May 27, 2025

Leveraging New Technologies to Decarbonise the Economy with Mark Windeknecht from World Fund | Venture Capital

34 minutes

Reducing Carbon Emissions through Circular Innovations

Decarbonising the economy is a political goal and a commercial opportunity. How can circular startups benefit as well?

In this episode, Mark Windeknecht, Principal at World Fund, discusses the connection between decarbonisation and the circular economy. By examining the battery recycling startup Cylib, the food startup Planet A Foods and the consumer tech startup Faircado, Mark provides insights into the drawdown potential of different business models. As a considerable share of circular startups are asset-heavy, Mark touches upon the challenges and opportunities of financing the growth of these circular business models.

This episode is part of VC for Circularity - the Venture Capital Perspective on Circular Economy Startups.

People

Mark Windeknecht, Principal, World Fund

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ing-mark-windeknecht-285412148/

Patrick Hypscher, Circular Business Strategist, PaaS Expert

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hypscher/

Chapters

00:00 Intro

05:35 Carbon Drawdown Potential as a Main Investment Criteria during the Due Diligence

10:36 The Case of Cylib: Superior Battery Recycling at Scale

13:30 The Case of Planet A Foods: Avoiding Deforestation by using Left-Over Food

18:27 The Case of Faircado: More Sustainable Shopping

20:04 Funding CapEx-Heavy startups: Assets, Equity, Venture Debt and Licensing

25:57 Regulation and Technology are the drivers: AI, IOT, Robotics, Physical AI, Quantum and more

28:15 Founders, have a Strong Business Case without Green Premiums

30:12 Regulation is starting to change markets

About

World Fund helps to decarbonise the global economy.

As a climate tech VC, World Fund is driven by tackling the climate crisis and only invests in technologies with scalable businesses and significant emissions savings potential. World Fund supports startups from early to growth stage, focusing on Energy, Food and Agriculture, Manufacturing, Buildings, and Mobility.

Further Links

Carbon Drawdown Potential

https://www.worldfund.vc/knowledge/how-to-measure-the-climate-performance-potential-of-startups

Portfolio Companies:

https://www.cylib.de/

https://faircado.com/

https://www.ecoworks.tech/

https://planet-a-foods.com/

One-page Summary

Sign-up for the Circularity.fm Newsletter and get a summary with the take-aways of this episode. Register here: https://circularity.fm/leveraging-new-technologies-to-decarbonise-the-economy-with-mark-windeknecht-from-world-fund-venture-capital/

Transcript

See the episode page for the transcript: https://circularity.fm/leveraging-new-technologies-to-decarbonise-the-economy-with-mark-windeknecht-from-world-fund-venture-capital/

...more

View all episodes

By Patrick Hypscher

11 ratings