Podcast
Scaling Green-Tech
Hosted by Matt Jaworski and Katherine Keddie · EN
Scaling Green-Tech by Adopter is a podcast for people shaping the future of climate technology - founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders at the forefront of adaptation and resilience solutions. As part of Adopter’s mission to accelerate the adoption of high-impact climate innovation, the podcast aims to amplify real voices and practical insights that can help others navigate the startup journey. Our conversations go beyond the hype to bring real, unfiltered stories - the wins, the roadblocks and everything you need to know in between.
20episodes
Episodes
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Jonathan Jackson (Previsico) - Flood Risk in a Changing Climate
1w ago00:53:52Tap to summarizeJonathan Jackson, CEO of Previsico, discusses forecasting surface water flooding and scaling a university spin-out on Episode 30 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Previsico gives property-level flood warnings up to 48 hours ahead. Jackson explains that surface water is now close to 60% of UK flood risk, driven by a changing climate, urbanisation and ageing drainage. The company began as a Loughborough University spin-out built on Professor Dapeng Yu's flood model, with the UK government as its first customer, which reversed the usual startup order of finding a problem before building a product. Jackson traces the commercial journey from Innovate UK grant funding and an angel round through venture backing from Foresight Group, and into the US via a customer-led, site-by-site expansion rather than a country-by-country one.This episode is relevant for climate adaptation founders, deep tech and university spin-out teams, insurtech and climate tech investors, and B2B founders working out how to sell a preventative product to a market that underestimates its own risk.Guest profileJonathan Jackson is the CEO of Previsico. He describes himself as an entrepreneur rather than a scientist, having started in telecoms before building several businesses that moved offline industries online, including Farming Online, which he describes as the UK's longest-running B2B internet business. He joined Previsico after becoming entrepreneur in residence at Loughborough University, where he met the company's scientific founders and helped spin the business out.Previsico is a flood forecasting company that provides property-level surface water flood warnings up to 48 hours in advance, combining a hydrodynamic flood model with real-time weather data and IoT sensors. The company was spun out of Loughborough University and works with insurers, corporates, councils and housing associations in the UK and, increasingly, the US.Company website: https://previsico.com/Find Jonathan Jackson on LinkedIn. Topics coveredExplaining flood forecasting simply, and the surface water flooding gapWhy surface water is now the biggest and hardest-to-predict UK flood riskLaunching with the product built and the government as first customerWorking with academic founders versus commercial and developer teamsRaising as a university spin-out: grants, angels and proof pointsSequencing fundraising around insurer contracts and venture roundsDifferences between UK and US investors and due diligenceCustomer-led international expansion versus country-by-country growthMarketing a preventative product to a market that underestimates its riskCase studies and social proof as the core marketing assetSelling climate adaptation without relying on climate beliefBuilding a commercially driven business with a social mission
Transcribe →Darren Ralphs (Sylvera) - AI, SEO and the New Rules of B2B Content
3w ago01:03:00Tap to summarizeEpisode summaryDarren Ralphs, Content Lead at Sylvera, discusses how B2B content strategy is adapting to AI search and LLM visibility on Episode 29 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Ralphs argues that Sylvera's visibility in tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity depends less on publishing volume than on signalling recency and authority. He points to Sylvera's practice of mining long-tail search terms from sales calls and Notion documentation, a technique he links to stronger LLM citation performance. This approach, combined with a systematic refresh of ageing blog content, contributed to Sylvera topping Adopter's GEO readiness report on the climate data sector, ahead of every other company assessed.This episode is relevant for founders resourcing a small marketing team, B2B marketing leads in climate tech, and content marketers exploring GEO and LLM visibility strategy.Guest profileDarren Ralphs is Content Lead at Sylvera. He joined the company in December 2024 and leads thought leadership and long-form content as the sole dedicated content marketer on Sylvera's marketing team, working alongside a product marketer and external SEO agencies. Sylvera assesses and rates the quality of carbon credit projects for both buyers and developers in the carbon markets. Founded in 2020, the company has grown from fewer than 10 people to around 150, with offices in the UK, New York, Singapore, and Japan. Sylvera's offering has expanded from carbon project ratings into a data platform, a geospatial product, and green commodities.Explore the Sylvera website: https://www.sylvera.comFind Darren