CC Pod

This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here.Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Mars Materials is a portfolio company at Climate Capital. Our host is Noah Margo-Dermer, General Manager of Climate Capital’s Climate Angels program.CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision.But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels→Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums. →Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more.Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital!Mars Materials is rethinking how critical chemicals are made, using captured CO₂, water, electricity and low-carbon ammonia to produce carbon-negative alternatives to petrochemical feedstocks. In the latest CC Pod, host Noah Margo-Dermer spoke with co-founders Aaron Fitzgerald, CEO; Kristian Gubsch, CTO; and Trey Sheridan, VP of Product and Operations about the company’s mission to build a domestic pathway to materials that today depend on fossil fuels and globally distributed supply chains.Its core product, Hoigen-C, is an industry-validated alternative acrylonitrile monomer, a chemical used in carbon fiber, polymers, and other industrial materials. Mars Materials’ proprietary thermocatalytic process converts CO₂ into useful chemical products, with its pilot facility now producing Hoigen- C as the company works toward larger-scale demonstration. The goal is not simply to decarbonize an existing product, but to unlock new materials and applications around a different chemical feedstock.The opportunity reflects a broader shift in industrial manufacturing. Chemical production and the expertise required to scale it have increasingly moved overseas, creating supply-chain vulnerabilities and an opportunity to rebuild domestic capacity. Demand for carbon fiber and advanced materials across automotive, infrastructure, energy, and dual-use applications adds to the opportunity as manufacturers seek more resilient, lower-carbon supply chains.Mars Materials is now focused on moving from pilot to commercial scale through technology development, manufacturing partnerships, site selection, and demonstration facilities. The company is also building a network of partners with experience scaling chemical technologies from bench to pilot to demonstration. Its longer-term ambition is to turn Hoigen-C into a platform for producing a broader range of materials from CO₂.The vision ultimately stretches from everyday products to interplanetary manufacturing. Mars’ atmosphere is roughly 95% CO₂, making it a natural inspiration for a future where carbon dioxide becomes an industrial resource rather than a waste stream. Hoigen-C is named after the probe that identified naturally occurring acrylonitrile on Saturn’s moon Titan, capturing the company’s broader ambition: to make it rain this critical monomer, safely, and build a new generation of carbon-based manufacturing.To learn more about Mars Materials, visit https://www.marsmaterials.tech/. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here. Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Zeno is a portfolio company at Climate Capital. Our guest host, Noah Margo-Dermer, General Manager of Climate Capital’s Climate Angels program.CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels→Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums.→Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more.Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital!For millions of commercial motorbike drivers across emerging markets, fuel is one of their biggest operating costs. In some African markets, drivers can spend $2,000-$3,000 a year just to keep their motorcycles running. That creates a compelling case for electrification: when an electric vehicle can cut operating costs by roughly 50% while increasing driver income by 25-35%, the transition is no longer just about emissions. It is about economics.In this week’s episode of CC Pod, Noah Margo-Dermer speaks with Michael Spencer, Founder and CEO of Zeno, about building electric mobility around that opportunity. Zeno is developing purpose-built electric motorcycles, battery-swapping infrastructure, and distributed energy systems across East Africa, with a focus on making EVs cheaper and more practical for commercial drivers.The company has taken a decidedly full-stack approach. Instead of adapting petrol motorcycles or relying on off-the-shelf components, Zeno built its own powertrain, firmware, vehicle control units, operating system, and charging profiles. Its team includes talent from Tesla, Apple, Lucid, Gogoro, and Sun Mobility, and its vehicles underwent more than half a million kilometers of testing before commercial launch. The goal was simple: build an electric motorcycle that could compete with a 150cc petrol bike without asking customers to compromise.The same principle drives Zeno’s approach to charging. Drivers can swap a roughly 30-pound, 2 kWh battery at compact stations, fast-charge to around 90-95% in about 45 minutes, or charge overnight at home. Because customers pay for the motorcycle but access batteries through a pay-as-you-go energy model, Zeno can separate the cost of the vehicle from the cost of energy. The result is a motorcycle priced roughly 6-7% below a comparable petrol bike and an estimated 50-55% lower total cost of ownership.But the more interesting opportunity may sit beyond the motorcycle itself. Zeno’s growing network of more than 200 locations across Kenya and Uganda combines