Scaling Green-Tech

Matt Jaworski and Katherine Keddie
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Scaling Green-Tech by Adopter is a podcast for people shaping the future of climate technology - founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders at the forefront of adaptation and resilience solutions. As part of Adopter’s mission to accelerate the adoption of high-impact climate innovation, the podcast aims to amplify real voices and practical insights that can help others navigate the startup journey. Our conversations go beyond the hype to bring real, unfiltered stories - the wins, the roadblocks and everything you need to know in between.

  1. 6d ago

    Declan McEvilly (OnePlanetCapital) - The Case for Efficiency Investing

    Declan McEvilly, Co-Founder of OnePlanetCapital, discusses efficiency investing and what makes early-stage climate technology investable on Episode 32 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. McEvilly argues that climate technology should be reframed as efficiency investing, on the basis that the technologies worth backing make an end user measurably more efficient, with carbon reduction following as a consequence. He contrasts this with what OnePlanetCapital call voluntary contribution businesses, meaning companies that ask a consumer or corporate to pay a premium for a sustainable option, a category that has struggled through higher interest rates and a cost of living crisis. The fund screens every opportunity against three carbon tests and requires each portfolio company to agree on a measurable KPI before investment is completed. Across six years and around 60 investments, McEvilly reports on portfolio trends and performance.  This episode is relevant for pre-seed and seed climate technology founders preparing an EIS or SEIS raise, angel and retail investors evaluating climate funds, and B2B marketers working on investor-facing messaging and pitch deck narrative for deep tech companies. Guest profile Declan McEvilly is Co-Founder of OnePlanetCapital. He has worked in venture capital and private markets for close to 15 years, focused on helping private companies fundraise and grow. He co-founded OnePlanetCapital six years ago after identifying a gap in UK private market investment schemes, which at the time offered investors little climate-focused exposure. As Sales Director, McEvilly manages OnePlanetCapital's relationships with financial advisers, intermediaries and investors.  OnePlanetCapital is a specialist climate technology investor backing UK businesses from seed to pre-Series A. The fund invests under the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme across energy, transport, construction, packaging, and waste and recycling. It has made around 60 investments. The fund was originally the OnePlanetCapital Sustainable EIS Fund and now operates as the Climate Change EIS Fund. Company website: https://www.oneplanet.capital/ Find Declan McEvilly on LinkedIn.   Topics covered Explaining a climate VC fund to a five-year-old OnePlanetCapital's investment thesis and the three carbon scopes Reframing climate technology as efficiency investing Repositioning a fund from sustainable to climate technology Three value drivers for retail climate investors Hardware versus SaaS in climate portfolios Runway, burn rate, and why startups actually fail UK startup infrastructure and the scale-up cliff edge Raising in the US and the valuation trap What makes a good pitch: problem, solution, traction Content, thought leadership, and selling trust Climate adaptation and grid transition as growth sub-sectors