Ralphs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-ralphsTopics covered- Explaining content marketing using a simple analogy- What Sylvera does and how its offering has expanded since 2020Sylvera's scale, customer base, and expansion into developer sales- Differentiating Sylvera through policy expertise and platform breadth- The State of Carbon Credits report as an annual funnel-filling asset- Measuring report success through database growth, signups, and SEO uplift- Refreshing the top 50 blog posts and the resulting traffic uplift- Long-tail keyword strategy sourced from sales calls and internal documentation- Adopter's GEO readiness research and Sylvera's top ranking- Diversification risk and maintaining visibility across multiple product lines- Building mid and lower funnel content by ICP- Founder-led content and Sylvera's LinkedIn engagement gap- Using AI in the content production workflow- Common AI writing tells and their effect on reader trust
Transcribe →Darren Clifford (Adapt [us] Capital) - The Case for Climate Adaptation
Jun 3001:09:03Tap to summarizeEpisode 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/
Transcribe →Freya Burton (LanzaTech) - Scaling Carbon Recycling Technology from Startup to Maturity, Through Earthshot and IPO
Jun 1701:07:58Tap to summarizeFreya Burton, Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of Europe at LanzaTech, discusses carbon recycling, sustainable aviation fuel, and the 20-year journey from a four-person startup to a public company on Episode 27 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Burton describes how LanzaTech captures waste carbon from industrial sites such as steel mills and uses microbes to ferment it into ethanol, a process she likens to brewing beer with carbon instead of sugar and bacteria instead of yeast. She traces the company from its 2005 founding in New Zealand by Dr Sean Simpson and Dr Richard Forster, through a 2008 pilot and a 2012 demonstration plant in China, to its first commercial plant in 2018 and six plants today. The conversation turns to why LanzaTech narrowed its focus to sustainable aviation fuel after listing on the Nasdaq, and how it reframes its work around energy security and economic value rather than emissions alone. Burton also explains why getting fuels policy right has taken more than a decade of work across the UK, EU and US.This episode is relevant for founders scaling capital-intensive climate tech, carbon capture and utilisation investors, sustainable aviation fuel producers and buyers, and policymakers working on fuels regulation. Guest profileFreya Burton is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of Europe at LanzaTech. She joined the company in 2007 as one of its first four employees, working in borrowed lab space, and has since held roles spanning safety, human resources, external affairs and policy. She previously served as the company's Chief People Officer and spent a long period based in the United States before moving into her current sustainability and Europe-focused leadership role.LanzaTech is a carbon recycling company that converts waste carbon from industrial emissions into ethanol and other chemicals using a gas fermentation process. Founded in New Zealand in 2005 and now listed on the Nasdaq, the company operates six commercial plants worldwide across steel mills, ferro alloy mills and a refinery. It supplies ethanol made from recycled carbon, and related materials, to consumer brands in fashion, fragrance and household goods.Explore the LanzaTech website. Find Freya Burton on LinkedIn Topics coveredExplaining complex deep tech simplyHow carbon recycling works: the brewery analogy and the microbesReaching commercial scale with a first-of-a-kind technologyA non-linear founder journey: finding problems and solving themBuilding company culture and the risk of leader burnoutHow commercial strategy shifts from startup to public companyNarrowing focus to win a single marketLeading with value and energy security, not sustainability aloneBuilding partnerships on data and proof pointsWhat investors prioritise at different stages of growthFunding capital-intensive tough tech, and marketing it to mainstream audiencesNavigating regulatory uncertainty and advice for the next stage of scaling
Transcribe →Dr Robert Sorrell (Henry Royce Institute) - Unlocking the Hydrogen Economy Through Materials Innovation
Jun 300:47:35Tap to summarizeDr Robert Sorrell, CEO of the Royce Hydrogen Accelerator at the Henry Royce Institute, discusses materials innovation and the hydrogen value chain on Episode 26 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Sorrell treats hydrogen as one part of the wider energy mix rather than a fix-all. The strongest near-term use is as a feedstock for ammonia, fertilisers and industrial chemicals. Long-duration storage of surplus offshore wind is another priority, particularly in the UK. Shipping and aviation also stand out, because batteries cannot match the energy density needed for large vessels or long-haul flight. The episode also covers the $1-2 per kilogramme cost target for green hydrogen, the materials problem of cryogenic storage at -253°C, and the funding gap atthe proof-of-concept and prototyping stages.The episode is useful for hydrogen founders, deep tech investors, electrolyser and fuel cell developers, and policymakers working on the UK's hydrogen strategy.
