Episode summaryDarren 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/