unDavos Summit

Investment in space is at an all-time high, yet it is not distributed equally — communications and infrastructure absorb the bulk while Earth observation and data services that could save lives remain underfunded. The Maldives Space Research Organisation launched a $50 million fund for island nations, yet its government cannot yet defend putting space in the national budget. This is the capital paradox of the space sector.

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• Space as an enabler, not a silo: satellites underpin climate monitoring, disaster response, and food security — but investors treat space as its own domain rather than pricing in its ROI across every industry it supports
• The ground truth gap: satellite data is abundant but truth is scarce — the Maldives needs sub-pixel resolution for islands that are literally a single pixel, and no one can verify what sensors actually detect on the ground
• Digital twins for disaster resilience: UNOOSA built a digital twin for Tonga simulating sea level rise impacts on roads and infrastructure, generating a queue of island nations demanding the same capability
• Space peace as a capital unlock: the Karman Project launched the sector's first Space Peace Prize to incentivize cooperation as the ISS decommissions and private stations take over — setting precedents that will define the next era
• Patient capital is missing: commercial actors optimize for short-term returns while international organizations and civil society play critical long-term roles in space governance — the breach between these capital needs remains unresolved

PANELISTS

• Rajeshwar Murthy — Moderator
• Madin Maseeh — President, Maldives Space Research Organisation (MSRO)
• Aarti Holla-Maini — Director, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)
• Hannah Ashford — Co-Founder & Managing Director, The Karman Project

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: #SpaceEconomy #SpaceCapital #UNOOSA #MSRO #Maldives #EarthObservation #SatelliteData #DigitalTwins #SpaceLaw #ClimateResilience #KarmanProject #SpacePeace #IslandNations #DeepTech #unDavos #Davos2026

We are living in the golden age of fraud. Illicit crypto transactions surged to an estimated $154 billion last year — a 160% increase — while AI-enabled scams prove 4.5x more effective than traditional ones. Impersonation scams alone exploded by 1,400% in value stolen, and if global e-crime damages were an economy, it would be the third largest in the world after the US and China at $9.5 trillion.

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• Nation-state actors go industrial: Russia launched a ruble-backed stablecoin transacting over $94 billion for sanctions evasion, while North Korean hackers stole more than $2 billion last year — including the massive Bybit hack
• Scam compounds and organized crime: from Cambodia's Prince Group trafficking 100,000 people into fraud operations to Nigeria's Black Axe recruiting children as young as 10 with AI-generated culturally targeted scripts
• Identity infrastructure is broken: AML efficiency sits at 0.02% globally — $500 billion spent for negligible seizures — because the architecture still relies on usernames, passwords, and screenshots as "proof" of identity
• Stablecoins dominate illicit flows: 84% of all on-chain illicit activity uses stablecoins, giving centralized issuers a unique "superpower" to freeze and burn tokens, though regulatory guardrails for this capability remain absent
• MiCA is just the beginning: the real compliance challenge is DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act), which cost Bybit EU millions and applies the same stringent standards to startups as to systemically important banks

PANELISTS

• Georg Harer — Co-CEO, Bybit EU
• Denisse Rudich — CEO, Rudich Advisory; Director, G7 & G20 Research Groups
• Raido Saar — Founder & CEO, ComplyOnce; President, Estonian Web3 Chamber
• Matthias Bauer-Langgartner — Head of Policy Europe, Chainalysis

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: #CryptoFraud #FinancialCrime #AML #Scams #Stablecoins #MiCA #DORA #Chainalysis #BybitEU #KYC #DigitalIdentity #NorthKoreaHackers #Sanctions #Compliance #Regulation #unDavos #Davos2026

BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF became their single most cash-generating ETF across the entire portfolio. Robinhood and Revolut started with closed-loop crypto trading and grew 3x. The message is clear: institutions that started simple and iterated are winning, while those stuck in desktop exercises and endless research are falling behind.

