Podcast Summary: The Investor With Joel Palathinkal - Episode Featuring Romain Diaz of Satgana

Episode Information:

• Title: Romain Diaz: Satgana
• Host: Dr. Joel Palathinkal
• Release Date: August 5, 2025
• Description: In this episode of The Investor with Joel Palathinkal, Dr. Joel delves into the entrepreneurial journey and investment philosophy of Romain Diaz, General Partner at Satgana. The discussion centers around venture studios, impact investing in climate and sustainability sectors, and strategies for fostering early-stage startups.

1. Introduction to Romain Diaz and Satgana

Dr. Joel Palathinkal welcomes Romain Diaz, who introduces himself as the General Partner of Satgana, a globally distributed venture studio and pre-seed fund focusing on climate and sustainability startups. Romain highlights the global nature of his work, particularly emphasizing significant operations in Africa and Europe.

"[00:26] Joel Palathinkal: ...excited to be here with Romain Diaz from Satgana."

"[01:26] Romain Diaz: ...we have some good networks and full on funding and really excited to be here."

2. Romain Diaz’s Entrepreneurial Journey

Romain shares his diverse background, including his French and Spanish heritage, education in business, and early foray into entrepreneurship. He discusses his initial experiences with Rocket Internet and his ventures in South Africa, leading to the establishment of Satgana with a focused mission on sustainability.

"[23:15] Romain Diaz: ...I learned through that some of the good things, some of the less good things of the things that I wanted differently."

3. Demystifying Venture Studios

The conversation delves into the concept of venture studios, distinguishing them from traditional venture capital funds. Romain explains that venture studios operate at an earlier stage than typical VCs, often involved in both building and investing in companies.

"[02:55] Romain Diaz: ...venture studios really being at the crossroads of building companies and investing in companies."

He contrasts different models, such as Rocket Internet’s approach of heavy operational involvement and equity retention, with Satgana’s model of concentrated investments and hands-on support to mitigate early-stage risks.

"[08:10] Romain Diaz: ...it's more akin to a venture capital fund but super early stage basically."

4. Satgana’s Investment and Operational Strategy

Romain outlines Satgana’s strategy of investing in a select number of startups annually, providing substantial operational resources to ensure high success rates. This includes having in-house expertise across various functions like CTO, sustainability, marketing, and finance to support founders from inception to seed funding.

"[05:42] Romain Diaz: ...the goal is to invest a lot of operational resources so that we mitigate the risks of coming in so early."

5. Sourcing and Screening Startups

Satgana manages a robust pipeline of approximately 350 companies, sourced both inbound and through proactive outreach. Romain describes their screening process, which involves an internal scorecard based on four main pillars: commercial viability, impact potential, team quality, and alignment with Satgana’s mission.

"[13:42] Romain Diaz: ...we have our scorecard, our criteria, we look at the team, we look at the potential impact."

He emphasizes the importance of a strong, mission-driven team, often prioritizing founders’ dedication and ability to drive the company forward even before having a fully developed product.

"[16:20] Romain Diaz: ...the founder is young, he's super driven, very mission driven as well."

6. Impact Investing and Sustainability Focus

A significant portion of the discussion centers on how Satgana measures and prioritizes impact. Romain explains that their primary impact metric is the reduction of carbon emissions, aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 13: Climate Action.

"[17:56] Romain Diaz: ...the SDG 13. So climate action. So can this company really make a dent in terms of reduction or removal of carbon emissions."

He also touches on a holistic approach to sustainability, considering factors beyond carbon, such as methane reduction, circular economy models, and water conservation.

"[18:22] Romain Diaz: ...we think that there's other areas that are equally important. ...access to water, pollution, etc."

7. Regional Investment Insights and Global Expansion

Romain discusses Satgana’s current focus on Europe and Africa, leveraging existing networks and local expertise. While primarily concentrated in Western Europe and select emerging markets, the firm remains open to expanding into other regions like the US as they build a track record.

"[21:23] Romain Diaz: ...we have about two thirds of our deal for at the moment is coming from Europe... The US is a little more challenging."

8. Trends and Opportunities in Climate Solutions

Exploring various sectors within climate change, Romain breaks down global emissions sources—energy, transport, industry, steel, cement, food, and agriculture—and assesses where technological advancements can make significant impacts. He highlights the distinction between breakthrough technologies (e.g., nuclear fusion, hydrogen) and the deployment of existing solutions (e.g., electric mobility, software for methane reduction).

"[28:08] Romain Diaz: ...energy, but if you break it down, then within energy, that's transport, that's industry, steel and cement, that's food and agriculture."

9. Nuclear Fusion: Promise and Challenges

A notable segment of the episode is dedicated to nuclear fusion. Romain expresses optimism about its potential to provide unlimited clean energy without radioactive waste, yet acknowledges the significant challenges in achieving commercial viability due to high capital requirements and technological hurdles.

"[32:56] Romain Diaz: ...nuclear fusion is a very exciting space because it would be a source of unlimited clean energy."

10. Key Lessons and Career Advice

In the concluding sections, Romain shares valuable insights for entrepreneurs and professionals:

• Clarity of Purpose: Understanding and maintaining a clear "why" is essential to navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.

  "[40:30] Romain Diaz: ...you don't really know very clearly your why, your own why of why you're doing it."

• Integrity and Selflessness: Emphasizing the importance of honesty, fairness, and helping others, Romain believes that doing the right thing leads to long-term success and reputation.

  "[40:30] Romain Diaz: ...having a very strong sense of integrity and selflessness and helping others and just doing the right thing."

• Adaptability in Venture Studios: Highlighting the need for a diverse skill set within venture studios to support startups effectively, Romain advises aspiring professionals to either specialize or develop a broad entrepreneurial perspective.

  "[43:44] Romain Diaz: ...cover the full spectrum of what is needed to get a company from A to B from 0 to 1."

11. Audience Q&A Highlights

The episode features an engaging Q&A session where Romain addresses questions on impact measurement, balancing commercial and environmental goals, scaling the venture studio model, and differentiating venture studios from traditional venture funds.

• Quantifying Impact: Satgana primarily measures impact through carbon emissions reduction but also considers other environmental metrics aligned with SDGs.

  "[46:45] Romain Diaz: ...they have to have the ability to return at least 100 million to the fund ... millions of tons of carbon."

• Balancing Trade-offs: Romain asserts that in the environmental sector, commercial success and positive impact often go hand-in-hand, using Tesla as a prime example.

  "[48:49] Romain Diaz: ...the more commercial success one company can have, the more positive impact they can have."

• Scaling the Venture Studio: Discussing scalability, Romain explains plans to raise larger funds and potentially focus on specific verticals or regions to expand Satgana’s impact and investment capacity.

  "[49:49] Romain Diaz: ...raise Fund two, Fund three... invest into later stage rounds."

Conclusion: This episode provides a comprehensive look into the operations and philosophy of Satgana, highlighting the intricate balance between early-stage support and impactful investing. Romain Diaz’s insights offer valuable guidance for entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals aspiring to make a meaningful difference in the sustainability and climate sectors.

Notable Quotes:

• "Venture studios are really being at the crossroads of building companies and investing in companies." — Romain Diaz [02:55]
• "Impact is being a driver of alpha returns for the next decades to come." — Romain Diaz [18:22]
• "Doing the right thing always pays back." — Romain Diaz [40:30]