more. →Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted CC Syndicate carry, community & more. Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital! The latest episode of CC Pod features Bryan Guido Hassin, CEO of DexMat, joins host Dimitry Gershenson to discuss the "materials transition" necessary to power the global shift toward clean energy. DexMat’s flagship innovation, Galvorn, is a carbon-based conductive material designed to replace copper and steel. By stripping carbon from greenhouse gases like methane, DexMat creates a material that is as conductive as copper, 15 times stronger than steel, and lighter than aluminum. This “super-material” serves as a circular alternative to traditional metals, providing a way to scale the energy transition without the environmental devastation associated with conventional mining. The company addresses a looming “copper crisis” driven by the massive demand from EVs, renewable energy, and AI data centers. Unlike copper production, which is thermodynamically inefficient and ecologically damaging, Galvorn is manufactured using a zero-loss recycling process and a cost trajectory that is outperforming even solar and batteries. Currently at cost parity with specialty aerospace metals, DexMat is on a path to undercut commodity copper prices within years. DexMat has evolved from a broad "moonshot" startup to a commercially focused leader in the $300 billion conductive wire market. Hassin shares hard-won lessons on founder-investor alignment and the necessity of strategic focus in deep tech. Proudly made in America and shipped globally, Galvorn is enabling industries to do more with less while laying the foundation for a stronger, more efficient, and sustainable world. To learn more about DexMat, visit https://dexmat.com/. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

    29 min

  7. 12/04/2025

    Predictive Maintenance for a Smarter, More Resilient Grid (with Joseph Kao of Magnefy)

    This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Magnefy is a portfolio company at Climate Capital. Our guest host, Dimitry Gershenson, is the co-founder and CEO of one of our portcos, Enduring Planet. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels →Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums. Q4 fund now open; the Q3 fund (closed) invested in 11 companies alongside Prelude, At One, Voyager, and more. →Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted CC Syndicate carry, community & more. Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital! CC Pod’s latest episode features Joseph Kao, founder and CEO of Magnefy, a Stanford spinout transforming how predictive maintenance is done across the power grid, in conversation with guest host Dimitry Gershenson. Magnefy’s technology uses non-invasive high-frequency magnetic sensing paired with edge AI to detect early-stage failures in transformers, switchgear, and generators months or even years before they occur. The company’s solution helps utilities and mission-critical operators prevent costly outages and reduce maintenance expenses by up to 70%. Magnefy draws from deep expertise in materials science, resource efficiency, and circularity to tackle the challenge of aging power infrastructure. With 65% of transformers now over 35 years old, their innovation comes at a crucial time as grids face increasing pressure from electrification and data center demand. Magnefy’s sensors can be easily clamped to cables without de-energizing equipment, acting like an ECG for transformers by capturing high-resolution data to uncover hidden risks. Beyond hardware, the company has evolved into a software-first platform, integrating AI-driven analytics, digital twins, and a maintenance copilot to turn raw sensor data into actionable insights. Their mission is clear: to make the power grid smarter, safer, and ready for the energy transition ahead. To learn more about Magnefy, visit https://magnefy.com/. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

    24 min

  8. 08/12/2025

    Unlocking the Capital Stack: The Role of Debt in Climate Startups (with Dimitry Gershenson and Austin Badger)

    This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. Upgrade to CC+ for insider access & community or manage your subscription here. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Dimitry Gershenson is the CEO of Enduring Planet, and Austin Badger is a Managing Director at HSBC, and Sherrie works as a General Manager at Climate Angels. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital! But first: CC Network Fund, CC Syndicate, Climate Angels → Back CC Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums. In Q2, the fund invested in 18 companies, including Alta & LGND.→ Back CC Syndicate. SPVs with investment minimums starting at $1k.→ Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted CC Syndicate carry, community & more. In the latest CC Pod, we are featuring the most recent Climate Angels webinar, where Sherrie Totoki hosts Dimitry Gershenson, CEO of Enduring Planet, and Austin Badger, Managing Director at HSBC, to explore the often overlooked role of debt in the capital stack for early-stage climate startups. This conversation was originally part of a Climate Angels session, and we’re sharing it here as a special edition of our podcast. While equity typically dominates conversations around startup financing, this episode highlights how debt can be a powerful and strategic tool to fuel growth, manage cash flow, and avoid unnecessary dilution when used wisely. They walk through different types of debt available to founders, including cash flow financing (such as receivable and contract financing) and asset-backed financing (such as equipment loans or sale-leasebacks). They emphasize that understanding when and how to raise debt, before you're in a cash crunch, is critical to maintaining flexibility and negotiating favorable terms. The conversation also touches on investor perspectives, with insights on why lenders are becoming more open to working with early-stage climate companies and what founders should know about aligning their financing strategy with both board expectations and long-term goals. They share real-world lessons, including how one company successfully used debt to finance multiple U.S. military contracts, bridging long reimbursement cycles without giving up equity. Debt is not just for later stages. It is a valuable part of the capital stack if you know how to use it. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

    31 min
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4.7
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

Our weekly podcast where we interview founders who are solving the most difficult and important decarbonization problems in the world. Climate Capital, across our funds and our syndicate, is one of the most active funders of early stage climate tech in the world.  climatecap.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Climate Capital
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    60
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Climate Capital
  • Show Website
    CC Pod