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• Start simple, expand later: BlackRock didn't build custody — they partnered with Coinbase; Robinhood started with closed-loop trading to eliminate AML risk, then opened deposits and withdrawals once they understood the landscape
• Securitization before tokenization: wrapping Bitcoin into an ETF has been orders of magnitude more successful than tokenizing assets directly onto the blockchain — simplicity wins first
• The family office gap: high net worth individuals and family offices are being turned away by their banks, creating a massive market opportunity for firms like K33 that can offer regulated crypto services
• Fiat rails as competitive advantage: K33 leverages Norwegian banks rated as low-risk globally, enabling same-day multi-currency settlements at near-zero cost — a moat competitors struggle to replicate
• Central banks should buy Bitcoin to learn: not as an investment, but to force real governance decisions — who holds the keys, what happens when someone quits, and how multisig is structured

SPEAKER

• Torbjorn Bull Jenssen — Founder & CEO, K33 (Keynote)

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: #Bitcoin #InstitutionalCrypto #K33 #ETF #BlackRock #Tokenization #Securitization #CryptoExchange #FamilyOffice #WealthManagement #Stablecoins #MiCA #NorwayFintech #DigitalAssets #unDavos #Davos2026

Data is the fuel powering the $1.3 trillion AI industry — yet none of it appears on any balance sheet. Meanwhile, the data brokerage market hit $460 billion while legitimate data marketplaces sit at just $8 billion, revealing a broken system where deals happen in backrooms and ownership remains invisible.

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• Data ownership as the missing foundation: without cryptographic proof of provenance, individuals and companies cannot monetize, trade, or protect their data — turning a potential asset into a liability
• From extraction to sovereignty: Web3 infrastructure now enables a paradigm shift where data assets stay private, data products get monetized, and data businesses run autonomously on self-sovereign storage
• The hospital paradox: medical institutions sit on treasure troves of data that could power AI screening algorithms, yet none of this value is recognized on their balance sheets
• AI agents as market makers: in the emerging data economy, AI agents drive both supply and demand, turning around the flow of data and enabling deal cycles that once took months to happen in minutes
• Tokenizing data businesses: fractional ownership of data assets creates new investment vehicles — aligning incentives between data owners, investors, and AI builders in a collaborative economy

SPEAKER

• Gregor Zavcer — Co-Founder, Swarm Foundation & CEO, Data Fund (Keynote)

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: #DataOwnership #DataSovereignty #Tokenization #Web3 #AI #DataAssets #Ethereum #Swarm #DataEconomy #RWA #SmartContracts #DataProvenance #DigitalAssets #unDavos #Davos2026 #WEF

The mining industry is responsible for 7% of global CO2 emissions, and diesel haulage trucks alone can account for 40-50% of a single mine's output. Electrifying one large mining truck eliminates the equivalent of 400 cars. With over 10 billion metric tons already moved by Komatsu's fully autonomous haulage system, this panel asks: what is stopping the entire industry from going electric?

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• The business case: electrification reduces energy costs by 40-70% and maintenance costs by up to 30%, but requires front-loaded capital investment
• Autonomous haulage at scale: Komatsu's FrontRunner system has moved 10+ billion metric tons with 875+ autonomous trucks worldwide
• Battery-electric underground mining: Epiroc has deployed BEV equipment at 39+ mine sites globally, with a third already placing repeat orders
• Infrastructure as the bottleneck: mines cannot choose their location, so getting grid access and managing dynamic power profiles requires new thinking
• Open standards and collaboration: no single OEM can solve this alone — ABB, Epiroc, and Komatsu are working together on interoperable charging infrastructure

PANELISTS

• Marco Arcelli — CEO, ACWA Power (Moderator)
• Fabiana Cavalcante — Global Head of Mobile e-Power, ABB Traction
• Lucas — Komatsu
• Anders — Epiroc
• Vedrana Spudic — Head of Technology for Mining, ABB Process Industries