  2. Sep 1

    Will Tope (LiNa Energy) - Building Grid-Scale Batteries from Salt

    Will Tope, CEO of LiNa Energy, discusses low-cost sodium batteries and how deep tech companies find product-market fit on Episode 31 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Tope explains that LiNa Energy did not invent a new chemistry. The company revived the ZEBRA battery, a sodium-based design from the 1980s that is inherently safe and heat-tolerant but historically too expensive to manufacture. LiNa's contribution is the electrolyte: a ceramic component that once had to be baked slowly in thick tubes, now re-engineered as a thin layer around 60 microns thick and produced through a faster, lower-energy process. That change brings the battery cost close to the price of its abundant raw materials. It positions salt batteries as a low-cost option for long-duration storage in hot markets such as India and the Middle East, where lithium-ion systems struggle. This episode is relevant for energy storage founders, deep tech CEOs, grid infrastructure investors, and commercial leaders working on go-to-market strategy, business development in long sales cycles, and marketing for hard tech companies. Guest profile Will Tope is the CEO of LiNa Energy. He trained as a chemical engineer and began his career as a process engineer at the Fawley Refinery near Southampton. He then spent over ten years on the commercial side of oil and gas, covering energy origination and mergers and acquisitions, including sell-side work in Aberdeen and buy-side work in the United States. Towards the end of that period, he was chief of staff for a new trading group at ExxonMobil, where a focus on power first led him to grid-scale batteries. He joined LiNa Energy in 2021 and later stepped up to CEO. LiNa Energy is a Lancaster-based company developing solid-state sodium batteries, also described as salt batteries, for long-duration and grid-scale energy storage. The company runs two laboratories and a pilot manufacturing site in Lancaster, and has run pilot projects in India with Tata and testing in the Middle East. Its technology targets hot climates, where conventional lithium-ion systems carry higher real-world cost. Company website: https://www.lina.energy/  Find Will Tope on LinkedIn.  Topics covered Explaining LiNa Energy and salt batteries to a five-year-old The elevator pitch and reviving the 1980s ZEBRA chemistry The electrolyte bottleneck and why the old design was expensive Manufacturing the thin ceramic electrolyte From individual cells to container-scale battery systems Commercialisation stages and the Lancaster pilot manufacturing line From oil and gas at ExxonMobil to climate founder Business development versus sales in deep tech Escaping the pilot graveyard Finding product-market fit in hot markets: India and the Middle East Customer signals versus investor advice on data centres Marketing, "external eyes," and what is next for LiNa Energy

  3. Jul 29

    Jonathan Jackson (Previsico) - Flood Risk in a Changing Climate

    Jonathan Jackson, CEO of Previsico, discusses forecasting surface water flooding and scaling a university spin-out on Episode 30 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Previsico gives property-level flood warnings up to 48 hours ahead. Jackson explains that surface water is now close to 60% of UK flood risk, driven by a changing climate, urbanisation and ageing drainage. The company began as a Loughborough University spin-out built on Professor Dapeng Yu's flood model, with the UK government as its first customer, which reversed the usual startup order of finding a problem before building a product. Jackson traces the commercial journey from Innovate UK grant funding and an angel round through venture backing from Foresight Group, and into the US via a customer-led, site-by-site expansion rather than a country-by-country one. This episode is relevant for climate adaptation founders, deep tech and university spin-out teams, insurtech and climate tech investors, and B2B founders working out how to sell a preventative product to a market that underestimates its own risk. Guest profile Jonathan Jackson is the CEO of Previsico. He describes himself as an entrepreneur rather than a scientist, having started in telecoms before building several businesses that moved offline industries online, including Farming Online, which he describes as the UK's longest-running B2B internet business. He joined Previsico after becoming entrepreneur in residence at Loughborough University, where he met the company's scientific founders and helped spin the business out. Previsico is a flood forecasting company that provides property-level surface water flood warnings up to 48 hours in advance, combining a hydrodynamic flood model with real-time weather data and IoT sensors. The company was spun out of Loughborough University and works with insurers, corporates, councils and housing associations in the UK and, increasingly, the US. Company website: https://previsico.com/ Find Jonathan Jackson on LinkedIn. Topics covered Explaining flood forecasting simply, and the surface water flooding gap Why surface water is now the biggest and hardest-to-predict UK flood risk Launching with the product built and the government as first customer Working with academic founders versus commercial and developer teams Raising as a university spin-out: grants, angels and proof points Sequencing fundraising around insurer contracts and venture rounds Differences between UK and US investors and due diligence Customer-led international expansion versus country-by-country growth Marketing a preventative product to a market that underestimates its risk Case studies and social proof as the core marketing asset Selling climate adaptation without relying on climate belief Building a commercially driven business with a social mission