Transcribe →Karen Polizzi (NAPIC) and Prithvi Kodialbail (Extracellular) - Scaling Cultivated Meat from Lab to Market
May 1200:49:16Tap to summarizeKaren Polizzi, Co-Director of NAPIC (the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre), and Prithvi Kodialbail, Head of Partnerships at Extracellular, discuss the commercialisation of cultivated meat on Episode 25 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.The first cultivated meat burger cost approximately $27,000 to produce. Since then, regulatory approvals have come through in Singapore and the US, cultivated products have appeared in restaurants, and an infrastructure layer of companies has begun filling the gap between R&D and commercial scale. Polizzi and Kodialbail trace where the bottlenecks remain - manufacturing costs, regulatory harmonisation, and access to facilities - and describe how NAPIC and Extracellular are each working to close those gaps in the UK. The conversation also makes the case for food security, rather than sustainability, as the most compelling argument for alternative proteins, set against real long-term agricultural risk in the UK.This episode is relevant for cultivated meat founders, alternative protein investors, food science researchers, and policymakers working on UK novel foods regulation.Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/Explore NAPIC here: https://napic.ac.uk/Discover Extracellular here: https://www.extracellular.com/
Transcribe →Mahima Sukhdev (GIST Impact) - Building the Next Evolution of ESG Data
Apr 2801:04:58Tap to summarizeMahima Sukhdev, Chief Growth Officer at GIST Impact, discusses the evolution from ESG 1.0 to ESG 2.0, nature value at risk, and what it takes to grow a data company in an emerging market on Episode 24 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Sukhdev argues that ESG 1.0 was designed to produce glossy numbers for glossy reports, and was never intended to change how decisions are made. GIST Impact was built on a different premise: that climate, nature, and social data should be traceable, methodologically rigorous, and fed directly into the places where decisions happen - portfolio construction, stewardship, capital allocation. Founded 18 years ago as a research lab, GIST has watched this shift play out in real time. A major Indian bank is already seeing default rates rise in its agricultural loan book in ways that can only be explained by climate and nature risk. Clients like Allianz and StoreBrand are now using nature data to build portfolio-level analyses that would have seemed out of reach just a few years ago. GIST's recently launched Nature Value at Risk (NVaR) Solution - built on 25 critical ecosystem services and the Natural History Museum's Biodiversity Intactness Index - is its most detailed attempt yet to put a financial number on what happens when ecosystems fail.This episode is for asset managers, impact investors, corporate sustainability leads, and founders building in the ESG data or nature risk space.Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/Explore GIST Impact here: https://www.gistimpact.com/
Transcribe →Rami El Geneidy (EnergyHub) - What It Really Takes to Build and Exit in Energy Flexibility
Apr 1401:00:43Tap to summarizeRami El Geneidy, Technical Director at EnergyHub and exited co-founder of Kapacity.io, discusses energy flexibility, heat pump control, and the startup journey on Episode 23 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.El Geneidy traces how Kapacity.io grew from PhD research at the London-Loughborough Centre for Energy Demand Studies, through Conception X and Y Combinator, to acquisition by EnergyHub. Kapacity.io built technology to reduce energy costs and emissions from heat pumps in commercial and residential buildings. The company validated demand by selling building readiness surveys before the product existed, then built first for commercial real estate before pivoting to residential heat pumps when per-building integration barriers limited growth. To crack the conservative energy company market, Kapacity.io first released a consumer product that demonstrated real cost savings to homeowners - then used that proof to sell through energy companies. After five years, the founders accepted an acquisition by EnergyHub, where the two companies' visions for energy flexibility at scale aligned.This episode is relevant for energy technology founders building hardware-adjacent software, PhD researchers considering the startup route through programmes like Conception X or Y Combinator, and climate tech operators navigating pivots, fundraising timing, and acquisition decisions.Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/Explore EnergyHub here: https://www.energyhub.com/
Transcribe →Dr Simon Thomas (Paragraf) - Scaling Graphene from Cambridge Lab to World-First Foundry
Apr 101:10:38Tap to summarizeDr Simon Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of Paragraf, discusses scaling graphene from a Cambridge University invention to a commercial semiconductor foundry on Episode 22 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Thomas traces Paragraf's eight-year journey from university spin-out to opening the world's first graphene foundry in Huntingdon, UK. The company's core breakthrough is the ability to deposit uniform, wafer-scale graphene directly onto substrates compatible with standard semiconductor manufacturing equipment - solving the "lab to fab" problem that has blocked graphene commercialisation since the material was first isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004. Paragraf has raised approximately $150 million in total across seed, Series A, Series B ($60 million led by New Science Ventures), and Series C ($55 million led by Mubadala), and has expanded internationally with operations in San Diego, Shanghai, and Abu Dhabi. Thomas argues that graphene devices could reduce the computing industry's share of global energy consumption from approximately 20% to under 2%, while also enabling new product categories in medical diagnostics and next-generation battery technology.This episode is relevant for deep tech founders navigating multi-stage fundraising, semiconductor and advanced materials investors, climate technology founders building hardware companies, and anyone working on energy-efficient computing, point-of-care diagnostics, or graphene electronics.Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/Explore Paragraf here: https://www.paragraf.com
Transcribe →Theresa Hoffmann (Nanoplume) - Rethinking Thermal Insulation with Bio-Based Materials
Mar 1701:01:33Tap to summarizeTheresa Hoffmann, CEO and Co-founder of Nanoplume, discusses bio-based aerogel insulation, deep tech commercialisation, and the realities of early-stage founding on Episode 21 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Hoffmann explains how 80% of the insulation market remains dependent on petrochemical materials, despite the thermal insulation industry growing toward a $100 billion market by 2030. Nanoplume's answer is a bio-based nano-porous material that is three times as insulating, 60% lighter and thinner, and 100% biocompatible - and around 75% cheaper than silica aerogels and other super-insulating materials. Rather than targeting the built environment first, Hoffmann describes a deliberate beachhead strategy in pharmaceutical cold chain logistics, chosen for clearer economics and lower mechanical requirements, with a roadmap toward truck insulation, warehousing, and eventually buildings. The episode also covers co-founder dynamics, founder identity, and how to validate market assumptions through early customer case studies.This episode is relevant for deep tech founders at pre-seed and seed stage, materials science entrepreneurs, cold chain and pharmaceutical logistics investors, built environment innovators, and anyone navigating co-founder relationships, accelerator programmes, or early-stage commercialisation strategy.Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/Explore Nanoplume here: https://www.nanoplume.com/Connect with Theresa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresa-hoffmann/
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