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🌊 A VC Playbook for Industrial Biotech

What it really takes to turn great biology into scalable, venture-backable companies.

We’re joined by Joško Bobanović, Partner in Industrial Biotech at Sofinnova Partners, one of Europe’s most experienced investors at the intersection of biology, industry, and climate.

In this episode, we dive into how industrial biotech companies are really built, from lab-grade science to full-scale production, and unpack what it takes to turn ambitious biology into durable businesses.

Joško has been investing in this space since long before “climate tech” was fashionable. His perspective is shaped by scars, cycles, and decades of pattern recognition.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ What industrial biotech actually means

→ Why generalist VCs struggle without deep technical partners

→ The difference between great science and venture-scale companies

→ Platforms vs. product companies, and why too many choices can kill startups

→ Why IP strategy and freedom to operate are often underestimated

→ How teams must evolve from scientists to industrial operators

→ Why exits in industrial biotech still skew toward IPOs, not M&A

This is a masterclass in how long-cycle climate technologies really scale, and why patience, specialization, and realism matter more than hype.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

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New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack

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Thank you to this week’s sponsor:

Accelerating Impact - a non-profit advancing impact finance by mobilizing capital and running free accelerator programs for emerging fund managers. Join for expert coaching, training, financial support, and a strong community. Apply here.

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🌊 Why Circularity Is the Real Climate Lever

Why staying within planetary boundaries demands a rethink of how we design, use, and reuse everything.

We’re joined by Martijn Lopes Cardozo, Partner at Regeneration.VC, one of the world’s leading investors in the circular economy.

In this episode, we dive into why climate alone isn’t enough, and unpack what it really takes to build venture-scale companies that protect biodiversity, water, materials, and supply chains, not just CO₂. Martijn argues that even at 1.5°C, we can still lose the planet, unless we radically rethink how products are designed, consumed, and regenerated.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why circularity impacts 90% of biodiversity loss, not just emissions

→ The real VC opportunity hiding in design, use, and reuse phases

→ Why competing on a “green premium” is a losing strategy

→ How brands like IKEA, and H&M pull circular startups through the supply chain

→ What Martijn looks for in a “big seed” (late-seed) circular startup

→ How better measurement could unlock capital

→ The rise of asset-utilization models (and why sharing beats owning)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

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New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack

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🌊 Pricing Nature As An Asset

Why the next wave of climate returns will be built on data, ecosystems, and risk

We’re joined by Jahed Momand, General Partner at Cerulean Ventures, a pre-seed fund backing founders applying AI and software to the physical world, from nature and oceans to grids, steel, and supply chains.

In this episode, we dive into what “investing in nature” actually means, and unpack how turning ecosystems into measurable, investable assets could unlock entirely new markets, business models, and venture-scale returns.

Jahed shares how Cerulean thinks about pre-seed conviction, why data gaps in the physical world are the biggest opportunity in climate, and what it really takes to back founders before the story is obvious.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why nature is the most underpriced input in the global economy

→ How environmental data becomes an investable asset

→ The real business models behind “nature tech” (beyond carbon credits)

→ Why insurance, supply chains, and pharma are early buyers

→ How AI in the physical world creates defensibility most startups miss

→ What pre-seed investing actually optimizes for (and why Cerulean sometimes overpays)

→ How to build a contrarian thesis that later-stage funds will follow

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

Thank you to this week’s sponsor:

Accelerating Impact - a non-profit advancing impact finance by mobilizing capital and running free accelerator programs for emerging fund managers. Join for expert coaching, training, financial support, and a strong community. Apply here.

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🌊 Hardware Is Hard. That’s the Point.

What it really takes to fund, build, and scale climate hardware in Europe

We’re joined by Jessica Burley, Investor at Planet A Ventures, one of Europe’s leading climate and deep tech VCs pioneering a science-based approach to venture capital.

In this episode, we dive into why climate hardware is fundamentally different from software — and unpack what it really takes for founders and investors to scale atoms (not just bits) without breaking the cap table.

From capital stacks and bankability to team composition and customer urgency, this is a grounded, insider conversation for anyone building or backing climate infrastructure.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why hardware isn’t broken — but VCs need a new playbook

→ The real reason climate hardware fails (hint: it’s not the science)

→ How to structure a capital stack beyond pure equity

→ What “bankability” actually means for first-of-a-kind plants

→ Why sustainability alone doesn’t close customers

→ Where climate hardware is quietly becoming profitable right now

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

Thank you to this week’s sponsor:

Accelerating Impact - a non-profit advancing impact finance by mobilizing capital and running free accelerator programs for emerging fund managers. Join for expert coaching, training, financial support, and a strong community. Apply here.

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🌊 How To Commercialize Science

Why Europe’s world-class research rarely becomes global companies, and how to fix it.

We’re joined by Erik Engellau-Nilsson, Founder of Norrsken Launcher and former CEO of the Norrsken Foundation, one of Europe’s most influential platforms for impact-driven entrepreneurship.