  4. Jul 14

    Darren Ralphs (Sylvera) - AI, SEO and the New Rules of B2B Content

    Episode summary Darren Ralphs, Content Lead at Sylvera, discusses how B2B content strategy is adapting to AI search and LLM visibility on Episode 29 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Ralphs argues that Sylvera's visibility in tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity depends less on publishing volume than on signalling recency and authority. He points to Sylvera's practice of mining long-tail search terms from sales calls and Notion documentation, a technique he links to stronger LLM citation performance. This approach, combined with a systematic refresh of ageing blog content, contributed to Sylvera topping Adopter's GEO readiness report on the climate data sector, ahead of every other company assessed. This episode is relevant for founders resourcing a small marketing team, B2B marketing leads in climate tech, and content marketers exploring GEO and LLM visibility strategy. Guest profile Darren Ralphs is Content Lead at Sylvera. He joined the company in December 2024 and leads thought leadership and long-form content as the sole dedicated content marketer on Sylvera's marketing team, working alongside a product marketer and external SEO agencies. Sylvera assesses and rates the quality of carbon credit projects for both buyers and developers in the carbon markets. Founded in 2020, the company has grown from fewer than 10 people to around 150, with offices in the UK, New York, Singapore, and Japan. Sylvera's offering has expanded from carbon project ratings into a data platform, a geospatial product, and green commodities. Explore the Sylvera website: https://www.sylvera.com Find Darren Ralphs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-ralphs Topics covered - Explaining content marketing using a simple analogy - What Sylvera does and how its offering has expanded since 2020Sylvera's scale, customer base, and expansion into developer sales- Differentiating Sylvera through policy expertise and platform breadth - The State of Carbon Credits report as an annual funnel-filling asset - Measuring report success through database growth, signups, and SEO uplift - Refreshing the top 50 blog posts and the resulting traffic uplift- Long-tail keyword strategy sourced from sales calls and internal documentation - Adopter's GEO readiness research and Sylvera's top ranking - Diversification risk and maintaining visibility across multiple product lines - Building mid and lower funnel content by ICP - Founder-led content and Sylvera's LinkedIn engagement gap- Using AI in the content production workflow - Common AI writing tells and their effect on reader trust

  5. Jun 30

    Darren Clifford (Adapt [us] Capital) - The Case for Climate Adaptation

    Darren Clifford, Co-Founder of Adapt [us] Capital, discusses the investment case for climate adaptation on Episode 28 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Clifford argues that adaptation is more underfunded than mitigation, with roughly 0.25% of global capital flowing to it, despite demand for adaptation products rising predictably as the weather gets hotter and more volatile. Adapt [us] Capital backs pre-seed companies that meet three tests at once: a venture-grade team and market, demand driven by changing weather, and a measurable improvement to quality of life. He uses portfolio company Temperate, a passive radiative cooling business, to illustrate the thesis, alongside Bactery, which builds soil-based batteries for resilient backup power. Clifford frames the whole portfolio as a hedge against a future where changing climate could erode between 5% and 25% of global GDP by 2050. This episode is relevant for climate adaptation investors, pre-seed and seed-stage climate founders, family offices and high net worth LPs evaluating adaptation funds, and operators working on go-to-market for hardware and deep tech in new geographies. Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/ Explore the Adapt [us] Capital website: https://aucap.vc/ Find Darren Clifford on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djclif/

  6. Jun 17

    Freya Burton (LanzaTech) - Scaling Carbon Recycling Technology from Startup to Maturity, Through Earthshot and IPO