solar generation, battery storage, IoT connectivity, and software to manage energy and demand. What begins as a battery-swapping network can become distributed energy infrastructure, creating potential revenue streams across virtual power plants, edge computing, and carbon credits. Spencer sees the network evolving into something closer to a new kind of utility.That broader vision points to a powerful climate-tech thesis: in emerging markets, electrification can scale when it delivers better economics first and climate benefits second. Zeno reports strong repayment performance among financed customers, while drivers are using their savings to travel farther and spend more on essentials such as food, education, healthcare, and housing. If electric mobility can simultaneously lower costs, increase incomes, and build distributed energy infrastructure, the transition could be driven less by subsidies and more by the basic economics of a better product.To learn more about Zeno, visit https://zeno.earth. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here.Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Aalo Atomics is a portfolio company at Climate Capital. Our host is Noah Margo-Dermer, General Manager of Climate Capital’s Climate Angels program.CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision.But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels→Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums.→Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more.Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital!On the latest episode of CC Pod, Noah Margo-Dermer joins Yasir Arafat, co-founder, CTO and President of Aalo Atomics, to explore the future of nuclear energy and Aalo’s vision for making reactors faster to build, easier to deploy, and ready to meet growing demand from AI and data centers.Arafat’s journey began in Bangladesh, where frequent power outages and firsthand exposure to the impacts of climate change sparked a lifelong interest in solving the world’s energy challenges. After spending more than 15 years in the nuclear industry, working on everything from large-scale reactors to pioneering microreactor programs, he became convinced that nuclear power needed a fundamentally different approach.That insight led Arafat and co-founder and CEO Matt Loszak to launch Aalo Atomics. Rather than building massive, custom-designed power plants, Aalo is developing compact, advanced reactors that can be manufactured, deployed, and scaled far more efficiently than traditional nuclear systems. The company’s approach focuses on simplifying reactor design, increasing power density, and leveraging proven technologies that can be built repeatedly at scale.At the core of Aalo’s strategy is a belief that nuclear energy must be built differently. By pairing compact, high-power-density reactors with an assembly-line production model, the company aims to move nuclear beyond bespoke infrastructure projects and toward a scalable energy platform capable of meeting growing demand from AI, data centers, and industrial customers.With AI infrastructure driving unprecedented electricity demand, Aalo believes advanced nuclear power can play a critical role in powering the next generation of computing. The conversation highlights the company’s vision for transforming nuclear energy from a slow, bespoke industry into a scalable manufacturing platform capable of delivering abundant, reliable clean power wherever it’s needed.To learn more about Aalo Atomics, visit https://www.aalo.com/. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack. If you’d like to manage your Climate Capital Substack subscription, click here.Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Pila Energy is a portfolio company at Climate Capital. Our guest host, Noah Margo-Dermer, General Manager of Climate Capital’s Climate Angels program. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision. But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels→Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums.→Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more.Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital!Power outages are becoming more frequent, electricity costs continue to rise, and the modern grid is under growing pressure from electrification, AI-driven demand, and increasingly severe weather. Yet the technologies designed to provide energy resilience remain largely inaccessible to the millions of people who rent, live in multifamily housing, or cannot justify costly home retrofits. In this week’s episode of CC Pod, Noah Margo-Dermer speaks with Cole Ashman, Founder and CEO of Pila Energy, about building a new category of home energy infrastructure that makes backup power, energy savings, and intelligent energy management available to far more people than traditional residential battery systems.Pila has developed a network of intelligent plug-in home batteries that install without electricians or major renovations. Rather than replacing a home’s electrical system, each battery simply plugs into a standard outlet, powering critical appliances while continuously optimizing energy use. The system forms a connected mesh across the home, enabling batteries to communicate, monitor energy consumption, automate savings during peak electricity pricing, and provide backup power during outages. Designed with over-the-air software updates, the platform is also built to support emerging capabilities such as plug-in solar integration and bidirectional