⚡️ Women leading the climate revolution
Founders Factory Startup Bulletin #37
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Climate tech, not for the first time, is experiencing a ‘moment’. Much has been written about the surge in funding towards innovative climate startups—around $32 billion last year, accounting for an astonishing 70% of ‘built environment’ VC funding.
What’s not being talked about is the alarming, but not entirely unsurprising, under representation of women in this space. Women-led companies accounted for just 7% of climate VC deals in 2023.
This is more than just a missed investment opportunity, it’s a critical failing in our attempt to overcome the biggest challenge currently threatening society. The UNFCCC highlight several key reasons why women have a critical role to play in addressing the climate crisis, including:
Women are disproportionately affected by climate change. In many societies, women take on the majority burden of household responsibilities, elderly care, etc; responsibilities that become increasingly hard as a result of climate change (e.g. accessing water, food, and so on.)
Women play a critical role in climate resilience and adaptation. Take agriculture, one industry impacted most by climate change, where women constitute nearly half of the labour force in developing countries. Or the fact that women are often first responders to natural disasters. Involving women at this level of decision making is a no brainer.
Climate action requires 100% of the population. Any ‘universal technology’ cannot be one-size-fits-all, and must take into accounts the needs of the whole population. If VCs only fund male-led climate tech, how can we achieve this?
Ahead of International Women’s Day (March 8th), we want to spotlight our growing portfolio of women leaders in climate tech, addressing varied challenges in household decarbonisation, blue carbon, renewable energy, and corporate sustainability.
Also in today’s Startup Bulletin:
What we’ve been reading
Highlights from the Founders Factory portfolio
Where our team has been this month
Jobs, opportunities, and more for the tech community
⚡️ Four women leading the climate revolution
Alessa Berg, co-founder & Executive Chair of ESG 360
ESG360 is the ESG risk platform for value chains, helping businesses comply with regulation to not only mitigate ESG risk but to increase enterprise value.
Co-founder Alessa is quickly building a reputation as a leading voice in climate, leading impact across a number of businesses and initiatives. Alongside ESG360 she leads Top Tier Impact (TTI), a global ecosystem of leaders helping accelerate impact and sustainability. She is also an active investor in climate startups, from synthetic biology to alternative protein.
In an interview at Davos earlier this year, Alessa said: "Our mission is to accelerate the adoption of a new positive paradigm, where inclusivity and sustainability are not added bonuses but at the core of how the economy and the society operate."
Becky Lane, CEO & co-founder of Furbnow
With a background in energy and home decarbonisation, Becky Lane built Furbnow in our Nesta Mission Studio with CPTO Laurence Watson. She understood the scale of the problem—that 97% of homes currently fail to meet energy efficiency standards, and we must retrofit two homes a minute to hit net zero targets by 2050—and set out to radically streamline the process of home decarbonisation.
In January this year, they announced their £950k pre-seed round. “Energy efficiency has been the poor relation to the low-carbon technologies that grab headlines. But if your home is cold and draughty, no amount of CO2 savings is going to be better for you,” Becky says.
Jo Parker-Swift, CEO & founder of Solivus
The benefits of solar energy are widely understood—but the practicalities don’t always align with the desire to power a building sustainably. Solivus is transforming this, designing new solar panel products for homes and commercial buildings to widen access to solar.
As CEO, Jo Parker-Swift has become a leading voice in UK climate tech, representing the UK at COP28, ChangeNOW, and other climate related events. Solivus was named in JP Morgan’s Top 200 Female-Led Businesses in 2022, while Jo herself has won numerous awards for her work.
Manuela Mangiagalli, CEO & co-founder of We2Sure
The global carbon credit market exceeded $1 trillion in value in 2023—but investments in carbon credits will need to double by 2025 in order to meet targets. To do this, the market needs to address several fundamental problems, including lack of transparency, prevalence of risks, and inaccurate measurement. We2Sure is here to address that, building a proprietary MRV asset management system to protect and insure carbon credit issuance.
Manuela Mangiagalli is helming We2Sure, bringing years of experience in investment banking and reinsurance. Aligning financial incentives and creating a flourishing market for carbon credits will be a crucial driver behind climate progress. “We understand the immense risks associated with implementing eco-friendly solutions. This is why we are dedicated to providing a groundbreaking solution that not only benefits the planet, but also offers an exceptional business opportunity,” Manuela says.
📚 What we’ve been reading
To coincide with International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting books written by women that have been recommended as useful resources for female founders or women in tech:
Banking On It: How I Disrupted An Industry by Anne Boden—the biography of Starling founder Anne Boden, and the critical role she played in spearheading and transforming digital banking in the UK
The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart—a book which highlights the often overlooked gaps that exist between how men and women are treated, with interviews with pioneering women including Julia Gillard, Amber Rudd, and Bernadine Evaristo
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez—the groundbreaking deepdive into how gender data bias impacts our everyday lives in a world built for and designed by men
The Startup Wife by Tahmima Amam—fictional tale of a husband-wife founding team and how the success of their technology startup impacts them differently
It’s About Damn Time by Arlan Hamilton—managing partner of Backstage Capital Arlan Hamilton shares her experience as a Black, LGBTQ+ investor ‘breaking into the boys club of Silicon Valley’
🚀 Highlights from the Founders Factory portfolio
Confide officially launched their product, hosting an exclusive dinner at The Shard and a breakfast talk at Founders Factory HQ, on ‘Unmasking Wirecard’. You can read about Confide and founder Pav Gill here
Womens health tech platform Unfabled announced their $1.6m seed round, to help build out their marketplace of curated and personalised womens health products
Tembo, the family lending mortgage platform, announced their acquisition of Nude—a lifetime ISA and savings product for first-time home buyers
Martee’s founders Harry Slagel and Lucy Adams appeared on the Nothing Ventured podcast, to share the story behind the healthy foodtech venture which emerged from our Mission Studio
Bondio came out of stealth, launching the first local connectivity marketplace. Read about why we were excited for their launch here
🎤 Where our team’s been this month
Investor Claire Mongeau spoke at Finovate Europe, on an Investor All Stars panel on ‘Where Is The Smart Money Investing In Fintech?’
Bianca Furtuna, Head of Data Science, appeared on the Vision to Venture podcast, speaking about strategies for incorporating AI into your startup
Olly Betts hosted a Fintech Roundtable in Milan with our Italian partners Mediobanca, on ‘AI in Fintech: A 10-Year Horizon’
📍 Jobs, opportunities, and more
Tech Nation Report 2024 survey—an annual survey of views of the UK as a place to grow a tech business, the impact of AI on the sector, and which skills are most in demand. If you work in tech, you’re invited to participate here
We’re hiring two Entrepreneurs-in-Residence to lead build of two of our latest venture studio businesses:
See you next month 👋
Interested in reading more of the same insights? Check out the Founders Factory blog, and previous newsletters.