    Freya Burton, Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of Europe at LanzaTech, discusses carbon recycling, sustainable aviation fuel, and the 20-year journey from a four-person startup to a public company on Episode 27 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Burton describes how LanzaTech captures waste carbon from industrial sites such as steel mills and uses microbes to ferment it into ethanol, a process she likens to brewing beer with carbon instead of sugar and bacteria instead of yeast. She traces the company from its 2005 founding in New Zealand by Dr Sean Simpson and Dr Richard Forster, through a 2008 pilot and a 2012 demonstration plant in China, to its first commercial plant in 2018 and six plants today. The conversation turns to why LanzaTech narrowed its focus to sustainable aviation fuel after listing on the Nasdaq, and how it reframes its work around energy security and economic value rather than emissions alone. Burton also explains why getting fuels policy right has taken more than a decade of work across the UK, EU and US. This episode is relevant for founders scaling capital-intensive climate tech, carbon capture and utilisation investors, sustainable aviation fuel producers and buyers, and policymakers working on fuels regulation.  Guest profile Freya Burton is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of Europe at LanzaTech. She joined the company in 2007 as one of its first four employees, working in borrowed lab space, and has since held roles spanning safety, human resources, external affairs and policy. She previously served as the company's Chief People Officer and spent a long period based in the United States before moving into her current sustainability and Europe-focused leadership role. LanzaTech is a carbon recycling company that converts waste carbon from industrial emissions into ethanol and other chemicals using a gas fermentation process. Founded in New Zealand in 2005 and now listed on the Nasdaq, the company operates six commercial plants worldwide across steel mills, ferro alloy mills and a refinery. It supplies ethanol made from recycled carbon, and related materials, to consumer brands in fashion, fragrance and household goods. Explore the LanzaTech website.  Find Freya Burton on LinkedIn  Topics covered Explaining complex deep tech simply How carbon recycling works: the brewery analogy and the microbes Reaching commercial scale with a first-of-a-kind technology A non-linear founder journey: finding problems and solving them Building company culture and the risk of leader burnout How commercial strategy shifts from startup to public company Narrowing focus to win a single market Leading with value and energy security, not sustainability alone Building partnerships on data and proof points What investors prioritise at different stages of growth Funding capital-intensive tough tech, and marketing it to mainstream audiences Navigating regulatory uncertainty and advice for the next stage of scaling

  7. Jun 3

    Dr Robert Sorrell (Henry Royce Institute) - Unlocking the Hydrogen Economy Through Materials Innovation

    Dr Robert Sorrell, CEO of the Royce Hydrogen Accelerator at the Henry Royce Institute, discusses materials innovation and the hydrogen value chain on Episode 26 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Sorrell treats hydrogen as one part of the wider energy mix rather than a fix-all. The strongest near-term use is as a feedstock for ammonia, fertilisers and industrial chemicals. Long-duration storage of surplus offshore wind is another priority, particularly in the UK. Shipping and aviation also stand out, because batteries cannot match the energy density needed for large vessels or long-haul flight. The episode also covers the $1-2 per kilogramme cost target for green hydrogen, the materials problem of cryogenic storage at -253°C, and the funding gap atthe proof-of-concept and prototyping stages.The episode is useful for hydrogen founders, deep tech investors, electrolyser and fuel cell developers, and policymakers working on the UK's hydrogen strategy.

  8. May 12

    Karen Polizzi (NAPIC) and Prithvi Kodialbail (Extracellular) - Scaling Cultivated Meat from Lab to Market

    Karen Polizzi, Co-Director of NAPIC (the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre), and Prithvi Kodialbail, Head of Partnerships at Extracellular, discuss the commercialisation of cultivated meat on Episode 25 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.The first cultivated meat burger cost approximately $27,000 to produce. Since then, regulatory approvals have come through in Singapore and the US, cultivated products have appeared in restaurants, and an infrastructure layer of companies has begun filling the gap between R&D and commercial scale. Polizzi and Kodialbail trace where the bottlenecks remain - manufacturing costs, regulatory harmonisation, and access to facilities - and describe how NAPIC and Extracellular are each working to close those gaps in the UK. The conversation also makes the case for food security, rather than sustainability, as the most compelling argument for alternative proteins, set against real long-term agricultural risk in the UK.This episode is relevant for cultivated meat founders, alternative protein investors, food science researchers, and policymakers working on UK novel foods regulation.Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/Explore NAPIC here: https://napic.ac.uk/Discover Extracellular here: https://www.extracellular.com/

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About

Scaling Green-Tech by Adopter is a podcast for people shaping the future of climate technology - founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders at the forefront of adaptation and resilience solutions. As part of Adopter’s mission to accelerate the adoption of high-impact climate innovation, the podcast aims to amplify real voices and practical insights that can help others navigate the startup journey. Our conversations go beyond the hype to bring real, unfiltered stories - the wins, the roadblocks and everything you need to know in between.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Jaworski and Katherine Keddie
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    32
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Matt Jaworski and Katherine Keddie
  • Show Website
    Scaling Green-Tech