In this episode, we dive into why most science never leaves the lab, and unpack what it really takes to turn deep tech and climate breakthroughs into scalable, profitable companies. From cap tables and commercialization risk to why the VC model fails scientists, Erik shares a brutally honest view of what’s broken and what actually works.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why great science gets stuck in universities

→ The cultural gap between scientists and company builders

→ Norrsken Launcher’s hands-on model: fewer bets, deeper ownership

→ Why Europe produces world-class science, but not world-class companies

→ Clean cap tables, IP ownership, and the “teacher’s exemption.”

→ Strategic investors: accelerator or hidden landmine?

→ Why “patient capital” is often the wrong answer

→ How to build climate and deep tech companies that actually scale

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

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This week on New Wave Weekly:

👉 AI won’t magically invent new materials

AlphaFold worked because biology had great data. Inorganic materials don’t. Sparse datasets, missing thermodynamics, and poor characterization remain the biggest blockers.

👉 The real moat is synthesis, not models

From rare-earth-free magnets to catalysts, value is created in the lab: making, characterizing, and scaling materials that actually work in the real world.

👉 Vertical beats generalist (for now)

Foundational models are capital-intensive moonshots. Highly verticalized plays, magnets, catalysts, specific industrial use cases, have a much clearer path to market.

👉 Commercialization is brutally hard

Discovery is step one. Producing at scale, at cost, and getting industry adoption is where most materials stories break, graphene being the cautionary tale.

👉 Europe’s materials moment?

With critical minerals concentrated in China, supply-chain security is creating real pull from industrial players, not just curiosity, but urgency.

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Wave Makers:

Matt - Voyager Ventures

Robina - Contrarian

Vera - Apex Ventures

Hugo - New Wave

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

Thank you to this week’s sponsor:

Accelerating Impact - a non-profit advancing impact finance by mobilizing capital and running free accelerator programs for emerging fund managers. Join for expert coaching, training, financial support, and a strong community. Apply here.

***

🌊 A New Swell Has Arrived

How the European Investment Fund is shaping the next generation of climate VCs.

We’re joined by Anna Finizio, Investment Manager at the European Investment Fund (EIF) Green-Tech, one of Europe’s most influential LPs in climate investing.

EIF isn’t just backing climate funds. It’s building the market.

In this episode, we unpack how Europe’s largest public LP thinks about first-time managers, risk, performance, and impact, and what climate fund managers actually need to do to earn EIF’s conviction.

From anchoring funds to setting impact accountability, this is a rare look inside the LP that has quietly shaped Europe’s climate VC ecosystem over the last decade.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

🌊 Simon Belka on fixing the grid.

Why long-duration storage and microgrids may define the next energy system.

We’re joined by Simon Belka, Co-Founder of Shifted Energy, a long-duration energy storage startup building compressed-air systems for the decentralized grid.

In this episode, we dive into one of the biggest paradoxes in clean energy: we’re producing more cheap renewable electricity than ever, yet still burning gas because the grid can’t move or store it fast enough.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why grid congestion, not renewables, is now the real problem

→ How microgrids work (and why they’re a €135bn market)

→ Why batteries fail beyond ~6–8 hours of storage

→ Inside Shifted Energy’s compressed-air “air battery”

→ How long-duration storage competes with hydrogen and thermal systems

→ Early traction: microgrids, mines, logistics hubs, and off-grid sites

→ The economics: efficiency, CapEx, and levelized cost of storage

→ What it takes to scale from 100 kW pilots to megawatt systems

→ Why Europe is uniquely positioned to lead this transition

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

🌊 Eglantine Dupuy on what the data says about European climate tech.

Why deep tech is winning, VC is retreating, and corporates are stepping in.

We’re joined by Eglantine Dupuy, Research Associate at Dealroom.co, where she tracks Europe’s climate and deep tech ecosystem through one of the most comprehensive data platforms in venture.

In this episode, we take a hard look at European climate tech in 2025, what’s slowing down, what’s quietly accelerating, and why the next wave will look very different from the last.

We covered:

→ Why European climate VC is down ~30% YoY

→ How deep tech now captures ~50% of climate funding in Europe

→ The real cost of deeptech: $100M+ in VC to reach $100M revenue

→ Why Europe struggles at Series B, and how foreign capital fills the gap

→ Corporates vs VCs: who’s actually funding climate innovation now

→ Defense, sovereignty, and resilience rebrands, hype or strategy?

→ Early signals for 2026: biomaterials, circular economy, and AI overlap

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

🌊 David Ferguson on pilot-to-scale partnerships.

Why corporate-startup partnerships fail and how to design the ones that actually work.

We’re joined by David Ferguson, Head of Innovation (UK) at EDF, a 20-year energy veteran working at the intersection of climate, technology, and large-scale infrastructure.

In this episode, we dive into why corporates love pilots but struggle to scale them, and unpack what it really takes for startups and big utilities to build collaborations that survive beyond the proof of concept.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why most climate pilots die before reaching scale

→ How to design a trial that stands on its own (not a fake path to procurement)

→ The four real ways corporates can work with startups, beyond selling

→ Culture clash: speed, risk, incentives, and decision-making

→ Why corporates need startups as much as startups need corporates

→ What EDF actually wants from climate startups right now

→ Why flexibility and long-duration storage are the next big battlegrounds

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com