We are excited to welcome Francesca Whitehead. As a Vice President at Fifth Wall, Francesca brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective on the intersection of property technology (prop tech) and climate innovation.

Fifth Wall, known for being the largest venture fund in real estate and prop tech, plays a pivotal role in decarbonizing the built environment, aligning perfectly with Francesca’s passion for impactful climate investing.

Francesca shares her journey from growing up in Hong Kong and Vietnam, where the impacts of climate change were a daily reality, to her roles at Goldman Sachs and KKR, where she honed her investment skills with a focus on climate-related projects. She dives into her time at G2VP, a climate tech-focused fund, and discusses her current role at Fifth Wall, highlighting her strategic moves in the climate tech space, especially in Europe.

We dive into the significance of heat pumps in reducing home emissions, the challenges and opportunities in carbon accounting, and the evolving landscape of climate tech investing. Francesca's insights into the complexities of the built environment, from materials to construction and building management, shed light on the potential for significant climate impact.

This episode is brought to you by VSC Ventures, a leader in supporting and promoting climate startups.


About VSC Ventures:

VSC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund led by Jay Kapoor and Vijay Chattha where we invest in industrial automation and climate adaptation startups and support our founders with hands-on PR, storytelling, and go-to-market work with help from our award-winning PR agency VSC

Our fund has invested alongside Lowercarbon, NEA, Uncork Capital, Left Lane, Alley Corp, Obvious Ventures, Third Sphere, and other leading early-stage funds.

Through our weekly conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share our work with innovative companies like Paintjet, Glacier, Concrete.AI, Presso, ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠and Vibrant Planet⁠⁠ in addition to highlighting companies and leading voices across the early stage ecosystem