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: mining electrification, autonomous mining, electric haul trucks, battery electric vehicles, Komatsu, Epiroc, ABB, critical minerals, decarbonization, FrontRunner, fleet management, underground mining, trolley system, energy transition, deep tech, WEF Davos 2026

2025 Nobel Laureate Philippe Aghion argues that creative destruction is not chaos — it is the mechanism of sustained prosperity. In this keynote conversation, he explains why new firms without the "past dependence" of dirty innovation are leading the energy transition, and why Europe must combine competition policy with industrial policy to avoid being dominated by a handful of AI superstars.

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• Creative destruction explained: new innovators displace incumbents, but yesterday's winners use their rents to block the next wave
• Past dependence in energy: firms that innovated in fossil fuels tend to keep innovating in fossil fuels — only new entrants break the cycle
• Three pillars of inclusive growth: education (reducing "lost Einsteins"), flex security (Denmark's 90% salary replacement model), and competition policy
• The AI concentration risk: Google, Microsoft, and Amazon dominate the upstream value chain — open source and Europe's regulatory environment can create alternatives
• Advice to the next generation: be persistent, embrace failure, and innovate in technology and in social organization

PANELISTS

• Marco Arcelli — CEO, ACWA Power (Moderator)
• Prof. Philippe Aghion — 2025 Nobel Laureate in Economics, College de France & LSE

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: creative destruction, Nobel Prize economics, Philippe Aghion, innovation, energy transition, competition policy, industrial policy, AI concentration, inclusive growth, flex security, Schumpeter, education, venture capital, Europe competitiveness, WEF Davos 2026

Heat represents over 50% of global energy demand, yet industrial heat remains the hardest segment to decarbonize. This panel brings together the full value chain — technology provider ABB, deep tech startup SaltX, end-user Rockwool, and investor Holcim MAQER Ventures — to prove that electrification of industrial heat is no longer a question of "if" but "how fast."

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• No technology limitation: ABB's plasma and electric heating systems are proven at pilot scale and entering commercial rollout
• Location matters: SaltX's Electric Arc Calciner for cement and quicklime only closes the business case where green electricity is affordable and grid access exists
• Rockwool's proof of concept: decarbonizing three plants per year using plasma technology with ABB and ScanArc, after years of pioneering pilot work
• The CO2 price gap: electrification becomes competitive at EUR 200/ton carbon, versus today's EUR 80 — regulatory frameworks must catch up
• Partnership is the new leadership: Holcim MAQER Ventures invests in emerging deep tech to accelerate the multi-decade transformation of 35 European cement plants

PANELISTS

• Marco Arcelli — CEO, ACWA Power (Moderator)
• Gerald Jagerhofer — Head of Electrification, ABB
• Lina Jorheden — CEO, SaltX Technology
• Bjorn Rici Andersen — SVP Group Operations & Technology, ROCKWOOL Group
• Bengt Steinbrecher — Head of Holcim MAQER Ventures

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: industrial heat, electrification, decarbonization, plasma technology, cement, quicklime, stone wool, ABB, Rockwool, SaltX, Holcim, carbon price, energy sovereignty, deep tech, green electricity, partnership, hard-to-abate, WEF Davos 2026

By 2030, the energy sector faces a 10-15 million person workforce shortage compounded by 30-40% retirements. Can autonomous robots fill the gap — or does the future depend on reskilling humans? This panel brings a robotics CEO and an energy economist together to find the winning model.