power as electrical codes continue to evolve.The timing reflects several powerful shifts reshaping the energy landscape. Utilities are facing unprecedented load growth from electric vehicles, building electrification, and rapidly expanding AI infrastructure, while aging grids struggle to keep pace with more frequent extreme weather events. At the same time, time-of-use electricity pricing, virtual power plants, and distributed energy programs are creating new economic incentives for homeowners and renters alike to store and intelligently manage electricity. As regulators increasingly embrace plug-in distributed energy technologies, software-defined batteries have the potential to become a much broader part of the residential energy ecosystem.Pila’s ambition extends well beyond selling backup batteries. The company views its hardware as the foundation for an operating system for energy across homes and buildings, creating a software platform that connects appliances, distributed energy resources, utilities, insurers, and future grid services. Rather than relying on subscription fees, Pila aims to generate value through optional energy programs, virtual power plant participation, data-driven services, and strategic partnerships across the broader built environment. Starting with direct-to-consumer sales, the company is expanding through utility, solar, insurance, and commercial channels as distributed energy becomes increasingly mainstream.The long-term vision is a future where every building can intelligently manage its own energy without requiring expensive infrastructure upgrades. By lowering the barriers to adopting residential batteries and transforming ordinary wall outlets into connected energy assets, Pila is working toward a more resilient, flexible, and decentralized electricity system, one where energy independence becomes a practical reality for renters, homeowners, and businesses alike.To learn more about Pila Energy, visit https://pilaenergy.com/. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe

This is CC Pod - the Climate Capital Podcast. You are receiving this because you have subscribed to our Substack; manage.Disclaimer: For full disclosure, Resilience Investments is a portfolio company at Climate Capital, where Sundeep Ahuja is the Founder and General Partner. CC Pod is not investment advice and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any investment decision.But first: Network Fund & Climate Angels→Invest in the Network Fund. Large fund access with micro-fund minimums.→Join Climate Angels. Sessions w/ top investors, discounted carry, community & more.Don’t miss an episode from Climate Capital!Recorded during San Francisco Climate Week and co-sponsored by Goodwin, this conversation was part of our event, “Resilience in the Built Environment: Unlocking the Social License for AI.”In this episode, Sundeep sits down with co-founders Ameet Konkar (Chief Executive Officer) and Hunter Maats (Chief Strategy Officer). Together with co-founder Jay Lipman (President), they launched Resilience Investments, a real estate asset manager focused on building portfolios that can not only withstand climate change but thrive in the face of rising energy costs, aging infrastructure, and shifting population patterns.Resilience begins with naturally occurring affordable housing, such as upgrading older single-family homes with rooftop solar, battery storage, insulation, and other improvements that lower utility bills, enhance comfort, and make homes more resilient to extreme weather. These upgrades preserve affordability while transforming aging housing stock into distributed energy assets.By aggregating thousands of homes into virtual power plants, Resilience creates dispatchable energy capacity that can be sold to hyperscalers building AI data centers. This model allows data center developers to secure reliable power and demonstrate tangible community benefits. At the same time, residents receive lower or even zero electricity bills, home repairs, and access to skilled trades jobs.This model helps data center developers earn the trust and support of local communities by delivering visible, recurring benefits such as lower energy bills, home repairs, and skilled trades jobs. It offers a compelling vision for how affordable housing, climate resilience, and AI infrastructure can work together to create lasting value for both communities and investors.To learn more about Resilience Investments, visit https://resilience.energy/. ​*Goodwin's Climate Tech practice has the mission of supporting clients' efforts to avert the worst consequences of the global environmental crisis by providing differentiated and highly sophisticated legal services to startups and startup investors in the climate technologies sector. Our clients are developing and scaling innovations in climate software, renewable energy, carbon capture and storage, nuclear fusion, batteries, mobility, sustainable agriculture, materials science, advanced manufacturing, plastic alternatives, and other areas. Our team is the first of its kind in the industry, consisting of experts in the field with backgrounds not only in law, but in biotech sciences, engineering, and public health policy development. As such, we are able to provide proactive and comprehensive legal services to climate technology enterprises and investors across the globe. To learn more about our global law firm, please visit www.goodwinlaw.com. Get full access to Climate Capital at climatecap.substack.com/subscribe