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• What only humans can do: critical judgment, investment decisions under uncertainty, and contextual understanding that machines cannot replicate
• Robots as force multipliers — ANYbotics' autonomous inspection robots free engineers from repetitive data collection in dangerous environments
• Why "Robot Resources" (RR) will sit alongside HR: companies are using robots at job fairs to attract the next generation of workers
• The education gap: new sustainability curricula are emerging, but training workers to combine solar PV installation with green roofing takes integrated skills
• CO2 taxation vs. subsidies — why taxing emissions creates a level playing field for all technologies while subsidies pick winners

PANELISTS

• Marco Arcelli — CEO, ACWA Power (Moderator)
• Dr. Peter Fankhauser — Co-Founder & CEO, ANYbotics
• Prof. Sylvain Weber — Associate Professor of Economics, HES-SO Geneva

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: energy workforce, talent gap, robotics, autonomous robots, ANYbotics, Industry 5.0, reskilling, upskilling, energy transition workforce, CO2 tax, automation, AI, human-robot collaboration, education, demographic shift, WEF Davos 2026

White hydrogen could supply 220,000 years of global energy at under $1 per kilogram. Next-generation perovskite solar panels deliver 40% more power in a coating thinner than a human hair. Four founders present the breakthrough technologies poised to reshape energy — and the brutal reality of crossing the valley of death.

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• White (geological) hydrogen: carbon-negative extraction from ultramafic rock with CO2 mineralization — Erik Schaefer, Green Investors AG
• Perovskite tandem solar: 30% efficiency, 200x thinner, manufactured in the US to complement the Chinese supply chain — Scott Wharton, Tandem PV
• Sustainable aviation fuel from sawdust at 50% lower cost via upgraded pyrolysis oil co-processed in existing refineries — Kennedy Ricci, 4AIR / Alder Renewables
• Scalable biomethane from straw at 50% of conventional biogas cost with 100% carbon utilization, backed by Equinor — Mikkel Kiil, Green2X
• The common thread: unit economics must beat fossil fuels — subsidy-dependent models will not survive

PANELISTS

• Dr. Oliver Krause — Managing Partner, Advantum Ventures (Moderator)
• Erik Schaefer — CEO, Green Investors AG
• Scott Wharton — CEO, Tandem PV
• Kennedy Ricci — President, 4AIR
• Mikkel Kiil — CEO, Green2X

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: white hydrogen, geological hydrogen, perovskite solar, sustainable aviation fuel, SAF, biomethane, biofuel, energy transition, clean energy, climate tech, valley of death, deep tech, carbon negative, green investors, unit economics, WEF Davos 2026

70% of board members acknowledge they are fully conscious that ESG matters — yet 70% also admit they are not efficient at integrating it into strategy and governance. Meanwhile, one in three meals depends on smallholder farmers who are massively impacted by climate change. This panel asks: is ESG a labeling problem, a leadership failure, or a broken system?

WHAT THIS PANEL COVERS

• Why ESG criteria remain sound but the reporting infrastructure — the plumbing — has never been properly built
• How blockchain, AI, and emerging standards like ISSB can restore trust and eliminate greenwashing
• The crushing cost of layered certifications for SMEs: one footwear manufacturer spends $150,000/year on audits across five buyers
• Environmental health as an economic argument — air pollution alone costs an estimated 6% of annual GDP according to the WHO
• Why businesses are now the most trusted institutions and why ESG is fundamentally a leadership conversation, not a compliance exercise

PANELISTS

• Dr. Oliver Krause — Managing Partner, Advantum Ventures (Moderator)
• Adrit Nath — Founder, Tech Venture for Humanitarian Development; ISSB Adviser
• Isabelle Grosmaitre — Founder & CEO, Goodness & Co; Chair, Value Balancing Alliance
• Dr. Rebecca Florsheim — Environmental Health Physician & Researcher, NYU Langone Health
• Ian Sayers — Founder, SME Planet

unDavos is a community-driven summit running during WEF week in Davos, democratizing the conversation around global challenges.

🌐 undavos.com

Tags: ESG reporting, sustainability standards, ISSB, GRI, greenwashing, corporate governance, SME financing, environmental health, microplastics, air pollution, board leadership, impact measurement, trust, business as force for good, WEF Davos 2026, smallholder farmers